How each vendor counts what you pay for
The rates look alike, about a tenth of a cent each, but the four vendors count different things. That difference decides the bill more than the headline price.
- AWS Rekognition bills per image. IndexFaces stores up to 100 faces from a photo for one image, and CompareFaces bills only the source image. Indexing, searching and comparing share one volume-tiered count.
- Azure Face bills per API call. Add Face enrols one face per call, so a group photo with three faces is a Detect plus three Add Face calls. A selfie search is a Detect plus an Identify, and a compare of two new photos is two Detects plus a Verify.
- Google Cloud Vision bills per image, for detection only. It finds faces but has no API to match them, so it can't run a face search or a compare.
- SightRadar bills per photo processed, whatever the number of faces in it, at a flat rate with no volume tiers. A compare of two new photos processes two images, so it is billed as two photos.
The price list this calculator uses
Published list prices in USD, checked on 2026-11-09: AWS in us-east-1, Azure Standard tier in East US. Each row links to the vendor's own pricing page.
| Vendor | Covers | First-tier price | Volume tiers |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Rekognition | IndexFaces, SearchFacesByImage, SearchFaces, CompareFaces (Group 1) | $0.001 / image | $0.0008 above 1M, $0.0006 above 5M, $0.0004 above 35M images a month |
| AWS Rekognition | DetectFaces (Group 2) | $0.001 / image | $0.0008 above 1M, $0.0006 above 5M, $0.00025 above 35M images a month |
| AWS Rekognition | Face storage | $0.00001 / face per month | None ($0.01 per 1,000 faces) |
| Azure Face | Every API call: Detect, Add Face, Identify, Verify, Find Similar | $0.001 / transaction | $0.0008 above 1M, $0.0006 above 5M, $0.0004 above 100M transactions a month |
| Azure Face | Face storage | $0.00001 / face per month | None ($0.01 per 1,000 faces, prorated daily) |
| Google Cloud Vision | Face detection only (no face matching or search) | $0.0015 / image | First 1,000 a month free, $0.0006 above 5M |
| SightRadar | Index, selfie search, compare (each image), detect | $0.00062 batch, $0.00093 real-time / photo | None (flat rate at any volume) |
| SightRadar | Face storage | $0.000006 / face per month | None ($6 per million faces) |
Example monthly bills
The calculator's examples, priced on each vendor. The lowest total in each row is in bold.
| Workload | SightRadar | AWS Rekognition | Azure Face | Google Cloud Vision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wedding gallery3,000 photos indexed, about 3 faces each, and 120 guests running a selfie search. | $2.03 | $3.21 | $12.33 | can't run |
| Event photo business40 events a month at 2,500 photos each, 60 guest selfie searches per event. | $66.03 | $105.40 | $407.80 | can't run |
| Large photo platform2 million photos a month indexed for face search, 50,000 selfie searches. | $1,322.50 | $1,900.00 | $6,120.00 | can't run |
| Selfie-to-ID verification20,000 sign-ups a month, each a 1:1 check of a selfie against an ID photo. | $37.20 | $20.00 | $60.00 | can't run |
| Face detection only50,000 photos a month checked for faces (count, boxes), with no matching. | $46.50 | $50.00 | $50.00 | $73.50 |
AWS is lowest in the Selfie-to-ID verification example, because CompareFaces bills one image where SightRadar bills two photos. When the check runs against a face you already stored, SightRadar bills one photo and comes out lower. The pricing study works through 10 thousand to 10 million photos a month in detail.
What the estimate leaves out
- Negotiated or committed-use discounts, and new-customer trial credits.
- Other regions. Some AWS and Azure regions cost more than us-east-1 and East US.
- Azure training (one transaction per 1,000 faces trained) and the Limited Access approval Azure requires before identification and verification.
- Storage and transfer for the photos themselves, and tax.
SightRadar's own rates, and what a failed or empty photo costs, are on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does AWS Rekognition cost for face recognition?
- IndexFaces, SearchFacesByImage, SearchFaces and CompareFaces are Group 1 APIs: $0.001 per image for the first million images a month in us-east-1, then $0.0008 to 5 million, $0.0006 to 35 million and $0.0004 above. DetectFaces is Group 2, priced the same up to 35 million and $0.00025 above. Stored face vectors cost $0.01 per 1,000 faces per month. Some regions cost more than us-east-1.
- How much does the Azure Face API cost?
- Standard tier: $1.00 per 1,000 transactions for the first million a month, then $0.80 to 5 million, $0.60 to 100 million and $0.40 above. Every API call is one transaction, so a selfie search (Detect, then Identify) is two, and enrolling a photo with several faces is a Detect plus one Add Face per face. Face storage is $0.01 per 1,000 faces per month. Identification and verification are Limited Access: Microsoft has to approve a registration form before you can use them.
- Does Google Cloud Vision do face recognition?
- No. Cloud Vision detects faces and returns their position, landmarks and expression likelihoods, but Google has no public API to compare two faces or search a collection by face. Face detection costs $1.50 per 1,000 images after the first 1,000 free each month, and $0.60 per 1,000 above 5 million.
- What does SightRadar cost?
- $0.00062 per photo indexed in batch, $0.00093 per photo in real time (detect, selfie search, compare), and $6 per million stored faces per month. Billing is per photo, whatever the number of faces in it, and the rate is the same at every volume. A compare processes two images, so it is billed as two photos; against a stored face it is one.
- Why does the calculator sometimes show AWS as cheaper?
- Because it is, for some workloads. CompareFaces bills one image (the source) on AWS while a two-photo compare is two photos on SightRadar, so a 1:1 check of two new photos costs less on Rekognition. Rekognition's volume tiers also lower its rate past 1 million and 5 million images a month. The calculator applies each vendor's own billing rules and marks whichever total is lowest.
- Where do these prices come from?
- Published list prices, in USD: the AWS Price List API for Rekognition (us-east-1), the Azure Retail Prices API for Face (Standard, East US) and Google's Cloud Vision pricing page, all checked on 2026-11-09. Negotiated and committed-use discounts, new-customer trial credits and tax are left out. Google's 1,000 free detections a month apply to every account, so they are included.
- Is the calculator free?
- Yes. There is no sign-up, and the calculation runs in your browser: nothing you type is sent anywhere.