# Decision 3.0 vs pplx-decider-flash

> pplx-decider-flash scores 67.9 (B) to Decision 3.0's 63.1 (B) for decision models. pplx-decider-flash is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-17

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.

- Decision 3.0: grade B, 63.1/100, rank #448 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/decision-3.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/decision-3.json
- pplx-decider-flash: grade B, 67.9/100, rank #260 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pplx-decider-flash.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pplx-decider-flash.json
- Best decision models for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/decision-models/index.md
- All 190 decisions comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-models/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Decision 3.0 (B)

Good 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)

Good 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

| Category | Weight | Decision 3.0 | pplx-decider-flash | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 58 | 66 | pplx-decider-flash +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 89 | pplx-decider-flash +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 81 | pplx-decider-flash +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 56 | 68 | pplx-decider-flash +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 25 | Decision 3.0 +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 67 | Decision 3.0 +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 45 | 71 | pplx-decider-flash +26 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **63.1 · B** | **67.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Decision 3.0 | pplx-decider-flash |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | vLLM Semantic Router Team | Perplexity |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| Price for decision models | free | free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 for the weights and the bundled runtime, built on Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5 and Qwen3.8 bases | Apache-2.0 for the published weights and inference code. The hosted Decisions API is a proprietary service |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn'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 reviews | 3.3/5 (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.

## Tutorials

- [Inspect package damage with Decision3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tutorials/decision-3/), for Decision 3.0

## 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.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-pplx-decider-flash.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-pplx-decider-flash.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "decision-3", "b": "pplx-decider-flash"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare decision-3 pplx-decider-flash`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/decision-3.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pplx-decider-flash.json

## Other comparisons with Decision 3.0 or pplx-decider-flash

- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Decision 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-decision-3.md)
- [Celeris-1 Decision vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Clef vs Decision 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-decision-3.md)
- [Clef vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Laya vs Decision 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-decision-3.md)
- [Laya vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Decider vs Decision 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-decision-3.md)
- [Decider vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs GLiClass](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-gliclass.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs Granite Switch 4.1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-granite-switch.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs Drex 1.5](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-nace-drex.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-openai-decisions-api.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs pplx-decider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-pplx-decider.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs ScaleDown](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-scaledown.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs kettei](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-sqwish-kettei.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-vela.md)
- [GLiClass vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Kev vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Drex 1.5 vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nace-drex-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [OpenAI Decisions API vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [pplx-decider-flash vs ScaleDown](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-flash-vs-scaledown.md)
- [pplx-decider-flash vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-flash-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [pplx-decider-flash vs kettei](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-flash-vs-sqwish-kettei.md)
- [pplx-decider-flash vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-flash-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [pplx-decider-flash vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-flash-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
- [pplx-decider-flash vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-flash-vs-vela.md)
- [pplx-decider vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)

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