Microsoft's Decision-1 model enters the fast-growing AI decision model race
Matthias Bastian
View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Oct 10, 2026
Microsoft now has its own decision model. Like the ones from OpenAI, Cloudflare, and the "original" from Jev, Decision-1 is built for fast, structured decisions. According to Microsoft, it handles classifications, evaluations, and routing decisions and has "the potential" to "guide and control agents through complex environments."
Decision-1 is based on Qwen3.5-9B. Microsoft says it's the most accurate model tested across 36 benchmarks covering nearly 150,000 questions. On speed, it's 2.5 times faster than the runner-up, H2O-Lightning-4B. Cloudflare's open-source Clef models, which are also based on Qwen, weren't included in the comparison.

Decision-1 is available through Microsoft Foundry and OpenRouter. Input tokens cost $0.042 per million, and output tokens are free. Jev, the startup that kicked off the decision model trend in mid-September, has likely had a rough few weeks. The idea caught on fast, but the tech was quickly adapted and surpassed using open small language models.Ad
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Source: Microsoft