Cerbos
Claim this toolFine-grained, contextual, and continuous authorization for enterprise software and AI systems.
Visit WebsiteReviews onG2Capterra
6 reviews trackedThe Bottom Line
Entry price
Free plan available, paid tiers above
Biggest pro
Significantly accelerates time to market for new roles and permissions.
Biggest con
Pricing for higher tiers can be significant for large enterprises.
TL;DR - Cerbos
- Provides fine-grained, contextual authorization for enterprise software and AI.
- Offers a complete platform with policy definition, enforcement, and centralized management.
- Ensures compliance and reduces security risks with audit-ready logs and flexible deployment.
Pricing: Free plan available
Best for: Growing teams
4.9/5 across review platforms
What is Cerbos?
Cerbos provides an externalized authorization layer designed for enterprise software and AI. It enables organizations to enforce fine-grained, contextual, and continuous authorization across applications, APIs, AI agents, and workloads. The platform helps define, test, and iterate policies, deploy and manage them across various environments, and log and audit every access decision.
Cerbos is built for engineers and leadership, offering benefits like faster time to market by instantly deploying new roles and permissions, reducing AI risk by preventing over-permissioning, and significantly cutting costs by eliminating custom authorization infrastructure. It ensures compliance with regulations like GDPR, SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001 through audit-ready logs. The platform supports various authorization models including RBAC, ABAC, and PBAC, and can be deployed in cloud, self-hosted, on-premise, or air-gapped environments. It is particularly valuable for regulated industries like fintech and for securing AI systems.
Available on: Web
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Significantly accelerates time to market for new roles and permissions.
- Reduces AI security risks by preventing over-permissioning and shadow access.
- Offers substantial cost reduction by eliminating custom authorization infrastructure.
- Provides comprehensive audit logs for compliance and visibility into security posture.
- Supports a wide range of programming languages and deployment environments.
Cons
- Pricing for higher tiers can be significant for large enterprises.
- Requires integration into existing applications and infrastructure, which may involve initial setup effort.
Ratings Across the Web
4.9(6 reviews)
Ratings aggregated from independent review platforms. Learn more
Preview
Key Features
Fine-grained, contextual, and continuous authorizationPolicy Decision Point (PDP) for access evaluationPolicy Enforcement Point (PEP) SDKs for in-app enforcementCerbos Hub for centralized policy management, testing, and deploymentProgrammatic policy management via CLI and APIAutomated policy validation and testingAudit-ready logs for compliance (GDPR, SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001)Support for ABAC, RBAC, and PBAC authorization models
Pricing Plans
Free TrialPricing checked Jul 13, 2026
Open source
Free forever
- YAML-based policy definition
- Audit logs
- CI/CD & IDE tooling
- Git, Disk, Cloud or DB-based storage
- Community support
Proof of Concept
$0 / month
- Up to 100 monthly active principals
- 1 workspace, 2 developers
- 2 Playgrounds
- 2 simultaneous PDPs
- Up to 5 custom tenants
- 5 policy builds per week
- 1 week of unified audit logs
- In-browser/serverless authorization
Development
From $25/month
- First 100 monthly active principals included
- 3 workspaces, 5 developers
- Up to 5 Playgrounds
- Up to 10 simultaneous PDPs
- Up to 20 custom tenants
- 100 policy builds per week
- 3 months of unified audit logs
- Uptime SLA
Production
From $933/month
- First 5000 monthly active principals included
- Unlimited workspaces & developers
- Unlimited Playgrounds
- Unlimited simultaneous PDPs
- Unlimited custom tenants
- Unlimited policy builds per week
- 1 year of unified audit logs
- Uptime SLA
Enterprise
Contact us
- SSO support
- Self-hosted Cerbos Hub
- Custom audit log retention
- Custom training support
- Enterprise support SLA
- Phone support
- Quarterly training
Reviews
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4.9/5
Across 6 verified user reviews on G2, Capterra
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Cerbos FAQ
How does Cerbos help reduce AI security risks?
Cerbos reduces AI security risks by preventing over-permissioning and shadow access within AI systems. It ensures that AI agents and workloads only have the necessary authorization to perform their functions, thereby minimizing potential vulnerabilities.
Which teams benefit most from implementing Cerbos?
Engineering teams and leadership benefit most from Cerbos, as it streamlines policy definition and deployment, and provides audit-ready logs. This helps accelerate time to market for new features while ensuring compliance and reducing operational costs.
How is Cerbos priced?
Cerbos is available on a free tier, providing access to core functionalities. Paid plans are offered for users requiring more extensive usage and additional features beyond the free offering.
What kind of authorization models does Cerbos support?
Cerbos supports a variety of authorization models, including Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC), and Policy-Based Access Control (PBAC). This flexibility allows organizations to implement the most suitable authorization strategy for their needs.
Can Cerbos be deployed in air-gapped environments?
Yes, Cerbos can be deployed in various environments, including cloud, self-hosted, on-premise, and air-gapped setups. This ensures flexibility for organizations with strict network security requirements.
How does Cerbos compare to Open Policy Agent for authorization management?
Cerbos, like Open Policy Agent, provides an externalized authorization layer for enforcing policies. Cerbos specifically highlights its ability to significantly accelerate time to market for new roles and permissions, and its comprehensive audit logs for compliance.
Source: cerbos.dev