I Built a PII Detection API with Zero AI Cost (Pure Regex)

Most PII detection tools charge per API call because they run your text through an LLM. But for detecting structured patterns like emails, phone numbers, and credit cards, you don't need AI at all. I built Origrid PII Detect -- a PII scanning API that uses pure regex pattern matching. Zero LLM calls, zero AI cost, sub-500ms response times. The problem If you're building any app that handles user text (forms, comments, chat, logs), you probably need to check for accidentally exposed personal data before storing or forwarding it. GDPR requires it. Common sense demands it. The existing options are: Microsoft Presidio -- powerful but requires self-hosting a full NLP pipeline AWS Comprehend -- great but $0.01+ per request adds up fast Google DLP -- enterprise pricing, enterprise complexity For most use cases, you don't need NLP. Emails look like emails. Phone numbers look like phone numbers. Credit cards follow the Luhn algorithm. The approach: regex with smart deduplication The API detects