# OpenAI Decisions API vs ScaleDown

> OpenAI Decisions scores 71.5 (BB) to ScaleDown's 48.6 (D) for decision models. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-14

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.

- OpenAI Decisions API: grade BB, 71.5/100, rank #127 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-decisions-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-decisions-api.json
- ScaleDown: grade D, 48.6/100, rank #873 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scaledown.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scaledown.json
- Best decision models for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/decision-models/index.md
- All 120 decisions comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-models/index.md
- Best document parsing, OCR and extraction APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/document-extraction/index.md
- All 124 documents comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/document-extraction/index.md

## 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:
- 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)

Good 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

| Category | Weight | OpenAI Decisions API | ScaleDown | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 20 | OpenAI Decisions API +33 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 69 | OpenAI Decisions API +20 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 76 | OpenAI Decisions API +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 83 | 48 | OpenAI Decisions API +35 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | ScaleDown +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 56 | OpenAI Decisions API +21 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 54 | OpenAI Decisions API +29 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **71.5 · BB** | **48.6 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | OpenAI Decisions API | ScaleDown |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | OpenAI | Carbon ScaleDown, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.openai.com/v1/decisions` | `https://api.scaledown.xyz` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| Price for decision models | $0.10 per 1M tokens | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under OpenAI's services agreement. The official SDKs are Apache-2.0 | Proprietary hosted models under ScaleDown's Terms of Service. The langchain-scaledown integration is MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 32k stars | 0 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.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-scaledown.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-scaledown.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "openai-decisions-api", "b": "scaledown"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare openai-decisions-api scaledown`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-decisions-api.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scaledown.json

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- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-openai-decisions-api.md)
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- [OpenAI Decisions API vs pplx-decider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-pplx-decider.md)
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- [OpenAI Decisions API vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
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- [pplx-decider vs ScaleDown](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-vs-scaledown.md)
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