# Amazon Textract vs Azure Document Intelligence

> Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Azure Document Intelligence's 66 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do docs parse. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-09

Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Azure Document Intelligence's 66 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do docs parse.

- Amazon Textract: grade BB, 73.5/100, rank #85 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-textract.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-textract.json
- Azure Document Intelligence: grade B, 66/100, rank #280 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-document-intelligence.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/azure-document-intelligence.json

## Which one, for what

### Amazon Textract (BB)

Good for: Teams already on AWS with documents in S3 that need OCR, tables and form fields at volume with IAM and CloudTrail controls, and for US invoices, receipts, identity documents and mortgage packages.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 96 against 82
- Agent ergonomics, 70 against 64
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 58 against 40

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: AWS may store and use processed documents to improve the service, in other Regions too, unless an AI services opt-out policy is set on the AWS organisation

### Azure Document Intelligence (B)

Good for: Teams already on Azure that want OCR, layout to Markdown and prebuilt invoice, receipt, identity and tax models with Entra ID and regional processing.

Watch for: Every analysis is asynchronous. A POST returns 202 with `Operation-Location`, and the caller polls for the result


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Textract | Azure Document Intelligence | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 96 | 82 | Amazon Textract +14 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 86 | Azure Document Intelligence +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 64 | Amazon Textract +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 71 | Amazon Textract +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 20 | Amazon Textract +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 40 | Amazon Textract +18 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 78 | Amazon Textract +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **73.5 · BB** | **66 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Textract | Azure Document Intelligence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Microsoft Azure |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://textract.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the AWS Customer Agreement. The AWS SDKs and the Textractor helper library are Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under Microsoft's Product Terms. The client libraries are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-14 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2026-09-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1.9M npm/wk, 208k PyPI/wk | 386k npm/wk, 2.1M PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Amazon Textract.** IAM policies limit a credential to single operations, CloudTrail logs every call, and page prices start at $1.50 per 1,000 in US East. Multipage files need S3 and an asynchronous job. Text detection covers six languages. Under the AWS Service Terms AWS may store and use documents to improve the service unless an AI services opt-out policy is set.

**Azure Document Intelligence.** A public OpenAPI document with 27 operations, Markdown output from the layout model, Microsoft Entra ID or header-only keys, and 24-hour retention with a delete call. Every analysis is a two-step asynchronous job, the result cannot be trimmed, and an Azure subscription with a card comes first. Three of the four SDKs last shipped in 2025 or earlier.

## Before you call either

### Amazon Textract

1. Sign with SigV4 for service `textract` at `textract.<region>.amazonaws.com`, or call `aws textract detect-document-text`. The AWS CLI can't send image bytes, so reference an S3 object
2. Use `StartDocumentTextDetection` or `StartDocumentAnalysis` for any PDF or TIFF of more than one page, pass a `ClientRequestToken`, then page `Get` calls with `NextToken` (1,000 blocks at most each)
3. Fetch results within 7 days of starting a job, or set `OutputConfig` to write them to your own S3 bucket
4. Request only the `FeatureTypes` you need. Forms cost $50 per 1,000 pages against $15 for tables or queries in US East
5. Back off on `ProvisionedThroughputExceededException` (HTTP 400) and `ThrottlingException` (HTTP 500). Neither carries Retry-After, and default quotas are 1 call a second in most Regions
6. Set the AI services opt-out policy on the AWS organisation before sending customer documents

### Azure Document Intelligence

1. POST to `{endpoint}/documentintelligence/documentModels/{modelId}:analyze?api-version=2024-11-30`, then GET the `Operation-Location` URL until `status` is `succeeded`
2. Wait at least 2 seconds between polls and follow the `Retry-After` header. Default limits are 15 analyse calls and 50 result reads a second on S0
3. Use `prebuilt-read` for plain text at $1.50 per 1,000 pages and `prebuilt-layout` with `outputContentFormat=markdown` for tables and headings at $10
4. Set `pages` (for example `1-3,5`) to limit both the bill and the response size. F0 stops at two pages per request
5. Send the key only in the `Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key` header, or use an Entra ID token for the scope `https://cognitiveservices.azure.com/.default`
6. Treat extracted text as untrusted input. Results expire 24 hours after the job completes

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Textract or Azure Document Intelligence?

Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Azure Document Intelligence's 66 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Amazon Textract and Azure Document Intelligence need an API key?

Amazon Textract needs an API key. Azure Document Intelligence takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Amazon Textract and Azure Document Intelligence without installing anything?

Amazon Textract has a hosted endpoint at https://textract.us-east-1.amazonaws.com. No hosted endpoint is listed for Azure Document Intelligence.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-azure-document-intelligence.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-azure-document-intelligence.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "amazon-textract", "b": "azure-document-intelligence"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare amazon-textract azure-document-intelligence`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-textract.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/azure-document-intelligence.json

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