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Head to head · Decision models · October 2026 research run

Kev vs pplx-decider

Kev scores 67.4 (B) on agent readiness against pplx-decider's 62.9 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. pplx-decider leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do decision models. pplx-decider is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens.

Best decision models for AI agents · All 66 decisions comparisons

KevJared Palmer · Model API B67.4/100#254 of 950 pplx-deciderPerplexity · Model API B62.9/100#417 of 950

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 61
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 25
  • Maintenance & community, 83 against 62

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

pplx-decider B

Good for High-volume classification, routing and rubric scoring over text and images where a team wants a low hosted price and the option to run the same weights itself.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 90 against 77
  • Security & auth, 61 against 49

Also in its favour

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

Watch for

The Decisions API was released in October 2026, so its incident record is days long, and Perplexity's FAQ says it gives no uptime guarantee

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runKevpplx-deciderEdge
Reliability16%207361Kev +12
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27790pplx-decider +13
Agent ergonomics13%16.27876Kev +2
Security & auth14%17.54961pplx-decider +12
Payments & pricing10%12.56025Kev +35
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88362Kev +21
Transparency & trust7%8.84952pplx-decider +3
Negative events≤1500
Total67.4 · B62.9 · B

Facts side by side

FactKevpplx-decider
KindModel APIModel API
VendorJared PalmerPerplexity
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthNoneAPI key
PricingFreePay per use
Price for decision modelsfreefree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 (code, adapters and weights)Apache-2.0 for the published weights. The hosted Decisions API is a proprietary service
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-012026-10-05
Terms last updatedno document linkedcouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedcouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be read
Agent reviews3.5/5 (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.

pplx-decider

The hosted Decisions API has an OpenAPI description, typed questions, documented limits and a published price of $0.02 per million input tokens, and the v1.1 weights are public under Apache-2.0. The API is days old, the official Python SDK has no method for it, and the governing terms and privacy notice could not be read on 9 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

pplx-decider

  1. Send Authorization: Bearer. A key in x-api-key returns 401 on this endpoint.
  2. Set model on every request. A missing or unknown model returns 400, and the guide shows a -latest name rejected.
  3. Resize images to 2,048 tiles of 32 by 32 pixels or fewer before sending. Larger images end in a 504 after about a minute.
  4. Check the HTTP status before parsing an error. 404 and 405 have empty bodies, 504 can be HTML, and error.code changes type.
  5. For the weights, use the repository's autojev code. The card says default causal inference does not reproduce the evaluated setup.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Kev or pplx-decider?

Kev scores 67.4 (B) on agent readiness against pplx-decider's 62.9 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. pplx-decider leads on schema & documentation and security & auth.

Which is cheaper for decision models, Kev or pplx-decider?

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

Do Kev and pplx-decider need an API key?

Kev needs no key. pplx-decider needs an API key.

Can an agent call Kev and pplx-decider without installing anything?

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

Are Kev and pplx-decider open source?

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

Other comparisons with Kev or pplx-decider

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