Head to head · Decision models · October 2026 research run

Microsoft-Decision-1 vs pplx-decider

pplx-decider scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do decision models. Microsoft-Decision-1 is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens.

Best decision models for AI agents · All 91 decisions comparisons

Which one, for what

Microsoft-Decision-1 E

Best 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.

Also in its favour

  • Cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens

Watch for

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

pplx-decider B

Best 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

  • Reliability, 61 against 30
  • Schema & documentation, 90 against 43
  • Agent ergonomics, 76 against 50
  • Security & auth, 61 against 52
  • Payments & pricing, 25 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 62 against 40
  • Transparency & trust, 52 against 32

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 runMicrosoft-Decision-1pplx-deciderEdge
Reliability16%203061pplx-decider +31
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24390pplx-decider +47
Agent ergonomics13%16.25076pplx-decider +26
Security & auth14%17.55261pplx-decider +9
Payments & pricing10%12.52025pplx-decider +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84062pplx-decider +22
Transparency & trust7%8.83252pplx-decider +20
Negative events≤1500
TotalE 39/100B 62.9/100

Facts side by side

FactMicrosoft-Decision-1pplx-decider
KindModel APIModel API
VendorMicrosoftPerplexity
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
Price for decision modelsfreefree
x402nono
LicenceNot stated. The announcement and OpenRouter's model page name no licence, and no weights repository was found.Apache-2.0 for the published weights. The hosted Decisions API is a proprietary service
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-092026-10-05
Terms last updatedno document linkedcouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn'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

Verdicts

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.

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

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

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, Microsoft-Decision-1 or pplx-decider?

pplx-decider scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in every scored category.

Which is cheaper for decision models, Microsoft-Decision-1 or pplx-decider?

Microsoft-Decision-1, at free against free for pplx-decider. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

Do Microsoft-Decision-1 and pplx-decider need an API key?

Microsoft-Decision-1 takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. pplx-decider needs an API key.

Can an agent call Microsoft-Decision-1 and pplx-decider without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Microsoft-Decision-1. pplx-decider has a hosted endpoint at https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions.

Other comparisons with Microsoft-Decision-1 or pplx-decider

Machine-readable

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