# Granite Switch 4.1 vs OpenAI Decisions API

> OpenAI Decisions scores 73.1 (BB) to Granite Switch 4.1's 59.4 (C) for decision models. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-openai-decisions-api
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-openai-decisions-api.md (~3,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-openai-decisions-api.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-openai-decisions-api.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-17

OpenAI Decisions API scores 73.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Granite Switch 4.1's 59.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Granite Switch 4.1 leads on payments & pricing. Both do decision models.

- Granite Switch 4.1: grade C, 59.4/100, rank #601 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/granite-switch.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/granite-switch.json
- OpenAI Decisions API: grade BB, 73.1/100, rank #96 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-decisions-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-decisions-api.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

### Granite Switch 4.1 (C)

Good for: A team with a GPU that wants chat, routing decisions, a safety gate and English transcription from one self-hosted endpoint under a permissive licence.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: The decision adapter has no typed request format. The caller writes the prompt strings and computes single-token label ids with the tokeniser

### OpenAI Decisions API (BB)

Good for: High-volume yes or no checks, routing among fixed options and rubric scoring over text and images, for teams already on an OpenAI key, and action selection inside GPT-Live voice sessions.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 60 against 46
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 55
- Agent ergonomics, 87 against 66
- Security & auth, 86 against 54
- Transparency & trust, 83 against 74

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 3.0 out of 5

Watch for: Public beta released on 6 October 2026. The guide expects general availability in the coming weeks and gives no date


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Granite Switch 4.1 | OpenAI Decisions API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 46 | 60 | OpenAI Decisions API +14 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 87 | OpenAI Decisions API +32 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 87 | OpenAI Decisions API +21 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 54 | 86 | OpenAI Decisions API +32 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | Granite Switch 4.1 +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 77 | Granite Switch 4.1 +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 83 | OpenAI Decisions API +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **59.4 · C** | **73.1 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Granite Switch 4.1 | OpenAI Decisions API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | IBM | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.openai.com/v1/decisions` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| Price for decision models | free | $0.10 per 1M tokens |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache 2.0 for the weights, the adapters and the repository | Proprietary service under OpenAI's services agreement. The official SDKs are Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | none | 32k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 3.5/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Granite Switch 4.1.** One self-hosted Apache 2.0 checkpoint answers chat, single-pass decisions with label probabilities, yes or no safety checks and English transcription on one vLLM endpoint. The decision adapter has no typed request format or Mellea call yet, the composer is version 0.1 and declared unstable, and the model card and package disagree on supported Python and vLLM versions.

**OpenAI Decisions API.** Typed predicate, choice and score answers with probabilities, up to 200 questions a call, at $0.10 per million input tokens with no output charge. It is a public beta released on 6 October 2026, with one model alias, no dated snapshot, no Batch route and no SLA found.

## Before you call either

### Granite Switch 4.1

1. Pass `chat_template_kwargs: {"adapter_name": "decision"}` or `"guardian-core"`. Without it the request is ordinary chat on the base model
2. For a decision, send the state and the `### DECISION` question as two user turns, request `logprob_token_ids` for the option labels, and set `max_completion_tokens` to 1
3. Use single-token option labels. Split more than 128 labels into chunks with the identical prompt and apply one softmax over all returned logprobs
4. Parse `guardian-core` answers as JSON, `{"score": "yes"}` or `{"score": "no"}`, where yes means the criterion is met
5. Add authentication before exposing the vLLM server. Neither vLLM nor the checkpoint requires a key by default

### OpenAI Decisions API

1. Put independent questions about one input in a single `questions` array. Send a separate request when a question depends on an earlier answer
2. Check each answer's `type` before reading it. A question can come back as `refusal` while the others in the same request are answered
3. Send images as base64 data URLs, which the guide and the reference both accept. Hosted HTTP(S) URLs are accepted per the reference only, and `file_id` is rejected
4. Give a `choice` question a fallback value such as `other`, and set thresholds from your own labelled examples
5. Use Python SDK 3.26.0 or JavaScript 7.30.0 or later, and follow `Retry-After` on 429 and 503

## Tutorials

- [Route an invoice question with OpenAI Decisions](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tutorials/openai-decisions-api/), for OpenAI Decisions API

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Granite Switch 4.1 or OpenAI Decisions API?

OpenAI Decisions API scores 73.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Granite Switch 4.1's 59.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Granite Switch 4.1 leads on payments & pricing.

### Which is cheaper for decision models, Granite Switch 4.1 or OpenAI Decisions API?

Granite Switch 4.1, at free against $0.10 per 1M tokens for OpenAI Decisions API. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do Granite Switch 4.1 and OpenAI Decisions API need an API key?

Granite Switch 4.1 needs no key. OpenAI Decisions API needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Granite Switch 4.1 and OpenAI Decisions API without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Granite Switch 4.1. OpenAI Decisions API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openai.com/v1/decisions.

### Are Granite Switch 4.1 and OpenAI Decisions API open source?

Granite Switch 4.1 is open source (Apache 2.0 for the weights, the adapters and the repository). No open-source release is listed for OpenAI Decisions API.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Granite Switch 4.1 or OpenAI Decisions API

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

---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp