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Head to head · Guard pii · October 2026 research run

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API vs Presidio

Presidio scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against Cisco AI Defense Inspection API's 61.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Cisco AI Defense Inspection API leads on security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do guard pii.

Cisco AI Defense Inspection APICisco Systems, Inc. · HTTP API C61.3/100#429 of 841 PresidioData Privacy Stack · SDK + MCP B66/100#281 of 841

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

  • Security & auth, 81 against 53
  • Maintenance & community, 80 against 63
  • Transparency & trust, 76 against 65

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

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

Presidio B

Good for Detecting and masking personal data in prompts, outputs, logs and images on the owner's own machines, with detection tuned by entity, threshold and custom recognisers.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 69 against 59
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 0

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source
  • No incidents deducted, where Cisco AI Defense Inspection API loses 3 points for them

Watch for

The REST containers have no authentication by design. The FAQ says to put a gateway or proxy in front

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCisco AI Defense Inspection APIPresidioEdge
Reliability16%208078Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +2
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25969Presidio +10
Agent ergonomics13%16.26769Presidio +2
Security & auth14%17.58153Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +28
Payments & pricing10%12.5060Presidio +60
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88063Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +17
Transparency & trust7%8.87665Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +11
Negative events≤15-30
Total61.3 · C66 · B

Facts side by side

FactCisco AI Defense Inspection APIPresidio
KindHTTP APISDK + MCP
VendorCisco Systems, Inc.Data Privacy Stack
Hosted endpointhttps://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chatno (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyNone
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Cisco's General Terms and the AI Defense Offer Description. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-09-232026-07-22
Terms last updatedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Popularity35 stars, 4k PyPI/wk11k stars, 1.2M PyPI/wk

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.

Presidio

MIT-licensed personal data detector with a public OpenAPI document, tests on Python 3.10 to 3.14 and about 1.2 million weekly PyPI downloads. The REST containers have no authentication, the project states no SLA or support, and it covers personal data only, with no prompt injection or content moderation checks.

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

Presidio

  1. Install from PyPI or pull images from ghcr.io/data-privacy-stack. The mcr.microsoft.com/presidio-* images are no longer updated
  2. Download a spaCy model (python -m spacy download en_core_web_lg) before the first AnalyzerEngine() call, or use the Docker image
  3. Send both text and language to /analyze. A request missing either returns HTTP 500 with a JSON error field
  4. Pass entities and score_threshold to limit results. Many country-specific recognisers are disabled by default and need enabling in the registry YAML
  5. Keep the containers on a private network or behind your own authenticating proxy. They accept any caller

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Cisco AI Defense Inspection API or Presidio?

Presidio scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against Cisco AI Defense Inspection API's 61.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Cisco AI Defense Inspection API leads on security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

Can an agent call Cisco AI Defense Inspection API and Presidio without installing anything?

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API has a hosted endpoint at https://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chat. No hosted endpoint is listed for Presidio.

Are Cisco AI Defense Inspection API and Presidio open source?

No open-source release is listed for Cisco AI Defense Inspection API. Presidio is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with Cisco AI Defense Inspection API or Presidio

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