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Head to head · Guard pii · October 2026 research run

Presidio vs Mistral Moderation API

Presidio scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against Mistral Moderation API's 58.4 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Mistral Moderation API leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust. Both do guard pii.

PresidioData Privacy Stack · SDK + MCP B66/100#228 of 629 Mistral Moderation APIMistral AI · HTTP API C58.4/100#400 of 629

Which one, for what

Presidio B

Good for Detecting and masking personal data in prompts, outputs, logs and images on the owner's own machines, with detection tuned by entity, threshold and custom recognisers.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 78 against 40
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 63 against 33

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source

Watch for

The REST containers have no authentication by design. The FAQ says to put a gateway or proxy in front

Mistral Moderation API C

Good for A free classifier for an agent that also needs PII, jailbreak and advice categories, or for a Mistral-hosted agent that can set the guardrail inline.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 85 against 69
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 69
  • Transparency & trust, 81 against 65

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

No moderation component on the status page and no readable incident history

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runPresidioMistral Moderation APIEdge
Reliability16%207840Presidio +38
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26985Mistral Moderation API +16
Agent ergonomics13%16.26975Mistral Moderation API +6
Security & auth14%17.55354Mistral Moderation API +1
Payments & pricing10%12.56040Presidio +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86333Presidio +30
Transparency & trust7%8.86581Mistral Moderation API +16
Negative events≤1500
Total66 · B58.4 · C

Facts side by side

FactPresidioMistral Moderation API
KindSDK + MCPHTTP API
VendorData Privacy StackMistral AI
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.mistral.ai/v1/moderations
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthNoneAPI key
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceMITnone
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-07-222026-03-01
Terms last updatedno document linked2026-09-25
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-09-03
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-out
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity11k stars, 1.2M PyPI/wk769 stars, 8.4M npm/wk, 3.7M PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (2)

Verdicts

Presidio

MIT-licensed personal data detector with a public OpenAPI document, tests on Python 3.10 to 3.14 and about 1.2 million weekly PyPI downloads. The REST containers have no authentication, the project states no SLA or support, and it covers personal data only, with no prompt injection or content moderation checks.

Mistral Moderation API

Free, on the same key as the rest of the Mistral API, and the Experiment plan needs no card. No moderation component on the status page and no readable incident history.

Before you call either

Presidio

  1. Install from PyPI or pull images from ghcr.io/data-privacy-stack. The mcr.microsoft.com/presidio-* images are no longer updated
  2. Download a spaCy model (python -m spacy download en_core_web_lg) before the first AnalyzerEngine() call, or use the Docker image
  3. Send both text and language to /analyze. A request missing either returns HTTP 500 with a JSON error field
  4. Pass entities and score_threshold to limit results. Many country-specific recognisers are disabled by default and need enabling in the registry YAML
  5. Keep the containers on a private network or behind your own authenticating proxy. They accept any caller

Mistral Moderation API

  1. Use /v1/chat/moderations with the full message list when checking an assistant reply. The raw endpoint has no context
  2. Read category_scores and set your own threshold per category. The booleans use Mistral's cut-offs
  3. Pin mistral-moderation-2603. The 2411 model was retired on 31 March 2026
  4. Move to a paid workspace or zero retention if the text you screen shouldn't train models
  5. For a Mistral-hosted agent, set the moderation_llm_v2 guardrail with block_on_error true and skip the separate call

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Presidio or Mistral Moderation API?

Presidio scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against Mistral Moderation API's 58.4 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Mistral Moderation API leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust.

Can an agent call Presidio and Mistral Moderation API without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Presidio. Mistral Moderation API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.mistral.ai/v1/moderations.

Are Presidio and Mistral Moderation API open source?

Presidio is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Mistral Moderation API.

Other comparisons with Presidio or Mistral Moderation API

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