Head to head · Decision models · October 2026 research run

GLiClass vs Microsoft-Decision-1

GLiClass scores 49.9 (D) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Microsoft-Decision-1 leads on security & auth. Both do decision models. Microsoft-Decision-1 is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens.

Best decision models for AI agents · All 91 decisions comparisons

Which one, for what

GLiClass D

Best for Topic, intent and sentiment routing over a known label set on the owner's own CPU or GPU, where many labels must be scored at once.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 43 against 30
  • Schema & documentation, 49 against 43
  • Agent ergonomics, 60 against 50
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Transparency & trust, 64 against 32

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source

Watch for

No calibration evidence. The cards report F1 only, and the docs tell users to calibrate thresholds on their own traffic

Microsoft-Decision-1 E

Best for Routing, classification, prioritisation and rubric checks over text, where a fixed set of options and a low price per token matter more than generated text.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 52 against 38

Also in its favour

  • Cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens

Watch for

Public preview only. Microsoft's post gives no general availability date and states no licence for the hosted model

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGLiClassMicrosoft-Decision-1Edge
Reliability16%204330GLiClass +13
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24943GLiClass +6
Agent ergonomics13%16.26050GLiClass +10
Security & auth14%17.53852Microsoft-Decision-1 +14
Payments & pricing10%12.56020GLiClass +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84440GLiClass +4
Transparency & trust7%8.86432GLiClass +32
Negative events≤1500
TotalD 49.9/100E 39/100

Facts side by side

FactGLiClassMicrosoft-Decision-1
KindModel APIModel API
VendorKnowledgatorMicrosoft
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreePay per use
Price for decision modelsfreefree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 (library and the model weights we checked)Not stated. The announcement and OpenRouter's model page name no licence, and no weights repository was found.
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-07-212026-10-09
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Popularity555 stars, 13k PyPI/wknone

Verdicts

GLiClass

An Apache-2.0 classifier that scores a whole label set in one encoder pass on the owner's hardware, with single-label, multi-label, hierarchical and few-shot modes. It returns label scores with no calibration claim, the bundled server has no authentication, and the last three test runs on the main branch, on 24 September 2026, failed.

Microsoft-Decision-1

Microsoft publishes $0.042 per million input tokens, with output free, and the model is callable through Microsoft Foundry and OpenRouter. It is in public preview. No licence, model-specific retention statement, rate limit or deprecation policy was found, and the Foundry route needs an Azure deployment and an Entra token. Latency and accuracy figures are Microsoft's claims.

Before you call either

GLiClass

  1. Pass --host 127.0.0.1 to python -m gliclass.serve, or put the port behind your own gateway. The server checks no credential
  2. On a machine without a GPU add --device cpu --dtype float32 --num-gpus-per-replica 0. The default configuration expects CUDA
  3. Send one text a request to POST /gliclass. An array in texts is cut to its first item without an error
  4. Set multi_label to false for one label from a set. The default scores each label independently, so scores do not sum to 1
  5. Keep text plus labels under the pipeline's 1,024-token max_length, or use ZeroShotClassificationWithChunkingPipeline. Longer input is truncated silently

Microsoft-Decision-1

  1. Use OpenRouter's Decisions method, not an OpenAI chat-completions SDK. OpenRouter says chat completions SDKs will not work with this model
  2. On Foundry, send the request to the deployment's /providers/microsoft/v1/systemone path with a Microsoft Entra token for https://cognitiveservices.azure.com/.default, not an API key
  3. Take the deployment name from the Foundry quickstart before the first call. Microsoft says to confirm the route and authentication header, and the pages reviewed do not give the name
  4. Keep each request within OpenRouter's 32,768-token context and send only fixed options, since the model is not intended for open-ended generation
  5. Measure latency and calibration on your own labelled cases before relying on Microsoft's latency and 'nine times out of 10' statements

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, GLiClass or Microsoft-Decision-1?

GLiClass scores 49.9 (D) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Microsoft-Decision-1 leads on security & auth.

Which is cheaper for decision models, GLiClass or Microsoft-Decision-1?

GLiClass, at free against free for Microsoft-Decision-1. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

Do GLiClass and Microsoft-Decision-1 need an API key?

GLiClass needs no key. Microsoft-Decision-1 takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call GLiClass and Microsoft-Decision-1 without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for GLiClass. No hosted endpoint is listed for Microsoft-Decision-1.

Are GLiClass and Microsoft-Decision-1 open source?

GLiClass is open source (Apache-2.0 (library and the model weights we checked)). No open-source release is listed for Microsoft-Decision-1.

Other comparisons with GLiClass or Microsoft-Decision-1

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