{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "microsoft-decision-1", "name": "Microsoft-Decision-1", "vendor": "Microsoft", "vendorUrl": "https://www.microsoft.com", "kind": "model", "category": "decision-models", "summary": "Microsoft-Decision-1 is a Microsoft model, post-trained from Qwen3.5-9B, that scores fixed answer options with a calibrated probability for each. It is in public preview on Microsoft Foundry and OpenRouter, at $0.042 per million input tokens.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-decision-1", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-decision-1.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-decision-1.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-decision-1.json", "license": "Not stated. The announcement and OpenRouter's model page name no licence, and no weights repository was found.", "transports": [ "http" ], "packages": [], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "Foundry route: a Microsoft Entra bearer token for https://cognitiveservices.azure.com/.default, against a deployment in a Foundry resource, so an Azure subscription and deployment come first. OpenRouter route: an OpenRouter API key, read from OPENROUTER_API_KEY in OpenRouter's SDK example. Signup and key creation on OpenRouter were not checked.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "$0.042 per million input tokens, with output free, on Foundry US and EU Datazone deployments and on OpenRouter (checked 10 October 2026). Microsoft says usage charges apply. No free tier or trial without a card was found.", "priceSummary": "Pay per use", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in Microsoft's announcement, the Tech Community post, the Foundry sample or OpenRouter's model page, checked 10 October 2026.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-10" }, "docsUrl": "https://commandline.microsoft.com/microsoft-decision-1-model-foundry/", "capabilities": [ "inference.decision" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "model", "usage-priced", "status-page", "beta" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-09", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 39, "grade": "E", "agentReady": false, "rank": 921, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 954, "categoryRank": 14, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 50, "maintenance": 40, "payments": 20, "reliability": 30, "schema": 43, "security": 52, "transparency": 32 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-10" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "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.", "bestFor": "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.", "strengths": [ "Price published without a login: $0.042 per million input tokens, with output free, on the US and EU Datazone deployments and on OpenRouter", "Callable today through two routes, Microsoft Foundry and OpenRouter, both linked from Microsoft's 9 October 2026 announcement", "Each answer is a probability for one fixed option, which Microsoft describes as calibrated, so an application can send uncertain results to review", "OpenRouter lists a 32,768-token context window, text input and decisions as output", "OpenRouter's documentation lists a Decisions method in its Python, TypeScript and Go SDKs, marked alpha" ], "weaknesses": [ "Public preview only. Microsoft's post gives no general availability date and states no licence for the hosted model", "No model-specific rate limit, retention statement or deprecation policy was found. Microsoft's Foundry data page covers Models sold by Azure in general", "The Foundry route needs an Azure subscription, a deployment of the model and a Microsoft Entra token, all set up by a person", "Microsoft describes its Xbox Research result as competitive with GPT-5 or GPT-6 Sol on quality, not better, and the two Microsoft posts name different baselines for it", "Azure status history lists a Foundry Models incident on 29 September 2026 in Sweden Central, with intermittent failures and HTTP 5xx for about six hours" ], "agentNotes": [ "Use OpenRouter's Decisions method, not an OpenAI chat-completions SDK. OpenRouter says chat completions SDKs will not work with this model", "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", "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", "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", "Measure latency and calibration on your own labelled cases before relying on Microsoft's latency and 'nine times out of 10' statements" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "E", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 39 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 50, "maintenance": 40, "payments": 20, "reliability": 30, "schema": 43, "security": 52, "transparency": 22 }, "provenanceScore": 41 }, "connect": { "http": "curl -X POST \"$AZURE_ENDPOINT/providers/microsoft/v1/systemone\" \\\n -H \"Authorization: Bearer $ENTRA_TOKEN\" \\\n -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"model\":\"\u003cdeployment-name\u003e\",\"state\":\"The customer requests a refund for a duplicate charge.\",\"questions\":{\"team\":{\"type\":\"choice\",\"instructions\":\"Which team should handle this request?\",\"criteria\":{\"billing\":\"Charges, invoices, refunds or subscription payments\",\"technical\":\"Software errors or integration failures\"}}}}'" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.decision", "tool": "https://letme.dev/microsoft-decision-1" }, "sameCompany": [ "azure-foundry-fine-tuning", "azure-ai-content-safety", "azure-speech-to-text", "azure-text-to-speech", "microsoft-agent-framework", "microsoft-execution-containers", "microsoft-entra-agent-id", "azure-key-vault", "azure-document-intelligence", "azure-devops-mcp", "microsoft-learn-mcp", "playwright-mcp", "azure-mcp", "azure-maps", "azure-translator", "microsoft-graph-calendar", "azure-blob-storage", "onedrive-sharepoint", "microsoft-teams", "dynamics-365-sales", "power-automate", "foundry-local", "microsoft-advertising-api", "microsoft-excel-graph", "outlook-mail-graph" ], "area": "models", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Decision input", "unit": "1m-tokens", "usd": 0.042, "note": "US and EU Datazone on Foundry and OpenRouter. Microsoft's post says usage charges apply." }, { "item": "Decision output", "unit": "1m-tokens", "usd": 0, "note": "Free per Microsoft's post and OpenRouter. The Foundry price table shows N/A." } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "", "domain": "microsoft.com", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-foundry/responsible-ai/openai/data-privacy", "statusPage": "https://azure.status.microsoft/en-us/status/history/", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "expired", "checked": "2026-10-10", "notes": [ "The Foundry endpoint is account-specific, given as AZURE_ENDPOINT in Microsoft's sample, so endpointOnVendorDomain is not set.", "The legal entity name and Microsoft's product terms were not read, so terms is empty.", "Microsoft's security.txt at www.microsoft.com/.well-known/security.txt gives an Expires date of 2026-09-23, which has passed.", "The Azure status history page shows a Foundry Models component and dated incidents. It is shared by all Foundry models, not specific to this one.", "The Foundry model catalogue page at ai.azure.com is rendered by script and returned no model content when read." ], "score": 41 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-decision-1.json", "live": { "slug": "microsoft-decision-1", "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://azure.status.microsoft/en-us/status/history", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-10-10T11:53:10.031474948Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-10-10T11:53:10.031474948Z" } }, "answer": "Strands Decider 2B scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.", "b": { "slug": "strands-decider", "name": "Strands Decider 2B", "vendor": "Amazon Web Services (Strands Agents)", "vendorUrl": "https://strandsagents.com", "kind": "model", "category": "decision-models", "summary": "Strands Decider 2B is an open-weight decision model from AWS's Strands Labs, released on 1 October 2026 under Apache-2.0. It answers typed yes or no, choice and score questions with probabilities, and runs locally from a Python package.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-decider", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-decider.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-decider.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json", "repo": "https://github.com/strands-labs/strands-decider", "license": "Apache-2.0 (code, LoRA adapter, readout head, training recipe and data inventory), on the Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5-2B-Base", "transports": [ "http" ], "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "strands-decider" } ], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "No account. `strands-decider serve` binds to 127.0.0.1 and has no authentication option, and the README says to use it for local experiments. The weights download from Hugging Face without an account (the repositories aren't gated).", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free and open source, with nothing to buy. You pay for your own hardware. The README puts serving on one RTX 3090, an Apple silicon Mac or a CPU, and a full retrain at about 11 hours on one RTX 3090 or about 1 hour 10 minutes on eight H100s (https://github.com/strands-labs/strands-decider). No hosted API, on Amazon Bedrock or elsewhere, was found in the launch post or the repository.", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402. Strands Decider is software you run, and its server has no payment route (checked 2026-10-05).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-05" }, "docsUrl": "https://github.com/strands-labs/strands-decider#readme", "capabilities": [ "inference.decision" ], "tags": [ "model", "open-source", "open-weights", "self-hosted", "local", "free", "python", "pre-1.0" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-05", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 61.3, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 472, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 954, "categoryRank": 10, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 69, "maintenance": 79, "payments": 60, "reliability": 50, "schema": 76, "security": 49, "transparency": 54 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "low", "date": "2026-10-05" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "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.", "bestFor": "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.", "strengths": [ "Apache-2.0 code and weights, with the training recipe, data inventory and evaluation logs published", "Runs on CUDA, Apple silicon (MPS or MLX) or CPU, with a v19 median of 115 ms a question on an RTX 3090 per the README", "Brier score and expected calibration error published for each released checkpoint", "Installs with `pip install strands-decider` and includes a CLI, a local HTTP server and a Strands agent example", "Security reports go to the AWS Vulnerability Disclosure Program, and the head ships as safetensors with a SHA-256 manifest" ], "weaknesses": [ "Version 0.1.0, described as experimental in its package metadata, with no changelog file", "A 4,096-token window, and by default an over-long state is cut to fit without an error", "The local server has no authentication option", "No hosted API, so the operator runs and scales the model", "The model card says its calibration is established on short classification only" ], "agentNotes": [ "Pin the checkpoint by its full name, such as `StrandsAgents/strands-decider-2B-hobson-v21`, since each version is a separate Hugging Face repository", "Start the server with `--strict-window` when a cut state would make an answer wrong. It then returns 422 naming the window", "Ask every question about one state in one request. The state is read once and each question adds only its own tokens", "Keep the server on 127.0.0.1 or put an authenticating proxy in front. It has no key option", "Measure thresholds on your own traffic before acting automatically. The card says confidence bands hold for short classification only" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 1, "avgRating": 2, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "low", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 61.3 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 69, "maintenance": 79, "payments": 60, "reliability": 50, "schema": 76, "security": 49, "transparency": 63 }, "provenanceScore": 44 }, "connect": { "install": "pip install strands-decider\nstrands-decider serve StrandsAgents/strands-decider-2B-hobson-v21 --port 8000", "http": "curl -s localhost:8000/v1/systemone \\\n -H 'content-type: application/json' \\\n -d '{\n \"state\": \"Help! My payouts have been failing for 3 days!\",\n \"questions\": {\n \"is_urgent\": {\"type\": \"noul\", \"instructions\": \"Does this convey urgency?\"}\n }\n }'" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.decision", "tool": "https://letme.dev/strands-decider" }, "area": "models", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Amazon Web Services, Inc.", "domain": "strandsagents.com", "domainRegistered": "2025-05-15", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-05", "notes": [ "The repository's SECURITY.md routes reports to the AWS Vulnerability Disclosure Program and adopts the Amazon Open Source Code of Conduct, and AWS's open-source blog announced Strands Labs on 23 February 2026. The legal entity is inferred from those pages. The licence names no copyright holder.", "strandsagents.com was registered on 15 May 2025 per RDAP. Its /.well-known/security.txt returned 404.", "Software you run, so there's no hosted endpoint, terms or privacy policy to check. The Apache-2.0 licence stands in for terms.", "No changelog file or GitHub release tags in the repository. Model versions are separate Hugging Face repositories, and research/README.md in the repository lists each training run." ], "score": 44 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-decider.json", "live": { "slug": "strands-decider", "versions": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "strands-decider", "version": "0.1.0", "released": "2026-10-01", "seenAt": "2026-10-09T17:22:12.335125665Z" } ], "githubStars": 538, "pypiWeekly": 4694, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://strandsagents.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-09T15:40:34.772103827Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T17:22:12.520245856Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "Model API", "b": "Model API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Microsoft", "b": "Amazon Web Services (Strands Agents)", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "no (local only)", "b": "no (local only)", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP", "b": "HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "OAuth or key", "b": "None", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Pay per use", "b": "Free", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "free", "b": "free", "name": "Price for decision models" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "Not stated. The announcement and OpenRouter's model page name no licence, and no weights repository was found.", "b": "Apache-2.0 (code, LoRA adapter, readout head, training recipe and data inventory), on the Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5-2B-Base", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-10-09", "b": "2026-10-05", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "none", "b": "2/5 (1)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Strands Decider 2B scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Microsoft-Decision-1 or Strands Decider 2B?" }, { "answer": "Microsoft-Decision-1, at free against free for Strands Decider 2B. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.", "question": "Which is cheaper for decision models, Microsoft-Decision-1 or Strands Decider 2B?" }, { "answer": "Microsoft-Decision-1 takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Strands Decider 2B needs no key.", "question": "Do Microsoft-Decision-1 and Strands Decider 2B need an API key?" }, { "answer": "No hosted endpoint is listed for Microsoft-Decision-1. No hosted endpoint is listed for Strands Decider 2B.", "question": "Can an agent call Microsoft-Decision-1 and Strands Decider 2B without installing anything?" }, { "answer": "No open-source release is listed for Microsoft-Decision-1. 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).", "question": "Are Microsoft-Decision-1 and Strands Decider 2B open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": null, "also": [ "Cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens" ], "goodFor": "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.", "slug": "microsoft-decision-1", "watchFor": "Public preview only. Microsoft's post gives no general availability date and states no licence for the hosted model" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 50 against 30", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 76 against 43", "Agent ergonomics, 69 against 50", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 20", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 79 against 40", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 54 against 32" ], "also": [ "No key needed to call it", "Open source" ], "goodFor": "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.", "slug": "strands-decider", "watchFor": "Version 0.1.0, described as experimental in its package metadata, with no changelog file" } ], "job": { "capability": "inference.decision", "name": "Decision models" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-microsoft-decision-1.json", "title": "Celeris-1 Decision vs Microsoft-Decision-1", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-microsoft-decision-1" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-strands-decider.json", "title": "Celeris-1 Decision vs Strands Decider 2B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-strands-decider" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-microsoft-decision-1.json", "title": "Clef vs Microsoft-Decision-1", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-microsoft-decision-1" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-strands-decider.json", "title": "Clef vs Strands Decider 2B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-strands-decider" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-microsoft-decision-1.json", "title": "Laya vs Microsoft-Decision-1", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-microsoft-decision-1" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-strands-decider.json", "title": "Laya vs Strands Decider 2B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-strands-decider" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-microsoft-decision-1.json", "title": "Decider vs Microsoft-Decision-1", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-microsoft-decision-1" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-strands-decider.json", "title": "Decider vs Strands Decider 2B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-strands-decider" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-microsoft-decision-1.json", "title": "GLiClass vs Microsoft-Decision-1", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-microsoft-decision-1" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-strands-decider.json", "title": "GLiClass vs Strands Decider 2B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-strands-decider" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-microsoft-decision-1.json", "title": "Kev vs Microsoft-Decision-1", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-microsoft-decision-1" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-strands-decider.json", "title": "Kev vs Strands Decider 2B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-strands-decider" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-microsoft-decision-1.json", "title": "Liquid d1 vs Microsoft-Decision-1", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-microsoft-decision-1" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-strands-decider.json", "title": "Liquid d1 vs Strands Decider 2B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-strands-decider" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-nace-drex.json", "title": "Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Drex 1.5", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-nace-drex" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-openai-decisions-api.json", "title": "Microsoft-Decision-1 vs OpenAI Decisions API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-openai-decisions-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-pplx-decider.json", "title": "Microsoft-Decision-1 vs pplx-decider", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-pplx-decider" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-typesafe-jev.json", "title": "Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Jev", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-typesafe-jev" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-vela.json", "title": "Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Vela 2.0", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-vela" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nace-drex-vs-strands-decider.json", "title": "Drex 1.5 vs Strands Decider 2B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nace-drex-vs-strands-decider" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-strands-decider.json", "title": "OpenAI Decisions API vs Strands Decider 2B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-strands-decider" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-vs-strands-decider.json", "title": "pplx-decider vs Strands Decider 2B", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-vs-strands-decider" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-typesafe-jev.json", "title": "Strands Decider 2B vs Jev", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-typesafe-jev" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-vela.json", "title": "Strands Decider 2B vs Vela 2.0", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-vela" } ], "scores": [ { "by": 20, "edge": "strands-decider", "key": "reliability", "microsoft-decision-1": 30, "name": "Reliability", "strands-decider": 50, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 33, "edge": "strands-decider", "key": "schema", "microsoft-decision-1": 43, "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "strands-decider": 76, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 19, "edge": "strands-decider", "key": "ergonomics", "microsoft-decision-1": 50, "name": "Agent ergonomics", "strands-decider": 69, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 3, "edge": "microsoft-decision-1", "key": "security", "microsoft-decision-1": 52, "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "strands-decider": 49, "weight": 14 }, { "by": 40, "edge": "strands-decider", "key": "payments", "microsoft-decision-1": 20, "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "strands-decider": 60, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 39, "edge": "strands-decider", "key": "maintenance", "microsoft-decision-1": 40, "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "strands-decider": 79, "weight": 7 }, { "by": 22, "edge": "strands-decider", "key": "transparency", "microsoft-decision-1": 32, "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "strands-decider": 54, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Strands Decider 2B scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do decision models. Microsoft-Decision-1 is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens.", "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.", "strands-decider": "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." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-strands-decider", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-strands-decider.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-strands-decider.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-strands-decider.min.md" }, "markdown": "Strands Decider 2B scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do decision models. Microsoft-Decision-1 is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens.\n\n- 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\n- Strands Decider 2B: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #472 of 954. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-decider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json\n- Best decision models for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/decision-models/index.md\n- All 91 decisions comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-models/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Microsoft-Decision-1 (E)\n\nGood 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.\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens\n\nWatch for: Public preview only. Microsoft's post gives no general availability date and states no licence for the hosted model\n\n### Strands Decider 2B (C)\n\nGood 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.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 50 against 30\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 76 against 43\n- Agent ergonomics, 69 against 50\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 20\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 79 against 40\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 54 against 32\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- No key needed to call it\n- Open source\n\nWatch for: Version 0.1.0, described as experimental in its package metadata, with no changelog file\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Microsoft-Decision-1 | Strands Decider 2B | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 30 | 50 | Strands Decider 2B +20 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 43 | 76 | Strands Decider 2B +33 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 50 | 69 | Strands Decider 2B +19 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 52 | 49 | Microsoft-Decision-1 +3 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 60 | Strands Decider 2B +40 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 40 | 79 | Strands Decider 2B +39 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 32 | 54 | Strands Decider 2B +22 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **39 · E** | **61.3 · C** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Microsoft-Decision-1 | Strands Decider 2B |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Model API | Model API |\n| Vendor | Microsoft | Amazon Web Services (Strands Agents) |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |\n| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | None |\n| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |\n| Price for decision models | free | free |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | Not stated. The announcement and OpenRouter's model page name no licence, and no weights repository was found. | Apache-2.0 (code, LoRA adapter, readout head, training recipe and data inventory), on the Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5-2B-Base |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | no | no |\n| Last release | 2026-10-09 | 2026-10-05 |\n| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |\n| Privacy policy last updated | | no document linked |\n| Customer content may train models | | |\n| Terms restrict automated access | | |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | | |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | | |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | | |\n| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (1) |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**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.\n\n**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.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Microsoft-Decision-1\n\n1. Use OpenRouter's Decisions method, not an OpenAI chat-completions SDK. OpenRouter says chat completions SDKs will not work with this model\n2. 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\n3. 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\n4. 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\n5. Measure latency and calibration on your own labelled cases before relying on Microsoft's latency and 'nine times out of 10' statements\n\n### Strands Decider 2B\n\n1. Pin the checkpoint by its full name, such as `StrandsAgents/strands-decider-2B-hobson-v21`, since each version is a separate Hugging Face repository\n2. Start the server with `--strict-window` when a cut state would make an answer wrong. It then returns 422 naming the window\n3. Ask every question about one state in one request. The state is read once and each question adds only its own tokens\n4. Keep the server on 127.0.0.1 or put an authenticating proxy in front. It has no key option\n5. Measure thresholds on your own traffic before acting automatically. The card says confidence bands hold for short classification only\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Microsoft-Decision-1 or Strands Decider 2B?\n\nStrands Decider 2B scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.\n\n### Which is cheaper for decision models, Microsoft-Decision-1 or Strands Decider 2B?\n\nMicrosoft-Decision-1, at free against free for Strands Decider 2B. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.\n\n### Do Microsoft-Decision-1 and Strands Decider 2B need an API key?\n\nMicrosoft-Decision-1 takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Strands Decider 2B needs no key.\n\n### Can an agent call Microsoft-Decision-1 and Strands Decider 2B without installing anything?\n\nNo hosted endpoint is listed for Microsoft-Decision-1. No hosted endpoint is listed for Strands Decider 2B.\n\n### Are Microsoft-Decision-1 and Strands Decider 2B open source?\n\nNo open-source release is listed for Microsoft-Decision-1. 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).\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-strands-decider.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-strands-decider.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"microsoft-decision-1\", \"b\": \"strands-decider\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare microsoft-decision-1 strands-decider`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-decision-1.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Microsoft-Decision-1 or Strands Decider 2B\n\n- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)\n- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-strands-decider.md)\n- [Clef vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)\n- [Clef vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-strands-decider.md)\n- [Laya vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)\n- [Laya vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-strands-decider.md)\n- [Decider vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)\n- [Decider vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-strands-decider.md)\n- [GLiClass vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)\n- [GLiClass vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-strands-decider.md)\n- [Kev vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)\n- [Kev vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-strands-decider.md)\n- [Liquid d1 vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)\n- [Liquid d1 vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-strands-decider.md)\n- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Drex 1.5](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-nace-drex.md)\n- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-openai-decisions-api.md)\n- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs pplx-decider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-pplx-decider.md)\n- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-typesafe-jev.md)\n- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-vela.md)\n- [Drex 1.5 vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nace-drex-vs-strands-decider.md)\n- [OpenAI Decisions API vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-strands-decider.md)\n- [pplx-decider vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-vs-strands-decider.md)\n- [Strands Decider 2B vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-typesafe-jev.md)\n- [Strands Decider 2B vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-vela.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-10", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Strands Decider 2B", "url": "" } ], "description": "Strands Decider 2B scores 61.3 (C) to Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E) for decision models. Microsoft-Decision-1 is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Microsoft-Decision-1 E 39", "Strands Decider 2B C 61.3", "scores" ], "h1": "Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Strands Decider 2B", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-microsoft-decision-1-vs-strands-decider.png", "path": "/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-strands-decider", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Strands Decider 2B for AI agents (2026)", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-10", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-strands-decider" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2850, "slim": 680 }, "version": 1 }