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Head to head · Guard pii · October 2026 research run

Presidio vs Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API

Presidio scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API's 62.8 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API leads on reliability, security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do guard pii.

PresidioData Privacy Stack · SDK + MCP B66/100#281 of 841 Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security APIPalo Alto Networks, Inc. · HTTP API B62.8/100#379 of 841

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

  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 0
  • Maintenance & community, 63 against 31

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

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 78
  • Security & auth, 85 against 53
  • Transparency & trust, 71 against 65

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 runPresidioPrisma AIRS AI Runtime Security APIEdge
Reliability16%207887Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API +9
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26968Presidio +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.26965Presidio +4
Security & auth14%17.55385Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API +32
Payments & pricing10%12.5600Presidio +60
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86331Presidio +32
Transparency & trust7%8.86571Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API +6
Negative events≤1500
Total66 · B62.8 · B

Facts side by side

FactPresidioPrisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API
KindSDK + MCPHTTP API
VendorData Privacy StackPalo Alto Networks, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://service.api.aisecurity.paloaltonetworks.com/v1/scan/sync/request
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreePaid
x402nono
LicenceMITProprietary 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 release2026-07-222026-05-15
Terms last updatedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Popularity11k stars, 1.2M PyPI/wk10 stars, 999 PyPI/wk

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.

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

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

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, Presidio or Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API?

Presidio scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API's 62.8 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API leads on reliability, security & auth and transparency & trust.

Can an agent call Presidio and Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API without installing anything?

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

Are Presidio and Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API open source?

Presidio is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API.

Other comparisons with Presidio or Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API

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