# OpenAI Decisions API vs Vela 2.0 > OpenAI Decisions API scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Vela 2.0's 66.5 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Vela 2.0 leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do inference decision. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by… - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-vela - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-vela.md (~2,350 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-vela.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-vela.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json) - Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt) - API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json - Updated: 2026-10-08 OpenAI Decisions API scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Vela 2.0's 66.5 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Vela 2.0 leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do inference decision. - OpenAI Decisions API: grade BB, 71.5/100, rank #102 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-decisions-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-decisions-api.json - Vela 2.0: grade B, 66.5/100, rank #219 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vela.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vela.json ## 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: - Schema & documentation, 89 against 78 - Agent ergonomics, 87 against 79 - Security & auth, 83 against 60 - Transparency & trust, 83 against 48 Also in its favour: - Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better - A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install Watch for: Public beta released on 6 October 2026. The guide expects general availability in the coming weeks and gives no date ### Vela 2.0 (B) Good for: Self-hosted routing and guardrail checks in one call, where span offsets for personal data or unsupported claims matter. Ahead on: - Payments & pricing, 60 against 30 - Maintenance & community, 84 against 77 Also in its favour: - No key needed to call it - Open source Watch for: No version tags on the four Hub repositories, and the 4B and 9B weights were replaced in place on 3 October 2026 ## Score by category | Category | Weight | OpenAI Decisions API | Vela 2.0 | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 57 | Vela 2.0 +4 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 78 | OpenAI Decisions API +11 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 79 | OpenAI Decisions API +8 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 83 | 60 | OpenAI Decisions API +23 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 60 | Vela 2.0 +30 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 84 | Vela 2.0 +7 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 48 | OpenAI Decisions API +35 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **71.5 · BB** | **66.5 · B** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | OpenAI Decisions API | Vela 2.0 | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | Model API | Model API | | Vendor | OpenAI | vLLM Semantic Router project and KR Labs | | Hosted endpoint | `https://api.openai.com/v1/decisions` | no (local only) | | Transports | HTTP | HTTP | | Auth | API key | None | | Pricing | Pay per use | Free | | Price for inference decision | $0.10 per 1M tokens | free | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | Proprietary service under OpenAI's services agreement. The official SDKs are Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 (weights, code and documentation). The 0.3B's tokeniser keeps the Gemma Terms of Use, and training data keeps its own licences | | Read-only variant documented | no | no | | llms.txt | yes | no | | Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-06 | | Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked | | Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked | | Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | | | Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | | | Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | | | Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | | | Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | | | Popularity | 32k stars | 6.1k 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. **Vela 2.0.** One self-hosted call answers routing, prompt-attack, personal-data and unsupported-claim questions with probabilities and character offsets, under Apache-2.0 with SHA-256 manifests. The models are days old and carry no Hub version tags, and the three larger sizes keep 74 to 89 per cent of their Decision 2.0 bases on the Jev Decision Index by the authors' figures. ## 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 ### Vela 2.0 1. Pin a commit hash with `revision=` when loading from the Hub. The repositories have no tags and `main` has changed since launch 2. Send the served name in `model`, for example `vllm-sr/Vela-2.0-4B`. The bundled server answers 422 to any other name 3. Name span questions `pii`, `halu` or `toxic`, or set `"head": "router"`, to get the trained router head. Other labels go to the broad head 4. Keep input under 16,384 tokens a sequence (8,192 on the 0.3B). The bundled server answers 413 when the questions alone don't fit 5. Set `VELA2_API_KEY` before binding the bundled server beyond 127.0.0.1, and keep the model runtime on a trusted network ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, OpenAI Decisions API or Vela 2.0? OpenAI Decisions API scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Vela 2.0's 66.5 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Vela 2.0 leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. ### Which is cheaper for inference decision, OpenAI Decisions API or Vela 2.0? Vela 2.0, 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 Vela 2.0 need an API key? OpenAI Decisions API needs an API key. Vela 2.0 needs no key. ### Can an agent call OpenAI Decisions API and Vela 2.0 without installing anything? OpenAI Decisions API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openai.com/v1/decisions. No hosted endpoint is listed for Vela 2.0. ### Are OpenAI Decisions API and Vela 2.0 open source? No open-source release is listed for OpenAI Decisions API. Vela 2.0 is open source (Apache-2.0 (weights, code and documentation). The 0.3B's tokeniser keeps the Gemma Terms of Use, and training data keeps its own licences). ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-vela.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-vela.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "openai-decisions-api", "b": "vela"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare openai-decisions-api vela` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-decisions-api.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vela.json ## Other comparisons with OpenAI Decisions API or Vela 2.0 - [Clef vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-openai-decisions-api.md) - [Clef vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-vela.md) - [Laya vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-openai-decisions-api.md) - [Laya vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-vela.md) - [Kev vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-openai-decisions-api.md) - [Kev vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-vela.md) - [Liquid d1 vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-openai-decisions-api.md) - [Liquid d1 vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-vela.md) - [OpenAI Decisions API vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-strands-decider.md) - [OpenAI Decisions API vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-typesafe-jev.md) - [Strands Decider 2B vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-vela.md) - [Jev vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/typesafe-jev-vs-vela.md)