# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-04

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): grade C, 59.7/100, rank #260 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lakera-guard.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lakera-guard.json
- OpenAI Moderation API: grade BB, 71.6/100, rank #81 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-moderation.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-moderation.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) for nothing in particular (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 | Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) | OpenAI Moderation API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 65 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 92 | OpenAI Moderation API +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 85 | OpenAI Moderation API +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 92 | OpenAI Moderation API +27 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 15 | 30 | OpenAI Moderation API +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 21 | 47 | OpenAI Moderation API +26 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 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)

1. Start the project in Detect mode and calibrate before Enforce. In Detect mode flagged is always false
2. Send the whole conversation, but expect only the last user, assistant or tool turn to be scored
3. Ask for breakdown=true and treat the confidence levels as a dial, not a boolean
4. Turn off prompt logging in General Settings if the dashboard shouldn't hold user content
5. Pin eu.api.lakera.ai or us.api.lakera.ai rather than api.lakera.ai when residency matters

### 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

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