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Head to head · Decision models · October 2026 research run

OpenAI Decisions API vs ScaleDown

OpenAI Decisions API scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against ScaleDown's 48.6 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ScaleDown leads on payments & pricing. Both do decision models.

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OpenAI Decisions APIOpenAI · Model API BB71.5/100#127 of 1084 ScaleDownCarbon ScaleDown, Inc. · Model API D48.6/100#873 of 1084

Which one, for what

OpenAI Decisions API BB

Best 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

  • Reliability, 53 against 20
  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 69
  • Agent ergonomics, 87 against 76
  • Security & auth, 83 against 48
  • Maintenance & community, 77 against 56
  • Transparency & trust, 83 against 54

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

ScaleDown D

Best for Cheap, high-volume labelling, routing and yes or no checks where a probability is more useful than prose, and for pulling described fields with offsets from text, images or PDFs.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 30

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

No status page, no published rate limits and no SLA outside enterprise contracts

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runOpenAI Decisions APIScaleDownEdge
Reliability16%205320OpenAI Decisions API +33
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28969OpenAI Decisions API +20
Agent ergonomics13%16.28776OpenAI Decisions API +11
Security & auth14%17.58348OpenAI Decisions API +35
Payments & pricing10%12.53040ScaleDown +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87756OpenAI Decisions API +21
Transparency & trust7%8.88354OpenAI Decisions API +29
Negative events≤150-2
TotalBB 71.5/100D 48.6/100

Facts side by side

FactOpenAI Decisions APIScaleDown
KindModel APIModel API
VendorOpenAICarbon ScaleDown, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.openai.com/v1/decisionshttps://api.scaledown.xyz
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
Price for decision models$0.10 per 1M tokensnot published
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under OpenAI's services agreement. The official SDKs are Apache-2.0Proprietary hosted models under ScaleDown's Terms of Service. The langchain-scaledown integration is MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-062026-10-14
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 stars0 stars

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.

ScaleDown

Classify answers Jev-shaped choice, noul and score questions with probabilities, and Extract returns values with confidences and character offsets, at $0.05 per million input tokens with output free. There is no status page, no published rate limit and no public changelog, and the site's compliance claims contradict each other.

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

ScaleDown

  1. Send several questions about one item in one /v1/scaledown call. Each becomes its own Classify call and the usage is summed
  2. Pin classify-1, extract-1 or summarize-1 once you've tuned thresholds on your own labelled cases
  3. Set context_chars to 0 and use top_n on Extract unless you need the 500 characters of context each side
  4. Set reasoning: false on /classify when you only need the label. The reasoning call bills its input at 2x
  5. Back off and retry on 429, 502 and 504. No limits are published and calls have no side effects

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, OpenAI Decisions API or ScaleDown?

OpenAI Decisions API scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against ScaleDown's 48.6 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ScaleDown leads on payments & pricing.

Do OpenAI Decisions API and ScaleDown need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call OpenAI Decisions API and ScaleDown without installing anything?

Yes. OpenAI Decisions API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openai.com/v1/decisions and ScaleDown at https://api.scaledown.xyz.

Other comparisons with OpenAI Decisions API or ScaleDown

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