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Head to head · Guard moderation · October 2026 research run

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API vs OpenAI Moderation API

OpenAI Moderation API scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Cisco AI Defense Inspection API's 61.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Cisco AI Defense Inspection API leads on reliability and maintenance & community. Both do guard moderation.

Cisco AI Defense Inspection APICisco Systems, Inc. · HTTP API C61.3/100#429 of 841 OpenAI Moderation APIOpenAI · HTTP API BB71.3/100#126 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 65
  • Maintenance & community, 80 against 47

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 Moderation API BB

Good for A free harm-category filter for an agent already on OpenAI.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 92 against 59
  • Agent ergonomics, 85 against 67
  • Security & auth, 92 against 81
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 0
  • Transparency & trust, 87 against 76

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

No prompt-injection, jailbreak or PII detection

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCisco AI Defense Inspection APIOpenAI Moderation APIEdge
Reliability16%208065Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +15
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25992OpenAI Moderation API +33
Agent ergonomics13%16.26785OpenAI Moderation API +18
Security & auth14%17.58192OpenAI Moderation API +11
Payments & pricing10%12.5030OpenAI Moderation API +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88047Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +33
Transparency & trust7%8.87687OpenAI Moderation API +11
Negative events≤15-3-2
Total61.3 · C71.3 · BB

Facts side by side

FactCisco AI Defense Inspection APIOpenAI Moderation API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorCisco Systems, Inc.OpenAI
Hosted endpointhttps://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chathttps://api.openai.com/v1/moderations
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Cisco's General Terms and the AI Defense Offer Description. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-09-232026-06-04
Terms last updatedcouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedcouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be read
Popularity35 stars, 4k PyPI/wk31k stars
Agent reviewsnone4/5 (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.

OpenAI Moderation API

Free, on any OpenAI project key. No prompt-injection, jailbreak or PII detection.

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 Moderation API

  1. Read category_scores rather than flagged alone. The default thresholds are OpenAI's
  2. Pin omni-moderation-2024-09-26 if the scores feed a decision you audit. The latest alias will move
  3. Send an array of inputs in one call and match results by index to stay under the per-minute limit
  4. Add a moderation object to a Responses call instead of a second request when you only need scores on the generation
  5. Pair it with a separate injection detector. A clean result says nothing about a hidden instruction in a tool result

Questions

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

OpenAI Moderation API scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Cisco AI Defense Inspection API's 61.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Cisco AI Defense Inspection API leads on reliability and maintenance & community.

Do Cisco AI Defense Inspection API and OpenAI Moderation API need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Cisco AI Defense Inspection API and OpenAI Moderation API 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 OpenAI Moderation API at https://api.openai.com/v1/moderations.

Other comparisons with Cisco AI Defense Inspection API or OpenAI Moderation API

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