# Face recognition API cost calculator

> Free face recognition API cost calculator. Enter your monthly workload and compare AWS Rekognition, Azure Face, Google Cloud Vision and SightRadar list prices.

Source: https://sightradar.com/tools/face-recognition-api-cost-calculator

AWS Rekognition charges $0.001 per image to index, search or compare faces (first million a month, us-east-1). Azure Face charges $1 per 1,000 API calls. Google Cloud Vision detects faces for $1.50 per 1,000 but can't match them. Enter your workload to see what each would bill.

Use it in the browser: https://sightradar.com/tools/face-recognition-api-cost-calculator (no sign-up; the calculation runs locally).

## How each vendor counts what you pay for

- AWS Rekognition bills per image. IndexFaces stores up to 100 faces from a photo for one image; CompareFaces bills only the source image. Indexing, searching and comparing share one volume-tiered count (Group 1). DetectFaces is Group 2.
- Azure Face bills per API call (transaction). Add Face enrols one face per call, so a photo with three faces is a Detect plus three Add Face calls. A selfie search is Detect + Identify (2); a compare of two new photos is 2 Detects + Verify (3), or Detect + Verify (2) against a stored face.
- Google Cloud Vision bills per image for face detection only. Google has no face matching or face search API.
- SightRadar bills per photo processed, whatever the number of faces, at a flat rate. A compare of two new photos is two photos; against a stored face, one.

## Price list (USD, list prices, checked 2026-11-09)

AWS: us-east-1. Azure: Standard tier, East US.

| Vendor | Covers | First-tier price | Volume tiers | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 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 | https://aws.amazon.com/rekognition/pricing/ |
| AWS Rekognition | DetectFaces (Group 2) | $0.001 / image | $0.0008 above 1M, $0.0006 above 5M, $0.00025 above 35M images a month | https://aws.amazon.com/rekognition/pricing/ |
| AWS Rekognition | Face storage | $0.00001 / face per month | None ($0.01 per 1,000 faces) | https://aws.amazon.com/rekognition/pricing/ |
| 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 | https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/cognitive-services/face-api/ |
| Azure Face | Face storage | $0.00001 / face per month | None ($0.01 per 1,000 faces, prorated daily) | https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/cognitive-services/face-api/ |
| Google Cloud Vision | Face detection only (no face matching or search) | $0.0015 / image | First 1,000 a month free, $0.0006 above 5M | https://cloud.google.com/vision/pricing |
| SightRadar | Index, selfie search, compare (each image), detect | $0.00062 batch, $0.00093 real-time / photo | None (flat rate at any volume) | https://sightradar.com/pricing |
| SightRadar | Face storage | $0.000006 / face per month | None ($6 per million faces) | https://sightradar.com/pricing |

## Example monthly bills (USD)

| Workload | SightRadar | AWS Rekognition | Azure Face | Google Cloud Vision |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Wedding gallery: 3,000 photos indexed, about 3 faces each, and 120 guests running a selfie search. | $2.03 | $3.21 | $12.33 | can't run |
| Event photo business: 40 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 platform: 2 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 verification: 20,000 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 only: 50,000 photos a month checked for faces (count, boxes), with no matching. | $46.50 | $50.00 | $50.00 | $73.50 |

Left out: negotiated or committed-use discounts, new-customer trial credits, other regions, Azure training (one transaction per 1,000 faces trained), photo storage and transfer, tax.

## FAQ

### 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.