Head to head · Guard moderation · October 2026 research run
Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) vs OpenAI Moderation API
OpenAI Moderation API has a score of 71.6 (BB) against Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails)'s 59.7 (C). Both do guard moderation. The largest gap is transparency & trust, 31 points.
Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails)Check Point · HTTP API
C59.7/100#260 of 452
OpenAI Moderation APIOpenAI · HTTP API
BB71.6/100#81 of 452
Which one, for what
Pick Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) for
No category where it leads by five points or more.
Pick OpenAI Moderation API for
- schema & documentation (+6)
- agent ergonomics (+8)
- security & auth (+27)
- payments & pricing (+15)
- maintenance & community (+26)
- transparency & trust (+31)
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) | OpenAI Moderation API | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 65 | 65 | even |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 86 | 92 | OpenAI Moderation API +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 77 | 85 | OpenAI Moderation API +8 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 65 | 92 | OpenAI Moderation API +27 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 15 | 30 | OpenAI Moderation API +15 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 21 | 47 | OpenAI Moderation API +26 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 59 | 90 | OpenAI Moderation API +31 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| Total | 59.7 · C | 71.6 · BB |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) | OpenAI Moderation API |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Check Point | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.lakera.ai/v2/guard | https://api.openai.com/v1/moderations |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-06-08 | 2026-06-04 |
| Popularity | none | 31k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 4/5 (2) |
Verdicts
Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails)
OpenAI message format in, including tools, tool calls and tool results. Prompts and outputs are stored for the dashboard by default.
OpenAI Moderation API
Free, on any OpenAI project key. No prompt-injection, jailbreak or PII detection.
Before you call either
Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails)
- Start the project in Detect mode and calibrate before Enforce. In Detect mode flagged is always false
- Send the whole conversation, but expect only the last user, assistant or tool turn to be scored
- Ask for breakdown=true and treat the confidence levels as a dial, not a boolean
- Turn off prompt logging in General Settings if the dashboard shouldn't hold user content
- Pin eu.api.lakera.ai or us.api.lakera.ai rather than api.lakera.ai when residency matters
OpenAI Moderation API
- Read category_scores rather than flagged alone. The default thresholds are OpenAI's
- Pin omni-moderation-2024-09-26 if the scores feed a decision you audit. The latest alias will move
- Send an array of inputs in one call and match results by index to stay under the per-minute limit
- Add a moderation object to a Responses call instead of a second request when you only need scores on the generation
- Pair it with a separate injection detector. A clean result says nothing about a hidden instruction in a tool result
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