# Kev vs Liquid d1

> Kev scores 67.4 (B) on agent readiness against Liquid d1's 43.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Liquid d1 leads on transparency & trust. Both do inference decision. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-liquid-d1
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-liquid-d1.md (~2,150 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-liquid-d1.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-liquid-d1.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
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Kev scores 67.4 (B) on agent readiness against Liquid d1's 43.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Liquid d1 leads on transparency & trust. Both do inference decision.

- Kev: grade B, 67.4/100, rank #194 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jaredpalmer-kev.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jaredpalmer-kev.json
- Liquid d1: grade E, 43.5/100, rank #582 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/liquid-d1.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/liquid-d1.json

## Which one, for what

### Kev (B)

Good for: Self-hosted classification, routing, triage and rubric scoring where a probability matters, especially for teams already calling Jev who want the same API on their own hardware.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 73 against 21
- Schema & documentation, 77 against 59
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 63
- Security & auth, 49 against 35
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 27
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 60

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

Watch for: No package. `pip install kev` installs an unrelated 2021 ORM, so Kev runs from a Git clone with uv

### Liquid d1 (E)

Good for: Classification, routing, yes or no gates and rubric scoring over text and images at a low per-token price, or on your own hardware with d1-3B where data can't leave.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 54 against 49

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: The terms of 30 September 2026 allow Liquid to train on API content, with no opt-out or zero-retention option found


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Kev | Liquid d1 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 73 | 21 | Kev +52 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 59 | Kev +18 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 63 | Kev +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 35 | Kev +14 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 27 | Kev +33 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 60 | Kev +23 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 49 | 54 | Liquid d1 +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67.4 · B** | **43.5 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Kev | Liquid d1 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Jared Palmer | Liquid AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.liquid.ai/decisions/v1/systemone` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (code, adapters and weights) | The hosted d1 model is proprietary under Liquid AI's terms of service. The d1-3B and d1-omni-600M weights and model code are under the LFM Open Licence v1.0, which is based on Apache-2.0 and conditions commercial use on annual revenue under $10 million. Training code and data aren't published |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-30 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Kev.** Apache-2.0 code, adapters and heads on Apache-2.0 Qwen bases, with release tarballs and SHA-256 checksums for the 0.8B, 4B and 9B models. No package. `pip install kev` installs an unrelated 2021 ORM, so Kev runs from a Git clone with uv.

**Liquid d1.** The hosted API costs $0.04 per million input tokens and takes TypeSafe's System One request, and the d1-3B weights run locally through Transformers or llama.cpp. Liquid's terms allow it to train on API content, and no status page, rate limits or error reference were found. The family launched between 22 September and 7 October 2026.

## Before you call either

### Kev

1. Install from the repository. The `kev` package on PyPI is an unrelated project
2. Pin a checkpoint with `@v1.0`, as in `jaredpalmer/kev-4b@v1.0`, so tuned thresholds keep their meaning
3. Keep states under 8,192 tokens on Kev-0.8B, 4B and 9B, or use Kev-27B for long documents
4. Set `KEV_DATE_FACTS=1` when a decision depends on the gap between two dates
5. Expect a 422 naming the token count when a state passes 65,536 tokens. The server refuses it instead of cutting it

### Liquid d1

1. POST to https://api.liquid.ai/decisions/v1/systemone with a `liquid_` key as a Bearer header. This is not a chat-completions endpoint
2. Use `d1` for images. `d1:free` is text-only and answers that it does not accept images
3. Send images as Base64 data URLs in `images`, at most 8, with the whole JSON body under 4.5 MB. Remote image URLs are refused
4. Budget tokens per question. Each question is billed as its own prompt, with its text and every image counted again
5. Don't send confidential content to the hosted API, since the terms allow training on it. Run d1-3B locally for that data

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Kev or Liquid d1?

Kev scores 67.4 (B) on agent readiness against Liquid d1's 43.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Liquid d1 leads on transparency & trust.

### Do Kev and Liquid d1 need an API key?

Kev needs no key. Liquid d1 needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Kev and Liquid d1 without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Kev. Liquid d1 has a hosted endpoint at https://api.liquid.ai/decisions/v1/systemone.

### Are Kev and Liquid d1 open source?

Kev is open source (Apache-2.0 (code, adapters and weights)). No open-source release is listed for Liquid d1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-liquid-d1.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-liquid-d1.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "jaredpalmer-kev", "b": "liquid-d1"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare jaredpalmer-kev liquid-d1`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jaredpalmer-kev.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/liquid-d1.json

## Other comparisons with Kev or Liquid d1

- [Clef vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [Clef vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [Laya vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [Laya vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [Kev vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-openai-decisions-api.md)
- [Kev vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [Kev vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
- [Kev vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-vela.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-openai-decisions-api.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-vela.md)