# 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. Category scores…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cisco-ai-defense-inspection-vs-microsoft-presidio
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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

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 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
- Presidio: grade B, 66/100, rank #281 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-presidio.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-presidio.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:
- 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

| Category | Weight | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API | Presidio | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 78 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 59 | 69 | Presidio +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 69 | Presidio +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 81 | 53 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +28 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 60 | Presidio +60 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 63 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +17 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 65 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **61.3 · C** | **66 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API | Presidio |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | Cisco Systems, Inc. | Data Privacy Stack |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chat` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Cisco's General Terms and the AI Defense Offer Description. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-23 | 2026-07-22 |
| Terms last updated |  | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no 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 |  |  |
| Popularity | 35 stars, 4k PyPI/wk | 11k 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).


## For agents

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

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