# Kev vs ScaleDown

> Kev scores 67.4 (B) to ScaleDown's 48.6 (D) for decision models. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-scaledown
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- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-scaledown.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
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- 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
- 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: 2026-10-14

Kev scores 67.4 (B) on agent readiness against ScaleDown's 48.6 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ScaleDown leads on transparency & trust. Both do decision models.

- Kev: grade B, 67.4/100, rank #268 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jaredpalmer-kev.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jaredpalmer-kev.json
- ScaleDown: grade D, 48.6/100, rank #873 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scaledown.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scaledown.json
- Best decision models for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/decision-models/index.md
- All 120 decisions comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-models/index.md
- Best document parsing, OCR and extraction APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/document-extraction/index.md
- All 124 documents comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/document-extraction/index.md

## 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 20
- Schema & documentation, 77 against 69
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 56

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

### ScaleDown (D)

Good for: Cheap, high-volume labelling, routing and yes or no checks where a probability is more useful than prose, and for pulling described fields with offsets from text, images or PDFs.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 54 against 49

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No status page, no published rate limits and no SLA outside enterprise contracts


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Kev | ScaleDown | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 73 | 20 | Kev +53 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 69 | Kev +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 76 | Kev +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 48 | Kev +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 40 | Kev +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 56 | Kev +27 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 49 | 54 | ScaleDown +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **67.4 · B** | **48.6 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Kev | ScaleDown |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Jared Palmer | Carbon ScaleDown, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.scaledown.xyz` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (code, adapters and weights) | Proprietary hosted models under ScaleDown's Terms of Service. The langchain-scaledown integration is MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-14 |
| 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 | 0 stars |
| 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.

**ScaleDown.** Classify answers Jev-shaped `choice`, `noul` and `score` questions with probabilities, and Extract returns values with confidences and character offsets, at $0.05 per million input tokens with output free. There is no status page, no published rate limit and no public changelog, and the site's compliance claims contradict each other.

## 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

### ScaleDown

1. Send several questions about one item in one `/v1/scaledown` call. Each becomes its own Classify call and the usage is summed
2. Pin `classify-1`, `extract-1` or `summarize-1` once you've tuned thresholds on your own labelled cases
3. Set `context_chars` to 0 and use `top_n` on Extract unless you need the 500 characters of context each side
4. Set `reasoning: false` on /classify when you only need the label. The reasoning call bills its input at 2x
5. Back off and retry on 429, 502 and 504. No limits are published and calls have no side effects

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Kev or ScaleDown?

Kev scores 67.4 (B) on agent readiness against ScaleDown's 48.6 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ScaleDown leads on transparency & trust.

### Do Kev and ScaleDown need an API key?

Kev needs no key. ScaleDown needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Kev and ScaleDown without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Kev. ScaleDown has a hosted endpoint at https://api.scaledown.xyz.

### Are Kev and ScaleDown open source?

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


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Kev or ScaleDown

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