# OpenAI Guardrails vs OpenAI Moderation API (slim)

> OpenAI Moderation API scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenAI Guardrails's 69.5 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. OpenAI Guardrails leads on reliability, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do guard moderation. Category scores, facts…

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-guardrails-vs-openai-moderation.md (~2,600 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-guardrails-vs-openai-moderation.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-guardrails-vs-openai-moderation
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

OpenAI Moderation API scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenAI Guardrails's 69.5 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. OpenAI Guardrails leads on reliability, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do guard moderation.

- OpenAI Guardrails: B 69.5, rank #175 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-guardrails.min.md
- OpenAI Moderation API: BB 71.3, rank #126 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-moderation.min.md
- OpenAI Guardrails, good for Teams already on the OpenAI client or Agents SDK that want several checks from one config file with little code. Ahead on Reliability, 73 against 65; Payments & pricing, 60 against 30; Maintenance & community, 89 against 47. Also Open source.
- OpenAI Moderation API, good for A free harm-category filter for an agent already on OpenAI. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 92 against 66; Agent ergonomics, 85 against 73; Security & auth, 92 against 59; Transparency & trust, 87 against 76. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.

| Category | OpenAI Guardrails | OpenAI Moderation API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 73 | 65 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 66 | 92 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 73 | 85 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 59 | 92 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 30 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 89 | 47 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 76 | 87 |

| Fact (where they differ) | OpenAI Guardrails | OpenAI Moderation API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | HTTP API |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.openai.com/v1/moderations` |
| Licence | MIT | none |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-10 | 2026-06-04 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 259 stars, 19k npm/wk, 105k PyPI/wk | 31k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |