# Liquid d1 vs Microsoft-Decision-1

> Liquid d1 scores 43.5 (E) to Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E) for decision models. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-microsoft-decision-1
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md (~2,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-microsoft-decision-1.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-microsoft-decision-1.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: 2026-10-10

Liquid d1 scores 43.5 (E) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Microsoft-Decision-1 leads on reliability and security & auth. Both do decision models.

- Liquid d1: grade E, 43.5/100, rank #886 of 954. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/liquid-d1.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/liquid-d1.json
- Microsoft-Decision-1: grade E, 39/100, rank #921 of 954. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-decision-1.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-decision-1.json
- Best decision models for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/decision-models/index.md
- All 91 decisions comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-models/index.md

## Which one, for what

### 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:
- Schema & documentation, 59 against 43
- Agent ergonomics, 63 against 50
- Payments & pricing, 27 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 60 against 40
- Transparency & trust, 54 against 32

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

### Microsoft-Decision-1 (E)

Good for: Routing, classification, prioritisation and rubric checks over text, where a fixed set of options and a low price per token matter more than generated text.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 30 against 21
- Security & auth, 52 against 35

Watch for: Public preview only. Microsoft's post gives no general availability date and states no licence for the hosted model


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Liquid d1 | Microsoft-Decision-1 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 21 | 30 | Microsoft-Decision-1 +9 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 59 | 43 | Liquid d1 +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 50 | Liquid d1 +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 35 | 52 | Microsoft-Decision-1 +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 27 | 20 | Liquid d1 +7 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 40 | Liquid d1 +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 54 | 32 | Liquid d1 +22 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **43.5 · E** | **39 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Liquid d1 | Microsoft-Decision-1 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Liquid AI | Microsoft |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.liquid.ai/decisions/v1/systemone` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Price for decision models | not published | free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | 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 | Not stated. The announcement and OpenRouter's model page name no licence, and no weights repository was found. |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-09 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-30 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 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 |  |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Microsoft-Decision-1.** Microsoft publishes $0.042 per million input tokens, with output free, and the model is callable through Microsoft Foundry and OpenRouter. It is in public preview. No licence, model-specific retention statement, rate limit or deprecation policy was found, and the Foundry route needs an Azure deployment and an Entra token. Latency and accuracy figures are Microsoft's claims.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Microsoft-Decision-1

1. Use OpenRouter's Decisions method, not an OpenAI chat-completions SDK. OpenRouter says chat completions SDKs will not work with this model
2. On Foundry, send the request to the deployment's /providers/microsoft/v1/systemone path with a Microsoft Entra token for https://cognitiveservices.azure.com/.default, not an API key
3. Take the deployment name from the Foundry quickstart before the first call. Microsoft says to confirm the route and authentication header, and the pages reviewed do not give the name
4. Keep each request within OpenRouter's 32,768-token context and send only fixed options, since the model is not intended for open-ended generation
5. Measure latency and calibration on your own labelled cases before relying on Microsoft's latency and 'nine times out of 10' statements

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Liquid d1 or Microsoft-Decision-1?

Liquid d1 scores 43.5 (E) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Microsoft-Decision-1 leads on reliability and security & auth.

### Do Liquid d1 and Microsoft-Decision-1 need an API key?

Liquid d1 needs an API key. Microsoft-Decision-1 takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Liquid d1 and Microsoft-Decision-1 without installing anything?

Liquid d1 has a hosted endpoint at https://api.liquid.ai/decisions/v1/systemone. No hosted endpoint is listed for Microsoft-Decision-1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-microsoft-decision-1.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-microsoft-decision-1.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "liquid-d1", "b": "microsoft-decision-1"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare liquid-d1 microsoft-decision-1`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/liquid-d1.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-decision-1.json

## Other comparisons with Liquid d1 or Microsoft-Decision-1

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