SFW API vs Sightengine
Last updated Mon Nov 09 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Sightengine is a mature multi-purpose moderation API with many models; the SFW API does one thing, nudity, with an ordinal level and a built-in policy engine. Prices below are from public pricing pages in November 2026.
| SFW API | Sightengine | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 500 credits/month | 2,000 operations/month (500/day) |
| Entry price | $10 for 10,000 credits | $29/month for 10,000 operations |
| Effective per 1,000 at ~50k/month | $0.80 | about $2.48 (Pro, $99 for 40k) |
| Billing | prepaid, never expires | monthly plans, overage $0.002/op |
| Output | level 0–3, three scores, art and adult-object flags, policy verdict | 29 classes in nudity-2.1 (intensity, suggestive, context) |
| GIF/video | per analysed frame, same endpoint | separate video API, per-frame operations |
| Storage | nothing stored, no URLs or hashes logged | per their policy |
| Other categories | nudity only (more planned) | weapons, drugs, text, AI-generated, deepfakes, … |
Choose Sightengine if you need many moderation categories or text and AI-generated image detection in one vendor. Choose the SFW API if nudity is the problem, you want a stable ordinal level with a policy you can reason about, and you prefer prepaid pricing without a subscription.
Mapping Sightengine classes to levels
Sightengine nudity-2.1 | SFW API |
|---|---|
sexual_activity, sexual_display, erotica | level 3 Explicit (sex toys → sex_object flag) |
very_suggestive, suggestive (undressed, lingerie, cleavage-heavy) | level 2 or 1 depending on coverage |
mildly_suggestive, bikini, swimwear_* | level 1 Revealing |
none | level 0 Everyday |
nudity_art, schematic | art flag + level |
Sightengine's suggestive classes describe why (lingerie, cleavage, pose); the SFW API deliberately ignores pose and cleavage and answers how much is shown.