Perplexity pplx-decider
Where it stands: Perplexity's pplx-decider line now includes open-weight multimodal models (v1.2 and Flash v1.2) available through its API, Hugging Face, OpenRouter, and Vercel, plus a Mac app that runs Flash locally without an API key. Perplexity claims Flash is the top 4B model on the Hugging Face Decision Index and v1.2 is second overall; an independent comparison with Jev, Clef, or OpenAI's Decisions API is still missing. Watch for that independent test and real-world use of the local app.
Latest
- 2026-10-22 (~8:00 PM ET — x.com/AravSrinivas): Perplexity ships Decider for Mac — pplx-decider-flash-v1.2, the 4B decision model released Oct 16, runs fully locally on macOS with no API key and no data leaving the machine: "Ask a question about text or an image and get a probability back, all on your machine" (app at pplx.ai/decider-for-mac). The category's local/on-device axis gets its first first-party desktop app, landing the same day OpenAI opened its Decisions API to all users (~3:00 PM ET) — the open-weights-local route versus the closed-API route now contrasted within one day. Distribution ledger for the decider line: first-party API, OpenRouter, Hugging Face weights, now an on-device app. Watch: real-world adoption of a desktop probability app; local decision models wired into agent routing; whether Jev/Clef/Decisions API answer with local modes; the still-open independent-eval gap.
- 2026-10-17 (~4:10 PM ET — x.com/AravSrinivas): the category's third-party evaluation layer starts forming — Arav amplifies Wolfram Ravenwolf's testing of pplx-decider-flash-v1.2: matched "Wald's accuracy at nearly twice the speed on a 16 GB Mac mini" across "synthetic agent decisions, real email threads, prompt injections," and named Ravenwolf's new pick for email-completion checks; Arav's own line adds the on-device claim ("can run super fast and on-device on your M4 Mac 16GB"). The thread's first named third-party performance claim and its first on-device-on-consumer-hardware datapoint — but vendor-relayed, and "Wald" is a comparator of unverified identity in capture (not on the record's eleven-way field list). The standing watch partially moves: a real test suite exists, but the Jev/Clef/Decisions-API head-to-head still hasn't been run. Watch: Ravenwolf's published methodology and Wald's identity, whether the same harness runs Jev or Clef, and Apple-silicon vs RTX Spark on-device splits.
- 2026-10-16 (~10:42 AM ET, Perplexity Developers): pplx-decider-v1.2 and pplx-decider-flash-v1.2 — the second generation of the open-weights decision family, text + vision. The thread's third family (TypeSafe's Jev, these, plus the Decision-Index field), and the first decision model with eyes. Watch: the model cards, whether v1.2 answers the index's accuracy finding, and runner uptake (the record's runner is the independent check). x.com/AravSrinivas
Claims to watch · 1 (0 pending, 0 slipped, 1 hit, 0 missed)
- Perplexity, Oct 1, 2026: Decisions API price to drop "over the coming days" review by hit
October 2026 · 6 updates
- 2026-10-16 (~2:42 + 4:32 PM ET — x.com/AravSrinivas, x.com/AravSrinivas): the v1.2 family's numbers and docs land — "Text and vision scores improve. Inference is up to 5x faster: all questions in a request run in one pass. Flash is the top 4B on the Decision Index" — and Arav points builders to the official quickstart (docs.perplexity.ai/docs/decisions/quickstart). The top-4B claim is scored on the Decision Index itself — the vendor citing the field's independent runner rather than a house benchmark. Watch: the published model cards vs the index rows, runner uptake.
- 2026-10-16 (distribution layer, evening — x.com/AravSrinivas; x.com/AravSrinivas): pplx-decider v1.2 lands two third-party distribution channels the same evening it launched — OpenRouter (~5:35 PM ET; listing confirms Decider v1.2 as a new 27B checkpoint succeeding v1.1, Flash v1.2 at 4B) and Vercel's AI Gateway (~9:21 PM ET; perplexity/pplx-decider-v1.2 for "complex agent workflows," pplx-decider-flash-v1.2 for "ultra-fast decisions," per Vercel's changelog). The launch's open-weights distribution thesis now has named channel placements; sizes remain vendor-stated pending published model cards, and the independent runner's check is unmet.
- 2026-10-16 (~3:46 PM ET — x.com/AravSrinivas; Clem RT on the Hugging Face weights ~4:41 PM ET — x.com/AravSrinivas): the pplx-decider line bumps to v1.2 — pplx-decider-flash-v1.2 (4B params, 1 cent per million tokens, top 4B on the HF Decision Index) and pplx-decider-v1.2 (27B params, 2 cents per million tokens, #2 on the HF Decision Index overall), open weights on Hugging Face and served on the Decisions API, multimodal, inference up to 5x faster via single-pass batching of all questions in a request. Still no independent run vs Jev, Clef, or OpenAI's Decisions API.
- 2026-10-06 the price floor halves — pplx-decider-v1.1-27b (Perplexity Developers ~1:25 PM ET + Arav ~4:46 PM ET): updated open-weights multimodal decision model, claimed top score on the new "Hugging Face Decision Index 0.3" (multimodalart/ jev-decision-index space — vendor-submitted), price halved to $0.02/M input ("Enjoy!"; v1 was $0.04). Arav's Oct 1 price-cut promise delivered day 5. The runner question gains a v1.1 cell; the still-unrun independent comparison grows another. The pplx-decider endpoint is now v1.1 at half price.
- 2026-10-04 (usage demo, X layer): Arav — Pokémon FireRed's Elite
Four + Champion cleared in one shot with Perplexity's Decisions
API (~6:10 AM ET, rescued from
filtered): claimed 592ms median / 987ms p95, $0.028 est. inference cost, 137 live calls — the runner race's first public consumer-grade demo with live latency/cost numbers (games, but a real deployment). The category still lacks an independent run on identical labeled workloads. - 2026-10-01 the category's biggest open-weights entrant — Perplexity open-sourced its decision model (Arav, ~2:30 PM ET
Background
- developers account): pplx-decider-v1-27b, multimodal, served through a Decisions API at $0.04/M input (vs Jev $0.042 — "fraction of the price" is rounding; the real pitch is open weights), self-graded 85.71% across benchmarks, claimed "higher than Jev." The open-weights counter to Jev's closed API moves from a telecom's training-free layer (AnyJev) to a scaled vendor's native model. Same day: inline TradingView charts in Computer; Amex-curated skill library for business-card members; Seedance 2.5 as a Computer skill (perplexity-index adjacency — the agentic stack widening). Runner question is now five-way — Jev vs AnyJev vs d1 vs OpenAI Decisions API vs pplx-decider — still no independent run.