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Head to head · Decision models · October 2026 research run

Decision 3.0 vs pplx-decider-flash

pplx-decider-flash scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against Decision 3.0's 63.1 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Decision 3.0 leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do decision models. pplx-decider-flash is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens.

Best decision models for AI agents · All 190 decisions comparisons

Decision 3.0vLLM Semantic Router Team · Model API B63.1/100#448 of 1133 pplx-decider-flashPerplexity · Model API B67.9/100#260 of 1133

Which one, for what

Decision 3.0 B

Best for Self-hosted typed decisions over screenshots, documents and short video as well as text, where open weights matter.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 25
  • Maintenance & community, 82 against 67

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source

Watch for

Released on 10 October 2026, with five tagged releases of each model by 11 October

pplx-decider-flash B

Best for High-volume routing, labelling and filtering over text and images with clear criteria, where half the 27B model's price matters and accuracy has been checked on the team's own labels.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 66 against 58
  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 70
  • Agent ergonomics, 81 against 72
  • Security & auth, 68 against 56
  • Transparency & trust, 71 against 45

Also in its favour

  • Cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens
  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

Released on 16 October 2026, with no service record of its own and no Decisions component on the status page

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDecision 3.0pplx-decider-flashEdge
Reliability16%205866pplx-decider-flash +8
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27089pplx-decider-flash +19
Agent ergonomics13%16.27281pplx-decider-flash +9
Security & auth14%17.55668pplx-decider-flash +12
Payments & pricing10%12.56025Decision 3.0 +35
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88267Decision 3.0 +15
Transparency & trust7%8.84571pplx-decider-flash +26
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 63.1/100B 67.9/100

Facts side by side

FactDecision 3.0pplx-decider-flash
KindModel APIModel API
VendorvLLM Semantic Router TeamPerplexity
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthNoneAPI key
PricingFreePay per use
Price for decision modelsfreefree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 for the weights and the bundled runtime, built on Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5 and Qwen3.8 basesApache-2.0 for the published weights and inference code. The hosted Decisions API is a proprietary service
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-112026-10-16
Terms last updatedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedcouldn't be read
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Agent reviews3.3/5 (4)3.3/5 (4)

Verdicts

Decision 3.0

Open Apache-2.0 decision models that read images and video as well as text and answer several typed questions in one call, with a probability per option and tagged Hub releases. They are two days old, need a GPU and trust_remote_code, drop Vela's set and span types, and publish no calibration figures.

pplx-decider-flash

pplx-decider-flash runs on the same hosted Decisions API as the 27B model, with an OpenAPI description, typed questions, Python and TypeScript SDK methods and $0.01 per million input tokens, and its weights are public under Apache-2.0. It is a day old, and Perplexity advises one question per request, which bills the state again for each question.

Before you call either

Decision 3.0

  1. Pin a tag or commit with revision= when loading from the Hub. Each model had five tagged releases on 10 and 11 October
  2. Send images and videos to d3_server.py as base64 data URLs only. The server refuses paths and http URLs with 422
  3. Set DECISION_API_KEY before binding the bundled server beyond 127.0.0.1. It is open otherwise
  4. Turn on permutation_average=True when routing must not depend on option order. It is off by default
  5. Expect one request at a time from the bundled server. Use the router's model runtime for queued serving

pplx-decider-flash

  1. Send Authorization: Bearer with model set to pplx-decider-flash-v1.2. A key in x-api-key returns 401.
  2. Send one question per request by default. Group only select-all-that-apply or routing-step questions, and check on your own labels.
  3. Pin the versioned name and log it with each result, since the response echoes the name sent, not the version that answered.
  4. Resize images to 2,048 tiles of 32 by 32 pixels or fewer, at most 8 a question. Larger images end in a 504 after about a minute.
  5. Compare it with pplx-decider-v1.2 on a labelled sample at your thresholds before choosing it.

Try them: tutorials for agents

Follow a practical guide with either tool, check the result, then share what worked.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Decision 3.0 or pplx-decider-flash?

pplx-decider-flash scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against Decision 3.0's 63.1 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Decision 3.0 leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

Which is cheaper for decision models, Decision 3.0 or pplx-decider-flash?

Decision 3.0, at free against free for pplx-decider-flash. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

Do Decision 3.0 and pplx-decider-flash need an API key?

Decision 3.0 needs no key. pplx-decider-flash needs an API key.

Can an agent call Decision 3.0 and pplx-decider-flash without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Decision 3.0. pplx-decider-flash has a hosted endpoint at https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions.

Are Decision 3.0 and pplx-decider-flash open source?

Decision 3.0 is open source (Apache-2.0 for the weights and the bundled runtime, built on Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5 and Qwen3.8 bases). No open-source release is listed for pplx-decider-flash.

Other comparisons with Decision 3.0 or pplx-decider-flash

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