Policy Gateway

Azure AI Content Safety vs Policy Gateway

Compare Azure AI Content Safety with Policy Gateway. Understand the difference between provider-imposed filters and full policy control.

Updated 2026-01-21

Azure AI Content Safety is a safety layer for Azure OpenAI models. Policy Gateway is the safety layer for your abliterated model.

The key difference is control: Azure enforces additive filters you cannot remove, while Policy Gateway gives you full control to define what is allowed.

Summary comparison

Capability Azure AI Content Safety Policy Gateway
Control Model Provider-controlled (Additive) Customer-controlled (Full)
Policy Definition Microsoft's safety categories Your policy-as-code rules
Refusal Behavior Hard refusals for safety violations Rewrite, redact, or refuse with custom reason codes
Audit Logs Azure Monitor Splunk, Datadog, Elastic, S3, Azure Monitor

Choose Azure AI Content Safety when

Choose Policy Gateway when