OpenAI's new Decisions API enters public beta for structured answers

OpenAI has opened public beta access to its Decisions API, a new endpoint built for enterprise software that needs quick, structured answers rather than open-ended text. Developers can start using it now through the standard OpenAI SDKs, and the company expects to move the API to general availability within the coming weeks.

The API evaluates text, images, or both, and returns one of three typed answers. A predicate question checks whether a condition is true and returns a probability between 0 and 1, such as the likelihood that a product photo shows visible damage. A choice question selects one value from a fixed list, useful for sorting a request into a department or category. A score question rates input against ordered levels, like issue severity, and returns a probability-weighted average of those levels, so a result can fall between two of them.

OpenAI says the Decisions API answers requests about ten times faster than its Responses API, the company’s existing endpoint for generating open-ended output. The company positions the new endpoint for tasks like classifying support messages, routing requests to the right team, or prioritizing a queue of incoming tickets. Example use cases in OpenAI’s documentation include checking whether a customer message is about canceling a subscription, switching billing plans, or requesting a refund.

Only one model, called gpt-6-luna, currently works with the Decisions API, and requests go through the dedicated POST /v1/decisions endpoint. OpenAI’s documentation lists minimum SDK versions needed to run its code examples: Python 3.26.0, JavaScript 7.30.0, Go 3.73.0, Ruby 0.101.0, and Java 4.78.0. Developers can test questions and inputs in OpenAI’s Playground before writing any code.

Where it fits among OpenAI’s other tools

The documentation draws a line between Decisions and OpenAI’s other tools. Structured Outputs, used with the Responses API, is for generating an object that follows a custom JSON schema, such as extracted fields or a written explanation. Function calling is for cases where a model needs to request a tool call with arguments. Decisions is meant only for the three answer types described above.

One limitation stands out: images sent to the Decisions API must be inline base64 data URLs. Hosted HTTP or HTTPS image links, and file_id inputs, are not supported by this endpoint, so developers working with images stored elsewhere will need to encode and embed them directly in the request.

The documentation that surfaced on Hacker News does not list pricing for the Decisions API. What to watch next is the move to general availability, which OpenAI says it expects within weeks; that release should clarify pricing and show how the speed claims hold up once more developers put the endpoint into production.