Cloud deployment
Deploy Philter in your own cloud
Launch Philter’s open source PII and PHI redaction from your cloud’s marketplace. It runs on a virtual machine in your own account, billed with the rest of your cloud usage.
- From $0.49/houron AWS Marketplace
- ~$350/monthrunning 24/7
- Up to 18% offwith an annual contract
Choose your cloud
AWS Marketplace EC2 instancec7i.xlargerecommended
Azure Marketplace Virtual machineStandard_F4s_v2recommended
Google Cloud Marketplace Compute Engine VMc3-highcpu-4recommended
Need a private offer or help with procurement? Contact us.
From launch to first redaction
The marketplace listings are moving to Philter 4.0. Until a listing publishes it, launching from that listing deploys Philter 3.x, which is set up differently from these steps. For 3.x, follow the Philter 3.4 documentation.
- Subscribe and launch. Pick a region, a size with at least 2 vCPU and 8 GB of RAM, and an SSH key. Private subnets are supported, including ones with no internet egress.
- Read your API key over SSH. On first boot the virtual machine generates its own encryption key and first API key into
/opt/philter/.env. - Send text to
/api/filter. Philter serves HTTPS on port 8080. - Tune policies for your data. Choose how each type is handled: redact, mask, hash, encrypt, or replace. Start from the policy library or the User’s Guide.
Your first request
$ curl -sk https://<instance-ip>:8080/api/filter \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $PHILTER_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
--data-binary "George Washington was a patient and his SSN is 123-45-6789."
{{{REDACTED-name}}} was a patient and his SSN is {{{REDACTED-ssn}}}.The first request may take a few seconds while Philter loads.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free trial?
Yes. The free trial period may vary by cloud provider. During the free trial you are responsible for the underlying cloud hardware, but there is no charge for the Philter software.
How much will this actually cost me?
On AWS Marketplace, $0.49/hour for instance types with up to 4 vCPU, including the recommended c7i.xlarge; larger types are priced by size ($0.98/hour for 8 vCPU, $1.96/hour for 16 vCPU). Worked numbers for one 4 vCPU instance:
- ~$350/month if running it 24/7
- ~$290/month with the 365-day annual contract (~18% off)
The instance itself is billed separately by your cloud provider. See the instance type question below for sizing. Pricing on Azure and Google Cloud follows similar per-hour models; check each listing for the current published rate.
Can I run in an air-gapped VPC?
Philter needs no outbound internet access to redact. The default policy’s model ships in the image, and Philter connects out only to services you configure: a remote PhEye service, replacement generators, webhooks, or Phield. Once the virtual machine is running, you can move it to a subnet with no NAT gateway and no internet egress; your own network still needs to reach port 8080, and port 22 for SSH. Launching from the marketplace, and later updates, need internet access or an internal mirror. This is a common deployment pattern for healthcare and government workloads.
What instance type should I start with?
Philter needs at least 2 vCPU and 8 GB of RAM. We recommend 4 vCPU and 8 GB: c7i.xlarge on AWS, Standard_F4s_v2 on Azure, or c3-highcpu-4 on Google Cloud. Smaller types are for testing. Philter runs its models on CPU, so a GPU instance type adds cost without making it faster. One virtual machine runs one Philter; to run several behind a load balancer, see High Availability. Each cloud’s quick start covers sizing and launch: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud.
Can I bring my own license (BYOL)?
BYOL is not currently offered on the marketplace listings. If your team has procurement requirements that the marketplace doesn’t fit, contact us. We can structure a direct engagement or private offer.
What support is included?
Email support from the Philterd team is included with marketplace deployments (typical response: within 48 hours). For named-contact SLAs, dedicated technical advisors, or hands-on engineering, see the consulting services or contact the team directly.