# SigWise vs. moderation APIs

Content moderation APIs, such as OpenAI's Moderation endpoint, take one piece
of content and return scores for a fixed set of harm categories: hate,
harassment, self-harm, sexual content, violence and the like. They are fast,
cheap and a good baseline for keeping obviously harmful content off a
platform.

SigWise answers a different question. Instead of *is this text harmful?*, it
answers the questions **you** define, about a **user, listing or order**,
over **everything they have done**.

## At a glance

| | Moderation APIs | SigWise |
|---|---|---|
| Unit judged | One piece of content | An object (user, listing, order) and its history |
| Questions | A fixed list of harm categories | Any question you write, in plain language |
| Answer | A score per category | Typed: a yes/no probability, a labelled score, or one of your categories |
| Context | The content you send | Recent events and messages plus a rolling summary of the rest |
| Inputs | Text (some also accept images) | Messages and structured events (logins, payouts, reports) with metadata |
| Timing | Synchronous | Background by default, or inline with `"wait": true` |
| Follow-up | Your code | Search by answers, signed webhooks, and rules that alert Slack, email or a webhook |
| Changing the policy | Not possible; categories are fixed | Edit a signal with one API call |

## Where SigWise is the better fit

- **Fraud and scams.** "Can I pay by wire?" is harmless as text. It matters
  when it comes from a new account that just asked to move to WhatsApp. See
  [Marketplace scam detection](https://sigwise.ai/docs/use-cases/marketplace-scam-detection.md).
- **Platform-specific rules.** "No phone numbers before a booking" or "no
  reselling tickets above face value" aren't harm categories. Write them as a
  signal. See [Chat and content moderation](https://sigwise.ai/docs/use-cases/chat-moderation.md).
- **Questions that aren't about harm at all**, such as trust, churn risk or
  buying intent. See [User trust scores](https://sigwise.ai/docs/use-cases/user-trust-scores.md) and
  [Buyer intent](https://sigwise.ai/docs/use-cases/buyer-intent.md).

## Where a moderation API is enough

If you only need to screen single messages for generic harmful content, a
moderation API is simpler and often free. The two also combine well: screen
every message with a moderation API, and send the conversation to SigWise to
judge the people behind it.

## Try it

Every new account starts with $5 of free credit and three signals
(`is_scammer`, `trust_score`, `buyer_intent`). The [Quickstart](https://sigwise.ai/docs/guide/quickstart.md)
takes about five minutes.