# Liquid d1 vs Strands Decider 2B > Strands Decider 2B scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Liquid d1's 43.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do inference decision. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-strands-decider - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-strands-decider.md (~2,300 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-strands-decider.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-strands-decider.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 Strands Decider 2B scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Liquid d1's 43.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do inference decision. - 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 - Strands Decider 2B: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #327 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-decider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json ## 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. 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 ### Strands Decider 2B (C) Good for: Cheap, local classification, routing, triage and tool-call checks on short text inside Strands or other Python agents, and for teams who want to retrain a decision model from a published recipe. Ahead on: - Reliability, 50 against 21 - Schema & documentation, 76 against 59 - Agent ergonomics, 69 against 63 - Security & auth, 49 against 35 - Payments & pricing, 60 against 27 - Maintenance & community, 79 against 60 Also in its favour: - No key needed to call it - Open source Watch for: Version 0.1.0, described as experimental in its package metadata, with no changelog file ## Score by category | Category | Weight | Liquid d1 | Strands Decider 2B | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 21 | 50 | Strands Decider 2B +29 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 59 | 76 | Strands Decider 2B +17 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 69 | Strands Decider 2B +6 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 35 | 49 | Strands Decider 2B +14 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 27 | 60 | Strands Decider 2B +33 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 79 | Strands Decider 2B +19 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 54 | 54 | even | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **43.5 · E** | **61.3 · C** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | Liquid d1 | Strands Decider 2B | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | Model API | Model API | | Vendor | Liquid AI | Amazon Web Services (Strands Agents) | | Hosted endpoint | `https://api.liquid.ai/decisions/v1/systemone` | no (local only) | | Transports | HTTP | HTTP | | Auth | API key | None | | Pricing | Freemium | 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 | Apache-2.0 (code, LoRA adapter, readout head, training recipe and data inventory), on the Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5-2B-Base | | Read-only variant documented | no | no | | llms.txt | yes | no | | Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-05 | | Terms last updated | 2026-09-30 | no document linked | | Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-30 | no document linked | | 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 | none | 2/5 (1) | ## 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. **Strands Decider 2B.** A 1.9B-parameter Apache-2.0 decision model that runs on a laptop GPU, an Apple silicon Mac or a CPU, with its training data, recipe and per-version results published. It's an experimental 0.1.0 release with a 4,096-token window that cuts long states by default, and its local server has no authentication. ## 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 ### Strands Decider 2B 1. Pin the checkpoint by its full name, such as `StrandsAgents/strands-decider-2B-hobson-v21`, since each version is a separate Hugging Face repository 2. Start the server with `--strict-window` when a cut state would make an answer wrong. It then returns 422 naming the window 3. Ask every question about one state in one request. The state is read once and each question adds only its own tokens 4. Keep the server on 127.0.0.1 or put an authenticating proxy in front. It has no key option 5. Measure thresholds on your own traffic before acting automatically. The card says confidence bands hold for short classification only ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, Liquid d1 or Strands Decider 2B? Strands Decider 2B scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Liquid d1's 43.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ### Do Liquid d1 and Strands Decider 2B need an API key? Liquid d1 needs an API key. Strands Decider 2B needs no key. ### Can an agent call Liquid d1 and Strands Decider 2B without installing anything? Liquid d1 has a hosted endpoint at https://api.liquid.ai/decisions/v1/systemone. No hosted endpoint is listed for Strands Decider 2B. ### Are Liquid d1 and Strands Decider 2B open source? No open-source release is listed for Liquid d1. Strands Decider 2B is open source (Apache-2.0 (code, LoRA adapter, readout head, training recipe and data inventory), on the Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5-2B-Base). ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-strands-decider.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-strands-decider.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "liquid-d1", "b": "strands-decider"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare liquid-d1 strands-decider` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/liquid-d1.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json ## Other comparisons with Liquid d1 or Strands Decider 2B - [Clef vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-liquid-d1.md) - [Clef vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-strands-decider.md) - [Laya vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-liquid-d1.md) - [Laya vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-strands-decider.md) - [Kev vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-liquid-d1.md) - [Kev vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-strands-decider.md) - [Liquid d1 vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-openai-decisions-api.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) - [OpenAI Decisions API vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-strands-decider.md) - [Strands Decider 2B vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-typesafe-jev.md) - [Strands Decider 2B vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-vela.md)