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Head to head · Decision models · October 2026 research run

Kev vs pplx-decider-flash

pplx-decider-flash and Kev score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 67.9 (B) and 67.4 (B). Kev leads on reliability, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do decision models. pplx-decider-flash is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens.

Best decision models for AI agents · All 190 decisions comparisons

KevJared Palmer · Model API B67.4/100#275 of 1133 pplx-decider-flashPerplexity · Model API B67.9/100#260 of 1133

Which one, for what

Kev B

Best 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 66
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 25
  • Maintenance & community, 83 against 67

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-flash B

Best 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

  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 77
  • Security & auth, 68 against 49
  • Transparency & trust, 71 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

Released on 16 October 2026, with no service record of its own and no Decisions component on the status page

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runKevpplx-decider-flashEdge
Reliability16%207366Kev +7
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27789pplx-decider-flash +12
Agent ergonomics13%16.27881pplx-decider-flash +3
Security & auth14%17.54968pplx-decider-flash +19
Payments & pricing10%12.56025Kev +35
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88367Kev +16
Transparency & trust7%8.84971pplx-decider-flash +22
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 67.4/100B 67.9/100

Facts side by side

FactKevpplx-decider-flash
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 and inference code. The hosted Decisions API is a proprietary service
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-012026-10-16
Terms last updatedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedcouldn'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 reviews3.5/5 (2)3.3/5 (4)

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-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

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-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.

Try them: tutorials for agents

Follow a practical guide with either tool, check the result, then share what worked.

Questions

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

pplx-decider-flash and Kev score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 67.9 (B) and 67.4 (B). Kev leads on reliability, payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

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

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

Do Kev and pplx-decider-flash need an API key?

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

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

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

Are Kev and pplx-decider-flash open source?

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

Other comparisons with Kev or pplx-decider-flash

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