AI security assessment or pentest?
A penetration test attacks your application and infrastructure: logins, roles, APIs, cloud. An AI security assessment reviews the model layer: prompts, retrieval, tools and output handling, usually against the OWASP LLM Top 10. LLM red teaming is open-ended adversarial testing of the AI behaviour. An app with an AI feature over customer data needs the pentest and the assessment; an agent with tools adds red teaming.
Side by side
| Penetration test | AI security assessment | LLM red teaming | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Target | App, API, infrastructure | The AI feature's design and behaviour | The model under attack |
| Style | Structured, scoped | Structured, OWASP LLM mapped | Open-ended |
| Typical cost, CAD | $8,000 to $30,000 | $4,000 to $15,000 | $4,000 to $20,000 |
| Best for | Any app with accounts and data | Chatbots, RAG, AI features | Agents with tools |
Combining them
The serious findings sit where they meet: an injection that reaches a tool with an over-broad key. Scope them together so one team sees the whole path. See AI penetration testing.
Decide in five questions
The test finder asks what you built and what it touches, and names the engagement.
Which to do first
If you have to sequence them, test the application first. The most serious problems in AI products usually trace to ordinary application weaknesses that the AI feature can reach: an API that trusts internal callers, a database key with too much permission, retrieval without tenant filtering. Fixing those first makes the AI assessment shorter and its findings more meaningful.
The exception is a product whose main risk is the AI behaviour itself, such as a customer-facing agent that takes actions. There, red teaming the agent early shapes the design of its permissions before the rest is finalised. When budget allows, scope them as one engagement so the same testers follow an injection all the way to its consequence.
Getting it checked
TrazTech offers AI and LLM security assessments, listed from $4,000 CAD. Get at least one other quote on the same scope; the questions to ask a testing firm help compare them.
Related questions
- How do you test for prompt injection?
- Do I need a pentest before launch?
- LLM red teaming
- AI security assessment
Get a scope for your app
Tell us what you built, what it stores and who is about to use it.
Get matchedCommon questions
Which do buyers ask for?
Most ask for a penetration test and, increasingly, how AI features were tested. An assessment report answers the second.
Can one firm do all three?
Many can. Check they have done AI testing specifically, not just web testing.