If users can upload images or your app generates content, you need moderation — a way to catch unsafe material before it's shown or stored. You can build that against one gateway instead of integrating a trust-and-safety vendor directly.
Key takeaways
- Moderation screens both user uploads and model-generated output.
- Through a gateway it's one API call on the same key as your LLM traffic.
- Route to the cheapest healthy provider; results are deduped by content hash.
- Start by trying a one-off check free, then wire it into your pipeline.
Why moderate at all
Two moments matter: inbound (a user uploads an image or submits text) and outbound (your model produces something you're about to show). Catch problems at both, and you protect users, your brand, and your standing with app stores and payment providers.
The hard way vs the gateway way
| Direct vendor | Through the gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| Integrations | One per vendor | One, OpenAI-shaped |
| Keys & billing | Per vendor | One key, one bill |
| Cost control | Manual | Dedup + spend cap built in |
| Swapping providers | Re-integrate | Config change |
How it looks in practice
A moderation check is a single call against the gateway — same key as your chat traffic. You get back a structured verdict (categories + scores) you can gate on.
// Pseudocode — one call, same key as your LLM traffic
const verdict = await conflux.moderate({ image: uploadUrl });
if (verdict.flagged) reject(verdict.categories);Because requests are deduped by content hash, re-checking the same asset doesn't pay twice — and a monthly spend cap means a flood of uploads can't produce a runaway bill.
Try it before you wire it in
You can run a one-off check with no signup from the free tools — for example the AI Content Detector for images. The free check runs on the same engine as the API, so what you see is what you'd get in production.
From check to pipeline
- Prototype with the free tool to confirm it catches what you care about.
- Move the same capability into your upload and generation paths via the API.
- Add the other capabilities you need on the same key — see what an AI gateway is.
Moderation shouldn't need its own integration project. One key, one bill, every check — start with the free tools.