AI red teaming tools compared (2026)
A decision guide to the tools that attack your AI before someone else does, grouped by what you are actually buying.
Open-source frameworks, horizontal platforms, and vertical tools, side by side. Written by a vendor in this market, so read it that way: every competitor fact is sourced and dated, and where a tool beats RedLens, this page says so.
Competitor facts checked 18 October 2026At a glance
There is no single best AI red teaming tool. What to buy depends on whether you want to run a framework yourself, buy a horizontal platform, or test a regulated-sector deployment with evidence attached. This is a decision guide, not a ranking.
The capability matrix
Five representative options across the capabilities buyers ask about most. A dash means partial or not the tool's focus; hover notes add detail. The RedLens column is highlighted.
| Capability | RedLens | Mindgard | Prisma AIRS | HiddenLayer | Open-source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs real adversarial attacks | |||||
| Agent and MCP testing | agentic depth varies | PyRIT, framework-dependent | |||
| Citation-level HIPAA / CJIS mapping | per finding, evidence-graded | ||||
| Model-file / supply-chain scanning | 35+ formats | ||||
| Inline runtime guard | finds and flags, not inline | ||||
| Published pricing | from $0 | quote-based | quote-based | quote-based | free, self-run |
| Free tier / self-serve start | 25 scans/mo |
All platform pricing is quote-based and not public; RedLens pricing is listed at /pricing. Capability rows reflect each vendor's own public positioning as of 18 October 2026.
Group 1: open-source frameworks you run yourself
These cost nothing to license. Your real cost is engineering time plus the model API spend of running attacks. Most have no hosted dashboard and no compliance evidence package; you build the workflow around them.
garak
The broadest open-source probe library, for configurable command-line scanning. Weak on workflow: no hosted dashboard, no eval runner.
PyRIT
An orchestrator-LLM attacker for adaptive, multi-turn campaigns (crescendo-style), including multimodal. Running two models per session gets expensive fast.
Promptfoo
An all-round CLI for evaluation plus red teaming, with 50+ vulnerability types and CI/CD integration. Confirm the reported ownership change before standardising on it.
Giskard
An open-source Python core (Apache-2.0) plus a paid Hub for continuous red teaming and RAG evaluation. The Hub is priced per LLM agent; contact Giskard for figures.
A common pattern is garak for breadth and PyRIT for depth against a specific application. For a reproducible, scheduled scan with an audit trail, you will end up building or buying the layer these tools leave out. That gap is what the platforms below sell.
Group 2: platform vendors
Mature, horizontal, and sold through enterprise sales. All run some form of automated red teaming or model scanning. Pricing for every one of them is quote-based and not public as of 18 October 2026.
Prisma AIRS
A Dynamic Red Teaming Agent and attack library that test LLMs, LLM apps and agent behaviour (for example an agent executing a task it was not designed to do), plus model and supply-chain scanning and AI runtime security, inside the Palo Alto stack. A January 2026 update added an AI risk summary and brand-reputation risk detection. The biggest, best-funded option here.
Mindgard
Continuous, attacker-aligned red teaming for LLMs, agents and multimodal, run from a CLI or GitHub Action, with a native Burp Suite integration (vendor-stated). Focuses on offensive testing rather than inline runtime blocking. Raised a reported $30M Series A.
HiddenLayer
The AISec Platform unifies supply-chain security (a Model Scanner covering 35+ model formats for backdoors, trojans and serialization exploits), automated red teaming, runtime defence and posture management. Sold direct and via the AWS and Azure marketplaces.
Lakera
Lakera Red stress-tests before deployment; Lakera Guard is a low-latency inline guard for production traffic. Gandalf is its well-known public jailbreak game. Acquired by Check Point (announced September 2025, reported around $300M).
Cisco AI Defense
Algorithmic red teaming (including a Tree-of-Attacks-with-Pruning method), expanded in a February 2026 update to adaptive single and multi-turn testing of models and agents, MCP scanning and agentic red teaming, alongside runtime guardrails.
F5 AI Guardrails + F5 AI Red Team
F5 completed its reported $180M acquisition of CalypsoAI in September 2025 and now ships runtime guardrails plus red teaming, which F5 says tests against 10,000+ new attack prompts each month to produce a risk score.
These are genuine, capable products. If you are buying a broad horizontal platform for a large security organisation, they are the shortlist. What none of them publishes is a per-control compliance evidence grid: they map findings to frameworks such as MITRE ATLAS, NIST and OWASP, the right general set, without citation-level HIPAA or FBI CJIS mapping per finding.
Group 3: vertical and developer-first tools
A newer group targets a narrower job. Several, including Repello ARTEMIS, Confident AI DeepTeam, Lasso Security and Akto, lead on agentic coverage: multi-agent pipelines, MCP tool poisoning, and tool-calling abuse the broad platforms are still catching up on. RedLens sits here too, with a different narrow focus: regulated-sector evidence.
Where RedLens fits
RedLens runs real adversarial attacks across 6 categories and 22 methodologies and attaches a compliance evidence package to every finding. What makes it different from the platforms above is depth in regulated sectors: citation-level HIPAA and FBI CJIS control mapping with evidence grading, a healthcare-restricted methodology that is curated-only and fail-closed, and synthetic PHI and CJI sandboxes so no real patient or case data enters a test. It has published pricing from $0, a free hosted tier, and an on-premise option on Enterprise. Its Runtime Guard module finds and flags risky behaviour for review; it is not an inline guard of the Lakera Guard type.
When RedLens is the wrong choice
Honesty is the point of this page, so here is where to pick someone else:
- You need model-file scanning. RedLens does not scan model artefacts; HiddenLayer and Prisma AIRS do.
- You need an inline runtime guard that filters production traffic in real time. That is Lakera Guard or F5 AI Guardrails, not RedLens.
- You want the broadest horizontal platform for a large org and are not in a regulated vertical. A platform vendor will cover more surface.
- You have the engineering time and want zero licence cost. Run garak, PyRIT or Promptfoo yourself.
RedLens is also smaller and younger than every platform vendor here. It holds no FedRAMP or CJIS authorization, and it is not an all-in-one AI security suite.
Head-to-head comparisons
Prefer a direct, two-way comparison? Each of these puts RedLens next to one platform, with a highlighted matrix and an honest "where they are stronger" section.
RedLens vs Prisma AIRS
The biggest, best-funded platform versus the vertical tool. Breadth and scale versus regulated-sector evidence.
RedLens vs HiddenLayer
The model-file scanning leader versus citation-level HIPAA and CJIS evidence.
RedLens vs Mindgard
Continuous offensive testing with consultants versus self-serve testing plus compliance evidence.
RedLens vs Lakera
An inline runtime guard versus an offensive testing and evidence platform. Often complementary.
See also Prisma AIRS alternatives and the AI agent security testing guide.
Frequently asked
What is an AI red teaming tool?
An AI red teaming tool runs adversarial inputs against an AI system (a model, an LLM application, or an agent) to find weaknesses such as prompt injection, data leakage, tool abuse and jailbreaks before attackers do. Some tools are open-source frameworks you operate yourself; others are commercial platforms that generate attacks, score findings and produce reports.
What is the difference between AI red teaming and an AI guardrail?
Red teaming is offensive testing: it attacks the system to surface vulnerabilities. A guardrail is a runtime filter that inspects traffic in production. They are complementary. A red-teaming tool tells you what is broken; a guardrail watches live traffic for it. RedLens is a red-teaming and evidence platform, not an inline guardrail.
Are there free AI red teaming tools?
Yes. garak (NVIDIA), PyRIT (Microsoft) and Promptfoo are free open-source frameworks you run yourself; your cost is engineering time plus model API spend. Giskard has a free open-source Python tier. RedLens has a free hosted tier at $0 with 25 scans a month.
See the finding format in minutes
Shortlist two or three tools and run a proof of concept against your own AI system. The RedLens free attack test shows you the finding and evidence format, no card required.
Spot an error in how a competitor is described? Email sales@redlens.ai and we will correct it within a week.