# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-presidio-vs-mistral-moderation
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-presidio-vs-mistral-moderation.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-presidio-vs-mistral-moderation.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-presidio-vs-mistral-moderation.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

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.

- Presidio: grade B, 66/100, rank #248 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-presidio.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-presidio.json
- Mistral Moderation API: grade C, 58.4/100, rank #451 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mistral-moderation.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mistral-moderation.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | Presidio | Mistral Moderation API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 78 | 40 | Presidio +38 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 85 | Mistral Moderation API +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 75 | Mistral Moderation API +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 53 | 54 | Mistral Moderation API +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 40 | Presidio +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 33 | Presidio +30 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 81 | Mistral Moderation API +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66 · B** | **58.4 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Presidio | Mistral Moderation API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Data Privacy Stack | Mistral AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.mistral.ai/v1/moderations` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-07-22 | 2026-03-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-03 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 11k stars, 1.2M PyPI/wk | 769 stars, 8.4M npm/wk, 3.7M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (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.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-presidio-vs-mistral-moderation.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-presidio-vs-mistral-moderation.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "microsoft-presidio", "b": "mistral-moderation"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare microsoft-presidio mistral-moderation`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-presidio.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mistral-moderation.json

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