PromptGuard vs Lakera Guard
Lakera Guard is the best-known runtime firewall in this category and is now part of Check Point. It is a strong product with real threat-intelligence behind it. The two differences that decide most evaluations are where the software is allowed to run and whether the numbers you are quoted can be checked.
We wrote this, so read it accordingly. Everything in the Lakera Guard column was taken from their own public material, read between 11 August 2026 and 16 October 2026, and each claim links its source with the date we read it. Where their material does not state something we say that, rather than claiming they cannot do it. Our own figures come from the same constants the rest of this site renders, and what we say about how PromptGuard works follows our own documentation.
- Evidence behind the detection claim
- PromptGuard
F1 0.887, 95% CI [0.874, 0.900], across 2,369 samples from 8 datasets (5 independently published). Methodology and datasets named.
Lakera GuardTheir site states detection and false-positive figures. No dataset, sample count or confidence interval is published alongside them, so the figures cannot be independently checked or compared like for like.
Source: lakera.ai, read 11 August 2026
- Runs inside your network
- PromptGuard
Managed cloud, hybrid self-host in your VPC, or air-gapped behind default-deny egress.
Lakera GuardNot stated on their public site, which describes SaaS and cloud-native deployment. They may offer more through sales.Absence of a published claim, not of a capability.
Source: lakera.ai, read 11 August 2026
- How you start
- PromptGuard
Self-serve. Sign up and send a request without talking to anyone.
Lakera GuardTheir site's calls to action are Get Started and Talk to Sales.
Source: lakera.ai, read 11 August 2026
- Pricing
- PromptGuard
Public. $0 with $5 of usage a month and no card, then $20/month.
Lakera GuardNo public price list on their site.Absence of a published claim, not of a capability.
Source: lakera.ai, read 11 August 2026
- Ownership
- PromptGuard
Independent company. The detection engine is the product.
Lakera GuardAcquired by Check Point Software Technologies; the agreement was announced on 16 September 2025.
Source: Check Point: agreement to acquire Lakera, read 16 October 2026
- Latency
- PromptGuard
<10 ms fast path. Escalated requests are network-bound and we say so.
- Engine composition
- PromptGuard
15 detectors across 6 layers; 46 PII entity types detected and redacted.
Lakera GuardDetector counts and layer structure are not broken out publicly.Absence of a published claim, not of a capability.
Source: lakera.ai, read 11 August 2026
Choose Lakera Guard when
- You are already a Check Point customer and want AI security on an existing contract and support relationship.
- You need broad multilingual coverage as a first-order requirement, their public material claims 100+ languages, which is wider than anything we publish a figure for.
- Your procurement process prefers a large established security vendor over an independent one, and that outweighs roadmap independence.
Choose PromptGuard when
- Prompts cannot leave your network. We publish a self-hosted and an air-gapped mode; their public site describes SaaS deployment only.
- You need to verify a detection claim rather than accept it. Every number we publish names its dataset, its sample count and its confidence interval.
- You want to try it today. Ours is self-serve with a free tier and a public price.
Sources: lakera.ai (read 11 August 2026) · Check Point: agreement to acquire Lakera (read 16 October 2026) · Our benchmark methodology. Think we have something wrong? Tell us and we will correct it.
One engine in front of the AI you buildand the AI your people use
Your applications swap a base URL, no code change, and are protected in under 2 minutes. On your people's devices, an agent inspects the AI tools it covers and names the ones it does not. Every request is judged before it reaches the provider, in our cloud or entirely inside your network.