# pplx-decider vs pplx-decider-flash

> pplx-decider and pplx-decider-flash score within a point of each other for decision models, 68.1 and 67.9 out of 100. pplx-decider 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-vs-pplx-decider-flash
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md (~3,000 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-vs-pplx-decider-flash.min.md (~480 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-vs-pplx-decider-flash.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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-17

pplx-decider and pplx-decider-flash score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 68.1 (B) and 67.9 (B). Both do decision models. pplx-decider is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens.

- pplx-decider: grade B, 68.1/100, rank #249 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pplx-decider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pplx-decider.json
- 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
- 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 (B)

Good for: High-volume classification, routing and rubric scoring over text and images where a team wants a low hosted price, several related questions per item and the option to run the same weights itself.

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens

Watch for: Requests naming `pplx-decider-v1.1-27b` or `pplx-decider-v1-27b` are answered by v1.2 since 16 October 2026, with no notice period

### 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.

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | pplx-decider | pplx-decider-flash | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 66 | 66 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 89 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 81 | pplx-decider +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 68 | 68 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 25 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 67 | pplx-decider-flash +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 71 | even |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **68.1 · B** | **67.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | pplx-decider | pplx-decider-flash |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Perplexity | Perplexity |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions` | `https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| 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 for the published weights and inference code. The hosted Decisions API is a proprietary service |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated |  |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| 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 | 3.5/5 (4) | 3.3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**pplx-decider.** The hosted Decisions API now serves v1.2, with an OpenAPI description, typed questions, Python and TypeScript SDK methods and $0.02 per million input tokens, and the weights are public under Apache-2.0. Requests naming v1.1 or v1 are now answered by v1.2 with no notice period, and the response does not say which version answered.

**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.

## Before you call either

### pplx-decider

1. Send `Authorization: Bearer`. A key in `x-api-key` returns 401 on this endpoint.
2. Pin `pplx-decider-v1.2` and log it with each result. Old names and aliases route to newer versions, and the response echoes the name sent.
3. Revalidate thresholds set on v1.1. The v1.2 card says it gives different answers to v1.1-style requests.
4. Group questions that are facets of one decision. Send independent candidates, such as documents or tools, in separate requests.
5. 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.
6. For the weights, use the repository's `pplx_decider` package. The card says default causal inference does not reproduce the checkpoint.

### 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.

## Tutorials

- [Find defect reports with Perplexity Decisions](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tutorials/pplx-decider/), for pplx-decider

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, pplx-decider or pplx-decider-flash?

pplx-decider and pplx-decider-flash score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 68.1 (B) and 67.9 (B).

### Which is cheaper for decision models, pplx-decider or pplx-decider-flash?

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

### Do pplx-decider and pplx-decider-flash need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call pplx-decider and pplx-decider-flash without installing anything?

Yes. pplx-decider has a hosted endpoint at https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions and pplx-decider-flash at https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions.


## For agents

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

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- [Celeris-1 Decision vs pplx-decider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-pplx-decider.md)
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