Freedom251
For vendors
AdvertiseTop spots, featured rows, home sponsor Get listedAdd a product we don't cover yet Claim a listingFree: verify the domain, then correct your page Vendor dashboardNumbers, orders and placements
Vendor dashboard
No. 3 of 35 ·AI Image Recognition Software

Google Cloud Vision API

Web · Windows · Mac · Linux · API

Visit site Alternatives

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.6

  • Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
  • Open codeNo open-source code on record
  • Runs widely4 of 6 device platforms
  • DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Google Cloud Vision API gives developers image-analysis capabilities to add to applications through REST or RPC. It can label images, detect faces and landmarks, read text, locate objects and tag explicit content. Text Detection handles text in images, while Document Text Detection is designed for dense text, handwriting and PDF or TIFF files. Object Localization returns labels and bounding boxes for recognized items. Web Detection can return related web entities, matching image URLs and pages, visually similar images, and a best-guess label. Face Detection locates faces and facial landmarks and provides likelihood ratings, but does not identify specific people. Google documents workflows involving Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Pub/Sub and Cloud Translation API. For Android and iOS development using its cloud vision services, Google recommends ML Kit for Firebase. Limits include 20 MB per image, 10 MB per JSON request, 16 images in a synchronous annotate request and 2,000 images in an asynchronous batch request. The free plan includes the first 1,000 units per feature each month; billing is per image feature applied, with listed tiers that include $1.50 per 1,000 units for some features.

Who it is for

The API suits developers who want prebuilt image-analysis functions in an application. It may be useful where text extraction, object localization or image labeling is needed, with limits checked against the workload.

What is good

  • Available through REST and RPC.
  • Document Text Detection supports handwriting and PDF or TIFF.
  • Object Localization returns labels and bounding boxes.
  • First 1,000 units per feature each month are free.
  • Documented workflows include Cloud Storage and Pub/Sub.

What to know first

  • Face Detection does not identify specific individuals.
  • Images are limited to 20 MB each.
  • Synchronous annotate requests allow up to 16 images.

Verdict

Cloud Vision API offers several image-analysis functions, with a free monthly allowance and usage-based billing afterward. Its face detection is not individual recognition, and request and image-size limits are worth checking before use.

Google Cloud Vision API plans and pricing

All plans
Cloud Vision API pay-as-you-go Free Per image; each feature applied to an image is a billable unit, billed in monthly usage tiers. First 1,000 units per feature each month free · Label Detection: $1.50 per 1,000 units for 1,001–5,000,000; $1.00 thereafter · Text and Document Text Detection: $1.50 per 1,000 units for 1,001–5,000,000; $0.60 thereafter · Web Detection: $3.50 per 1,000 units for 1,001–5,000,000; contact Google for higher tier cloud.google.com · 28 Sept 2026

Compared on AI image recognition software

Free plan
Yes
Text moderation
No
Image moderation
Yes
Deployment options
cloud

Best Google Cloud Vision API alternatives

See all 20
Two bars MediaPipe Free tier No. 1Free6.7 Two bars CompreFace Free tier No. 2Free6.6 One bar DeepDetect Free tier No. 4Free6.5 One bar LandingLens Free tier No. 5Free6.5 One bar PaddleOCR Free tier No. 6Free6.5 Two bars Roboflow Free tier No. 7$39/mo6.5