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Head to head · Guard moderation · October 2026 research run

Llama Guard 4 vs Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API

Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Llama Guard 4's 49.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Llama Guard 4 leads on payments & pricing. Both do guard moderation.

Llama Guard 4Meta · Model API D49.1/100#712 of 841 Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security APIPalo Alto Networks, Inc. · HTTP API B62.8/100#379 of 841

Which one, for what

Llama Guard 4 D

Good for A team outside the EU with a GPU that wants content moderation of text and images on its own hardware, against a fixed 14-category policy it can edit in the prompt.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 45 against 0

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it

Watch for

Weights last changed on 29 April 2025, with no changelog, version tags or stated deprecation policy

Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API B

Good for A company already buying Palo Alto Networks through Strata Cloud Manager that wants prompt, response and MCP tool scanning with DLP and URL filtering from the same vendor.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 87 against 38
  • Schema & documentation, 68 against 52
  • Security & auth, 85 against 53
  • Transparency & trust, 71 against 55

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

No public price, free tier or trial. Capacity is bought as Software NGFW credits, in steps of 1 billion tokens a month, through sales

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runLlama Guard 4Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security APIEdge
Reliability16%203887Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API +49
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25268Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API +16
Agent ergonomics13%16.26765Llama Guard 4 +2
Security & auth14%17.55385Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API +32
Payments & pricing10%12.5450Llama Guard 4 +45
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.82831Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API +3
Transparency & trust7%8.85571Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API +16
Negative events≤1500
Total49.1 · D62.8 · B

Facts side by side

FactLlama Guard 4Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API
KindModel APIHTTP API
VendorMetaPalo Alto Networks, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://service.api.aisecurity.paloaltonetworks.com/v1/scan/sync/request
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreePaid
x402nono
LicenceLlama 4 Community Licence (source-available weights, not an OSI licence), with the Llama 4 acceptable use policyProprietary service under the Palo Alto Networks end user licence agreement. The Python SDK is under the PolyForm Internal Use licence 1.0.0, which is not an OSI licence
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2025-04-292026-05-15
Terms last updated2025-04-05
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity4.4k stars10 stars, 999 PyPI/wk

Verdicts

Llama Guard 4

A single self-hosted model classifies text and multi-image prompts against 14 MLCommons-aligned hazard categories and answers in a few tokens. The weights have not changed since 29 April 2025, download access needs Meta's manual approval, and the licence withholds the grant from individuals and companies based in the European Union.

Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API

A public OpenAPI document, ten detection types in one call, tool-call scanning, a remote MCP server, rotating API keys and OAuth roles suit teams already on Strata Cloud Manager. Access needs Software NGFW credits bought through sales, with no public price, trial or self-serve signup, and payloads flagged malicious are kept for up to 10 years.

Before you call either

Llama Guard 4

  1. Request access on the Hugging Face page before anything else. Approval is manual, and the form cannot be edited after submission
  2. Send only the user turn to check an input, and the user turn plus the model's answer to check an output. The template picks the role from the message count
  3. Parse the first line for safe or unsafe and the second for category codes. Set max_new_tokens to about 10 and turn sampling off
  4. Do not send an image with no text. Meta says the model is not an image-only classifier, and S14 is skipped when an image is present
  5. Pair it with a prompt-attack detector. The card says the model can itself be moved by adversarial or injected text

Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API

  1. Send x-pan-token and an ai_profile with profile_name or profile_id on every scan. Both come from Strata Cloud Manager, and a key works only in its own region
  2. Put earlier turns first in contents. Only the last element is scanned, and the rest is context
  3. Read action (allow or block) and category, then check timeout and error, because a detector that failed is reported in errors with a 200
  4. Keep synchronous requests under 2 MB and asynchronous ones under 5 MB and 25 items, and fetch at most 5 scan or report IDs a call, 10 calls a minute
  5. For MCP, connect to /mcp on the regional host with x-pan-token and x-pan-profile headers, and call pan_inline_scan yourself before and after generation

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Llama Guard 4 or Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API?

Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Llama Guard 4's 49.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Llama Guard 4 leads on payments & pricing.

Do Llama Guard 4 and Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API need an API key?

Llama Guard 4 needs no key. Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Llama Guard 4 and Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Llama Guard 4. Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API has a hosted endpoint at https://service.api.aisecurity.paloaltonetworks.com/v1/scan/sync/request.

Other comparisons with Llama Guard 4 or Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API

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