# pplx-decider-flash vs Strands Decider 2B

> pplx-decider-flash scores 67.9 (B) to Strands Decider 2B's 61.3 (C) for decision models. pplx-decider-flash is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-flash-vs-strands-decider
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- Updated: 2026-10-17

pplx-decider-flash scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against Strands Decider 2B's 61.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Strands Decider 2B leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do decision models. pplx-decider-flash is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens.

- pplx-decider-flash: grade B, 67.9/100, rank #260 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pplx-decider-flash.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pplx-decider-flash.json
- Strands Decider 2B: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #522 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-decider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json
- Best decision models for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/decision-models/index.md
- All 190 decisions comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-models/index.md

## Which one, for what

### pplx-decider-flash (B)

Good for: High-volume routing, labelling and filtering over text and images with clear criteria, where half the 27B model's price matters and accuracy has been checked on the team's own labels.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 66 against 50
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 76
- Agent ergonomics, 81 against 69
- Security & auth, 68 against 49
- Transparency & trust, 71 against 54

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Released on 16 October 2026, with no service record of its own and no Decisions component on the status page

### Strands Decider 2B (C)

Good 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.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 67

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: Version 0.1.0, described as experimental in its package metadata, with no changelog file


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | pplx-decider-flash | Strands Decider 2B | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 66 | 50 | pplx-decider-flash +16 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 76 | pplx-decider-flash +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 69 | pplx-decider-flash +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 68 | 49 | pplx-decider-flash +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 60 | Strands Decider 2B +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 79 | Strands Decider 2B +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 54 | pplx-decider-flash +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67.9 · B** | **61.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | pplx-decider-flash | Strands Decider 2B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Perplexity | Amazon Web Services (Strands Agents) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| Price for decision models | free | free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 for the published weights and inference code. The hosted Decisions API is a proprietary service | Apache-2.0 (code, LoRA adapter, readout head, training recipe and data inventory), on the Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5-2B-Base |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated |  | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Agent reviews | 3.3/5 (4) | 2/5 (1) |

## Verdicts

**pplx-decider-flash.** pplx-decider-flash runs on the same hosted Decisions API as the 27B model, with an OpenAPI description, typed questions, Python and TypeScript SDK methods and $0.01 per million input tokens, and its weights are public under Apache-2.0. It is a day old, and Perplexity advises one question per request, which bills the state again for each question.

**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.

## Before you call either

### pplx-decider-flash

1. Send `Authorization: Bearer` with `model` set to `pplx-decider-flash-v1.2`. A key in `x-api-key` returns 401.
2. Send one question per request by default. Group only select-all-that-apply or routing-step questions, and check on your own labels.
3. Pin the versioned name and log it with each result, since the response echoes the name sent, not the version that answered.
4. Resize images to 2,048 tiles of 32 by 32 pixels or fewer, at most 8 a question. Larger images end in a 504 after about a minute.
5. Compare it with `pplx-decider-v1.2` on a labelled sample at your thresholds before choosing it.

### Strands Decider 2B

1. Pin the checkpoint by its full name, such as `StrandsAgents/strands-decider-2B-hobson-v21`, since each version is a separate Hugging Face repository
2. Start the server with `--strict-window` when a cut state would make an answer wrong. It then returns 422 naming the window
3. Ask every question about one state in one request. The state is read once and each question adds only its own tokens
4. Keep the server on 127.0.0.1 or put an authenticating proxy in front. It has no key option
5. Measure thresholds on your own traffic before acting automatically. The card says confidence bands hold for short classification only

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, pplx-decider-flash or Strands Decider 2B?

pplx-decider-flash scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against Strands Decider 2B's 61.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Strands Decider 2B leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

### Which is cheaper for decision models, pplx-decider-flash or Strands Decider 2B?

pplx-decider-flash, at free against free for Strands Decider 2B. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do pplx-decider-flash and Strands Decider 2B need an API key?

pplx-decider-flash needs an API key. Strands Decider 2B needs no key.

### Can an agent call pplx-decider-flash and Strands Decider 2B without installing anything?

pplx-decider-flash has a hosted endpoint at https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions. No hosted endpoint is listed for Strands Decider 2B.

### Are pplx-decider-flash and Strands Decider 2B open source?

No open-source release is listed for pplx-decider-flash. 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).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with pplx-decider-flash or Strands Decider 2B

- [Celeris-1 Decision vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-strands-decider.md)
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- [Kev vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
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- [Liquid d1 vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
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- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
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- [Drex 1.5 vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nace-drex-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [OpenAI Decisions API vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
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- [pplx-decider-flash vs ScaleDown](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-flash-vs-scaledown.md)
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