Perspective API alternative:
a drop-in replacement before the 2026 sunset.

Moderation API is a drop-in alternative to Google's Perspective API: the same toxicity, severe-toxicity, insult, threat, and identity-attack scores, returned from a single REST endpoint in 120+ languages.

Free tier · No credit card · Migrate in < 1 hour

Protecting 1000+ product teams

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Feature parity

Everything Perspective scored, plus a lot more.

The five Perspective attributes most teams use map one-to-one to Moderation API categories. Beyond that, you get coverage Perspective never offered.

CapabilityPerspective APIModeration API
Toxicity
Severe toxicity
Insult
Threat
Identity attack
Profanity
Sexually explicit
HarassmentLimited
Hate speech (granular)
Self-harm and suicide
Violence and weapons
Spam and scams
Conversational awareness (multi-message context)
PII redaction (emails, phone numbers, addresses)
Custom models trained on your data
Image, audio and video moderation
Languages supported~20120+
Review queue + dashboard
Webhooks and rules engine
Batch endpoints
EU data residency, GDPR, DPAUS-only
Commercial SLAs and support
Migration support from vendorNot offeredHands-on migration help
PricingFree (sunsetting)Free tier + paid plans
Status as of 2026Ends after 2026Generally available

Perspective API capabilities reflect the public service maintained by Google Jigsaw prior to its 2026 sunset announcement. Last updated .

Migration

Migrate in under an hour.

From Perspectiveperspective.ts
import { google } from 'googleapis';

const client = await google.discoverAPI(
  'https://commentanalyzer.googleapis.com/$discovery/rest?version=v1alpha1',
);

const { data } = await client.comments.analyze({
  key: process.env.PERSPECTIVE_API_KEY,
  resource: {
    comment: { text: 'You are an idiot' },
    requestedAttributes: {
      TOXICITY: {},
      SEVERE_TOXICITY: {},
      INSULT: {},
      THREAT: {},
      IDENTITY_ATTACK: {},
    },
  },
});

const toxicity =
  data.attributeScores.TOXICITY.summaryScore.value;
To Moderation APImoderation-api.ts
import ModerationAPI from '@moderation-api/sdk';

const moderationApi = new ModerationAPI();

const result = await moderationApi.content.submit({
  content: { type: 'text', text: 'You are an idiot' },
});

// Simple boolean check
if (result.evaluation.flagged) {
  // Block, review, or use result.recommendation.action
}
Installnpm install @moderation-api/sdk

Field mapping reference: API reference · Get hands-on migration help

Why migrate to us

More than a perspective api replacement.

Most teams migrating off Perspective end up consolidating other tools at the same time.

Conversational awareness

Pass the last few messages along with the new one. The classifier reads the thread, not just the line, so sarcasm and slow escalations stop slipping through. Perspective scores strings in isolation, which is why they often do. More on contextual analysis.

More categories, out of the box

A single call returns hate speech with granular subtypes, self-harm and suicide signals, violence, spam and scams, sexual content, and PII. Perspective gives you the first two of those.

Review queue, dashboard, rules engine

A score on its own does not solve the problem. Borderline content lands in a moderation queue for human review. The rules engine handles the obvious cases. Webhooks pipe everything back into the system you already run.

EU hosting, GDPR, signed DPA

Run inference in the EU only, sign a data processing agreement, and moderate across 120+ languages. Perspective never offered any of this for regulated European workloads.

Testimonials

What the best product teams says about Moderation API

It’s a big improvement from OpenAI. Brilliant platform for moderating across all our media types - text, audio, and images!

Andrew Whisker
Andrew Whisker
Founder
Ridlme

We're using Moderation API and super happy with it. So much so that we're doubling our quota. It's become a core part of how we keep our platform safe as we scale.

Elliot Brock
Elliot Brock
CTO
Starla Digital

We needed a moderation solution that could handle 50+ languages and scale with our global market. Moderation API delivered on both.

Paul Dariye
Paul Dariye
VP of Product
Meridian

Moderation API has been a huge help with helping to keep corporate information within our secure environment. Moderation API has made being aware of sensitive conversations within our Slack application easy.

Jason Riley
Jason Riley
VP of Technology
Gaia

The moderation API plugin has been game-changing for my company. We no longer have to spend hours a week moderating comments on our articles. Chris has been a pleasure to work with and he’s helped us every step of the way. 100% recommend!

Matthew Ustby
Matthew Ustby
Digital Marketing Manager
FiveZero Media

As a CPAAS platform, we deal with messages at massive scale. Moderation API handles our peak traffic without breaking a sweat, and the custom models let us fine-tune for specific context.

William Craig
William Craig
Founder
Signal House
How it works

Three steps to migrate

Skip the long evaluation cycle. Validate parity on your own historical data, then flip the switch.

1

Sign up and get an API key

Free account, no card. Generate a key from the dashboard and save it as MODERATION_API_KEY.

2

Swap the endpoint

Replace the Perspective analyze call with a POST to /v1/moderate/text. The request body is just { value }.

3

Map the response fields

Read flagged and labels[] from the response. Reuse your existing thresholds — both APIs return 0 to 1 scores.

Limited migration offer · Book by

Get free migration support.

Book a migration call before October 31, 2026. A senior engineer from our team will port your integration, validate scores against your historical data, and stay on call through cutover.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Everything we get asked about migrating off Perspective. If something is missing, talk to us.

When does Perspective API shut down?

Google Jigsaw announced on the official Perspective site that the API will no longer be in service after 2026. The team also stopped allowing new usage and stopped approving requests for increased quotas roughly one month after the announcement. Existing integrations keep working through 2026, but every team that depends on toxicity scoring needs a migration plan.

Why is Perspective API being shut down?

In Jigsaw's announcement, the stated reason is that AI capabilities have evolved and there is now less demand for a standalone tool focused on this area. Jigsaw's mission is shifting toward new challenges, so the team made the decision to sunset the API rather than continue investing in it.

Is Google offering migration support?

No. The sunset email from Jigsaw says directly that they will not provide migration support. That is part of why we built this page. If you want help porting an existing integration, talk to us and we will sit down with you.

Is Moderation API a true drop-in replacement?

For the attributes most teams actually use — toxicity, severe toxicity, insult, threat, identity attack, profanity, sexually explicit — yes. The request and response shapes are different, but the conceptual mapping is one-to-one. Most migrations are a single-file change.

Does Moderation API understand conversational context?

Yes. Perspective scores a single string in isolation, which means sarcasm and slow-burn harassment often slip through. Moderation API lets you send an array of recent messages and score the most recent one with that history in mind. The classifier behaves the way a human moderator does: it reads the thread.

How do I map Perspective attributes to Moderation API categories?

TOXICITY → toxic, SEVERE_TOXICITY → severe_toxic, INSULT → insult, THREAT → threat, IDENTITY_ATTACK → identity_hate, PROFANITY → profanity, SEXUALLY_EXPLICIT → sexual. Scores are floats from 0 to 1 in both APIs, so existing thresholds can be reused with minor tuning.

Do you support the same languages as Perspective?

Yes, plus a lot more. Perspective supports around 20 languages. Moderation API supports 120+, with consistent category coverage across the long tail rather than English-only depth.

How long does a typical migration take?

Under an hour for a single-service integration: swap the endpoint, update the auth header, and remap the response fields. Larger systems with multiple call sites usually finish in under a day. Our team can help if you get stuck — talk to us.

Is there a free tier I can use to test the migration?

Yes. Sign up for a free account and you get enough quota to validate the migration end-to-end, including comparing Perspective scores against Moderation API scores on your own historical data. No credit card required.

Where is data stored, and is it GDPR-compliant?

Moderation API offers EU data residency and a signed DPA, which Perspective does not. We are GDPR compliant and run optional EU-only inference for customers under European data protection requirements.

What do I get beyond what Perspective offered?

Custom models trained on your own data, image / video / audio moderation, PII detection and redaction, a review queue and dashboard for human-in-the-loop, a rules engine, webhooks, batch endpoints, and commercial SLAs. Most teams that migrate end up consolidating other tools at the same time.

Ready to migrate off Perspective?

Sign up free and have your first moderation call running in minutes.