About
Perspective API, developed by Jigsaw — a unit within Google — is a free machine learning-based API designed to help online platforms host healthier, more civil conversations. By analyzing text input, the API returns scores across a range of attributes including toxicity, severe toxicity, identity attacks, insults, profanity, and threats, enabling developers to build smarter content moderation systems. Platforms and publishers integrate Perspective API to automatically flag or filter harmful comments before they go live, surface low-quality content to human moderators, and give users real-time feedback on how their messages might be perceived. The API supports multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, and more, making it suitable for global deployments. Perspective API has been widely adopted by news organizations, social media platforms, and online communities looking to reduce the burden of manual moderation while maintaining healthy discourse. It is accessible via a simple REST API and is free to use within quota limits. **Important:** Jigsaw has announced that Perspective API is sunsetting. The service will remain active until December 31, 2026, with new usage and quota requests accepted only through February 2026. No migration support will be provided. Developers relying on Perspective API should begin evaluating alternative content moderation solutions.
Key Features
- Toxicity Scoring: Analyzes text and returns a probability score for toxic, hateful, or harmful content across multiple attribute categories.
- Multiple Attribute Detection: Detects a range of attributes including toxicity, severe toxicity, insults, profanity, identity attacks, and threats.
- Multilingual Support: Supports analysis across multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and more.
- REST API Integration: Simple REST API that can be integrated into any platform or application to enable real-time or batch content moderation.
- Free Access with Quotas: Available at no cost to developers within usage quotas, with options to request increased quota for larger platforms.
Use Cases
- Automatically flagging toxic or abusive comments on news websites and forums before they are published.
- Providing real-time feedback to users as they type, warning them if their message may be perceived as harmful.
- Routing potentially harmful content to human moderators for review, reducing manual workload.
- Building safety filters for social media platforms to reduce harassment and hate speech at scale.
- Researching the prevalence and patterns of online toxicity across large datasets of user-generated content.
Pros
- Free to Use: Perspective API is available at no charge for developers, making it accessible for projects of all sizes.
- Backed by Google/Jigsaw: Developed and maintained by Jigsaw, a Google unit, ensuring high-quality ML models and reliable infrastructure.
- Broad Language Support: Works across many languages, making it suitable for international platforms and global user bases.
Cons
- Sunsetting in 2026: Perspective API is officially shutting down on December 31, 2026, with no migration support offered, requiring developers to find alternatives.
- No New Requests After February 2026: Usage and quota requests will no longer be accepted after February 2026, limiting access for new or scaling projects.
- Limited to Text Moderation: Perspective API is a narrowly scoped tool focused solely on text toxicity scoring and does not cover image, video, or audio moderation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Perspective API used for?
Perspective API is used by developers and platforms to automatically detect and score toxic, harmful, or abusive content in text, enabling smarter comment moderation and healthier online conversations.
Is Perspective API free?
Yes, Perspective API is free to use within quota limits. Developers could request increased quotas for higher-volume needs, though new quota requests are only accepted until February 2026.
Is Perspective API shutting down?
Yes. Jigsaw has announced that Perspective API is sunsetting. The service will remain active until December 31, 2026, after which it will no longer be available.
What languages does Perspective API support?
Perspective API supports multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and more.
Are there alternatives to Perspective API after it shuts down?
Jigsaw will not offer direct migration support, but notes that various tools inspired by Perspective's capabilities are available. Developers should evaluate alternatives such as OpenAI Moderation API, AWS Comprehend, or Azure Content Moderator.
