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Head to head · Decision models · October 2026 research run

OpenAI Decisions API vs pplx-decider

OpenAI Decisions API scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against pplx-decider's 62.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. pplx-decider leads on reliability. Both do decision models. pplx-decider is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0.10 per 1M tokens.

Best decision models for AI agents · All 66 decisions comparisons

OpenAI Decisions APIOpenAI · Model API BB71.5/100#124 of 950 pplx-deciderPerplexity · Model API B62.9/100#417 of 950

Which one, for what

OpenAI Decisions API BB

Good for High-volume yes or no checks, routing among fixed options and rubric scoring over text and images, for teams already on an OpenAI key.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 87 against 76
  • Security & auth, 83 against 61
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 25
  • Maintenance & community, 77 against 62
  • Transparency & trust, 83 against 52

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

Public beta released on 6 October 2026. The guide expects general availability in the coming weeks and gives no date

pplx-decider B

Good 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 53

Also in its favour

  • Cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0.10 per 1M tokens

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 runOpenAI Decisions APIpplx-deciderEdge
Reliability16%205361pplx-decider +8
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28990pplx-decider +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.28776OpenAI Decisions API +11
Security & auth14%17.58361OpenAI Decisions API +22
Payments & pricing10%12.53025OpenAI Decisions API +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87762OpenAI Decisions API +15
Transparency & trust7%8.88352OpenAI Decisions API +31
Negative events≤1500
Total71.5 · BB62.9 · B

Facts side by side

FactOpenAI Decisions APIpplx-decider
KindModel APIModel API
VendorOpenAIPerplexity
Hosted endpointhttps://api.openai.com/v1/decisionshttps://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
Price for decision models$0.10 per 1M tokensfree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under OpenAI's services agreement. The official SDKs are Apache-2.0Apache-2.0 for the published weights. The hosted Decisions API is a proprietary service
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-062026-10-05
Terms last updatedcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Popularity32k starsnone

Verdicts

OpenAI Decisions API

Typed predicate, choice and score answers with probabilities, up to 200 questions a call, at $0.10 per million input tokens with no output charge. It is a public beta released on 6 October 2026, with one model alias, no dated snapshot, no Batch route and no SLA found.

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

OpenAI Decisions API

  1. Put independent questions about one input in a single questions array. Send a separate request when a question depends on an earlier answer
  2. Check each answer's type before reading it. A question can come back as refusal while the others in the same request are answered
  3. Encode images as base64 data URLs. Hosted URLs and file_id inputs are rejected
  4. Give a choice question a fallback value such as other, and set thresholds from your own labelled examples
  5. Use Python SDK 3.26.0 or JavaScript 7.30.0 or later, and follow Retry-After on 429 and 503

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, OpenAI Decisions API or pplx-decider?

OpenAI Decisions API scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against pplx-decider's 62.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. pplx-decider leads on reliability.

Which is cheaper for decision models, OpenAI Decisions API or pplx-decider?

pplx-decider, at free against $0.10 per 1M tokens for OpenAI Decisions API. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

Do OpenAI Decisions API and pplx-decider need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call OpenAI Decisions API and pplx-decider without installing anything?

Yes. OpenAI Decisions API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openai.com/v1/decisions and pplx-decider at https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions.

Other comparisons with OpenAI Decisions API or pplx-decider

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