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Head to head · Guard injection · October 2026 research run

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API vs OpenAI Guardrails

OpenAI Guardrails scores 69.5 (B) on agent readiness against Cisco AI Defense Inspection API's 61.3 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Cisco AI Defense Inspection API leads on reliability and security & auth. Both do guard injection.

Cisco AI Defense Inspection APICisco Systems, Inc. · HTTP API C61.3/100#429 of 841 OpenAI GuardrailsOpenAI · Agent framework B69.5/100#175 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

  • Reliability, 80 against 73
  • Security & auth, 81 against 59

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

OpenAI Guardrails B

Good for Teams already on the OpenAI client or Agents SDK that want several checks from one config file with little code.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 66 against 59
  • Agent ergonomics, 73 against 67
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 0
  • Maintenance & community, 89 against 80

Also in its favour

  • Open source
  • No incidents deducted, where Cisco AI Defense Inspection API loses 3 points for them

Watch for

By default a check that fails to run returns tripwire_triggered=False, so the request continues. Strict mode is opt-in

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCisco AI Defense Inspection APIOpenAI GuardrailsEdge
Reliability16%208073Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +7
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25966OpenAI Guardrails +7
Agent ergonomics13%16.26773OpenAI Guardrails +6
Security & auth14%17.58159Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +22
Payments & pricing10%12.5060OpenAI Guardrails +60
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88089OpenAI Guardrails +9
Transparency & trust7%8.87676even
Negative events≤15-30
Total61.3 · C69.5 · B

Facts side by side

FactCisco AI Defense Inspection APIOpenAI Guardrails
KindHTTP APIAgent framework
VendorCisco Systems, Inc.OpenAI
Hosted endpointhttps://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chatno (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
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 release2026-09-232026-09-10
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/wk259 stars, 19k npm/wk, 105k 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.

OpenAI Guardrails

MIT-licensed wrapper that adds twelve configurable checks to OpenAI client calls from one JSON file, with tool-level injection checks for the Agents SDK. The README labels it a preview at version 0.3.3, and by default a check that fails to run is reported as passed unless raise_guardrail_errors=True is set.

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

OpenAI Guardrails

  1. Pass raise_guardrail_errors=True to the client. The default treats a check that failed to run as passed
  2. Run python -m spacy download en_core_web_sm before using Contains PII, or client initialisation fails
  3. Catch GuardrailTripwireTriggered, and append a user message to history only after the call returns without it
  4. Use block=true for Contains PII in the output stage. Masking works only in the pre-flight stage
  5. Keep stream=False where output must be checked before it is shown, and budget one extra model call per LLM-based check

Questions

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

OpenAI Guardrails scores 69.5 (B) on agent readiness against Cisco AI Defense Inspection API's 61.3 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Cisco AI Defense Inspection API leads on reliability and security & auth.

Can an agent call Cisco AI Defense Inspection API and OpenAI Guardrails 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 OpenAI Guardrails.

Are Cisco AI Defense Inspection API and OpenAI Guardrails open source?

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

Other comparisons with Cisco AI Defense Inspection API or OpenAI Guardrails

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