# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and…

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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

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 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
- OpenAI Guardrails: grade B, 69.5/100, rank #175 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-guardrails.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-guardrails.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 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

| Category | Weight | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API | OpenAI Guardrails | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 73 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 59 | 66 | OpenAI Guardrails +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 73 | OpenAI Guardrails +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 81 | 59 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +22 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 60 | OpenAI Guardrails +60 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 89 | OpenAI Guardrails +9 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 76 | even |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **61.3 · C** | **69.5 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API | OpenAI Guardrails |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Agent framework |
| Vendor | Cisco Systems, Inc. | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chat` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| 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 | 2026-09-10 |
| 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 | 259 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).


## For agents

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

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