# Cisco AI Defense Inspection API vs Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails)

> Cisco AI Defense Inspection API scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails)'s 59.6 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and payments &…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cisco-ai-defense-inspection-vs-lakera-guard
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- 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
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails)'s 59.6 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do guard injection.

- Cisco AI Defense Inspection API: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #429 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cisco-ai-defense-inspection.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cisco-ai-defense-inspection.json
- Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails): grade C, 59.6/100, rank #492 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lakera-guard.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lakera-guard.json

## Which one, for what

### Cisco AI Defense Inspection API (C)

Good for: A company already buying Cisco security through Security Cloud Control that wants its own application to decide what to do with each verdict.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 65
- Security & auth, 81 against 65
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 21
- Transparency & trust, 76 against 57

Watch for: No public price, free tier or trial for the Inspection API. Subscriptions are bought through sales and activated with a claim code

### Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) (C)

Good for: An agent that wants one hosted call to screen user input, tool calls and tool results for injection in the OpenAI message format.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 86 against 59
- Agent ergonomics, 77 against 67
- Payments & pricing, 15 against 0

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where Cisco AI Defense Inspection API loses 3 points for them

Watch for: Prompts and outputs are stored for the dashboard by default


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API | Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 65 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 59 | 86 | Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) +27 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 77 | Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 81 | 65 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 15 | Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 21 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +59 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 57 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **61.3 · C** | **59.6 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API | Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Cisco Systems, Inc. | Check Point |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chat` | `https://api.lakera.ai/v2/guard` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Cisco's General Terms and the AI Defense Offer Description. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-23 | 2026-06-08 |
| Terms last updated |  | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-06-01 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 35 stars, 4k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Cisco AI Defense Inspection API.** Per-connection API keys with expiry, revocation and regeneration, published limits of 60,000 calls a minute, weekly dated release notes and a one-year retention statement suit companies already on Cisco Security Cloud Control. Access needs a subscription bought through sales, with no public price or trial for the API, and the developer changelog has one entry from February 2025.

**Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails).** OpenAI message format in, including tools, tool calls and tool results. Prompts and outputs are stored for the dashboard by default.

## Before you call either

### Cisco AI Defense Inspection API

1. Send the key in `X-Cisco-AI-Defense-API-Key` to `POST /api/v1/inspect/chat` on the regional host where the tenant was created. US, Europe and Asia Pacific hosts differ
2. If the connection has a policy, `enabled_rules` in the request is ignored. Pass `enabled_rules` only for connections with no policy
3. The API never blocks anything itself. Read `is_safe` and `action` in the response and enforce the decision in your own code
4. On 429, wait and retry. The organisation has gone over one million tokens in parallel or 60,000 calls a minute
5. Don't request the Toxicity rule. It was removed on 16 September 2026, and the Safety rules such as Hate Speech, Harassment and Profanity replace it

### Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails)

1. Start the project in Detect mode and calibrate before Enforce. In Detect mode flagged is always false
2. Send the whole conversation, but expect only the last user, assistant or tool turn to be scored
3. Ask for breakdown=true and treat the confidence levels as a dial, not a boolean
4. Turn off prompt logging in General Settings if the dashboard shouldn't hold user content
5. Pin eu.api.lakera.ai or us.api.lakera.ai rather than api.lakera.ai when residency matters

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cisco AI Defense Inspection API or Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails)?

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails)'s 59.6 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

### Do Cisco AI Defense Inspection API and Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Cisco AI Defense Inspection API and Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) without installing anything?

Yes. Cisco AI Defense Inspection API has a hosted endpoint at https://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chat and Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) at https://api.lakera.ai/v2/guard.


## For agents

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

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