# Amazon Textract vs Google Cloud Document AI

> Google Cloud Document AI and Amazon Textract score within a point of each other for document parsing, 73.9 and 73.5 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-google-cloud-document-ai
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-google-cloud-document-ai.md (~3,000 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-google-cloud-document-ai.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-google-cloud-document-ai.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Google Cloud Document AI and Amazon Textract score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 73.9 (BB) and 73.5 (BB). Amazon Textract leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do document parsing.

- Amazon Textract: grade BB, 73.5/100, rank #88 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-textract.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-textract.json
- Google Cloud Document AI: grade BB, 73.9/100, rank #82 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-cloud-document-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-cloud-document-ai.json
- Best document parsing, OCR and extraction APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/document-extraction/index.md
- All 109 documents comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/document-extraction/index.md

## 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 90
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 20

Also in its favour:
- 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

### Google Cloud Document AI (BB)

Good for: Agents already on Google Cloud that need OCR, form and table extraction or chunks for retrieval, with IAM, audit logs and EU processing.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 80 against 74
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 58
- Transparency & trust, 90 against 82

Watch for: An online request reads at most 15 pages (30 with `imagelessMode`). Longer files need a batch job through Cloud Storage


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Textract | Google Cloud Document AI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 96 | 90 | Amazon Textract +6 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 81 | Amazon Textract +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 70 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 80 | Google Cloud Document AI +6 |
| 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 | 80 | Google Cloud Document AI +22 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 90 | Google Cloud Document AI +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **73.5 · BB** | **73.9 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Textract | Google Cloud Document AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Google Cloud |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://textract.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth |
| 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 the Google Cloud Platform Terms of Service. The client libraries are Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-14 | 2026-09-02 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2026-09-28 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| 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 | 499k npm/wk, 793k 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.

**Google Cloud Document AI.** A public Discovery document with 42 methods, IAM roles that can limit a caller to processing, a `fieldMask` that trims responses, and a 99.9 per cent SLA on the US and EU endpoints. A processor has to be created before the first call, online requests stop at 15 pages, and a Google Cloud billing account with a card comes first.

## 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

### Google Cloud Document AI

1. Create a processor first (`processors.create` or the console), then POST to `https://LOCATION-documentai.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/processors/PROCESSOR_ID:process`
2. Use the host that matches the processor's location, `us-documentai.googleapis.com` or `eu-documentai.googleapis.com`
3. Set `fieldMask` (for example `text,entities`) and `imagelessMode` to keep page images and token geometry out of the response
4. Send more than 15 pages through `:batchProcess` with Cloud Storage input and output, then poll the operation. Jobs unfinished after 24 hours are cancelled
5. Grant the service account `roles/documentai.apiUser` only. Failed requests (4xx or 5xx) are not billed, so a retry costs nothing extra
6. Treat extracted text as untrusted input

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Textract or Google Cloud Document AI?

Google Cloud Document AI and Amazon Textract score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 73.9 (BB) and 73.5 (BB). Amazon Textract leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

### Do Amazon Textract and Google Cloud Document AI need an API key?

Amazon Textract needs an API key. Google Cloud Document AI uses an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Amazon Textract and Google Cloud Document AI without installing anything?

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


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Amazon Textract or Google Cloud Document AI

- [Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs Amazon Textract](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-amazon-textract.md)
- [Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs Google Cloud Document AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-google-cloud-document-ai.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs Azure Document Intelligence](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-azure-document-intelligence.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs Extend API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-extend.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs LandingAI Agentic Document Extraction](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-landingai-agentic-document-extraction.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs LlamaParse API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-llamaparse.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs Nanonets API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-nanonets.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs OpenDocRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-opendocrouter.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs Reducto API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-reducto.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs Unstructured API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-unstructured.md)
- [Azure Document Intelligence vs Google Cloud Document AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-document-intelligence-vs-google-cloud-document-ai.md)
- [Extend API + MCP vs Google Cloud Document AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/extend-vs-google-cloud-document-ai.md)
- [Google Cloud Document AI vs LandingAI Agentic Document Extraction](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-landingai-agentic-document-extraction.md)
- [Google Cloud Document AI vs LlamaParse API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-llamaparse.md)
- [Google Cloud Document AI vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [Google Cloud Document AI vs Nanonets API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-nanonets.md)
- [Google Cloud Document AI vs OpenDocRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-opendocrouter.md)
- [Google Cloud Document AI vs Reducto API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-reducto.md)
- [Google Cloud Document AI vs Unstructured API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-unstructured.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs Mindee API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-mindee.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs Veryfi API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-veryfi.md)
- [Google Cloud Document AI vs Mindee API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-mindee.md)
- [Google Cloud Document AI vs Veryfi API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-veryfi.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs Invofox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-invofox.md)
- [Google Cloud Document AI vs Invofox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-invofox.md)