Head to head
AWS Textract vs Google Document AI
As a document ai & ocr API, AWS Textract rates higher on the APIbenchmarks Index, 87.7 to 86.3, a 1.4-point gap. Here is how they compare on each criterion.
Criterion by criterion
| Criterion | AWS Textract | Google Document AI |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation & DX | ||
| Reliability | ||
| Ecosystem & SDKs | ||
| Accessibility | ||
| APIbenchmarks Index | 87.7 | 86.3 |
Specifications
| AWS Textract | Google Document AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Cloud-native OCR for AWS workloads | Processor-driven document understanding |
| Free tier | 1,000 pages/mo for 3 months (DetectDocumentText only) | $300 GCP credit (90 days) |
| Pricing | Per 1k pages | Per 1k pages |
| Official SDKs | 10 languages | 10 languages |
Is AWS Textract better than Google Document AI?
On the APIbenchmarks Index, AWS Textract rates higher (87.7 vs 86.3). It leads on the four weighted criteria, but price is reported separately, so the best choice still depends on your budget.
Verdict in one line
AWS Textract leads by 1.4 points (87.7 vs 86.3) and wins 3 of 4 criteria; Google Document AI wins 1.
Winner by criterion
| Criterion |  AWS Textract | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Documentation & DX | 82 | 85 | |
| Reliability | 95 | 93 | AWS Textract |
| Ecosystem & SDKs | 95 | 90 | AWS Textract |
| Accessibility | 78 | 75 | AWS Textract |
Choose AWS Textract if… / choose Google Document AI if…
Choose AWS Textract if- →reliability matters most to you (95 vs 93)
- →ecosystem & sdks matters most to you (95 vs 90)
- →accessibility matters most to you (78 vs 75)
- →your use case matches its focus: cloud-native ocr for aws workloads
- →documentation & dx matters most to you (85 vs 82)
- →your use case matches its focus: processor-driven document understanding
Pricing side by side
AWS Textract- Model
- Per 1k pages
- Free tier
- 1,000 pages/mo for 3 months (DetectDocumentText only)
- Free Tier (first 3 months)$0
- Detect Document Text (raw OCR)$1.50 / 1k pages
- Analyze Document – Forms$50 / 1k pages
- Analyze Document – Tables$15 / 1k pages
- Forms + Tables + Queries (bundle)$70 / 1k pages
- AnalyzeExpense / AnalyzeID$10 / $25 per 1k pages
- Model
- Per 1k pages
- Free tier
- $300 GCP credit (90 days)
- Enterprise Document OCR$1.50 / 1,000 pages
- Custom Extractor / Form Parser$30 / 1,000 pages
- Layout Parser$10 / 1,000 pages
- Specialized parsers (Invoice / Expense / Utility)$0.10 / 10 pages
- ID & document parsers (W-2, Pay Slip, Passport, Driver License)$0.10–$0.75 / document
- Custom processor hosting$0.05 / hour per deployed version
Vendor-published pricing, verified 2026-06-27 (AWS Textract) and 2026-06-27 (Google Document AI).
SDK and language coverage
Both · 5
Python (boto3)JavaGoRubyPHP
Only AWS Textract · 5
JavaScript / Node.jsAWS SDK for .NET (C#)C++AWS CLITextractor (open-source Python helper library)
Only Google Document AI · 5
Node.jsC#/.NETREST APIgRPCgcloud CLI
Strengths and weaknesses
AWS Textract- +Strong, benchmark-validated accuracy on printed text, forms, and tables (~94% avg in independent tests, on par with Google/Azure)
- +Cheap raw OCR at $1.50/1k pages with steep volume discounts above 1M pages/month
- +Purpose-built endpoints for invoices/receipts, IDs, and loan/mortgage packages reduce custom modeling
- –Structured extraction is expensive, Forms is $50/1k pages and the full bundle $70/1k
- –Pricing is confusing: the same API costs different amounts by feature combination and varies by region
- –Cost tracking in Cost Explorer is awkward and usage is hard to attribute
- +Large catalog of pretrained specialized processors (invoices, receipts, W-2s, passports, driver licenses, bank statements, pay slips) usable out of the box
- +Generative-AI Custom Extractor fine-tunes with as few as 10 sample documents, no model-building required
- +Strong raw OCR text capture (~95.8% avg in a 1,000-doc benchmark) and best-in-class handwriting vs AWS Textract (74.8% vs 71.2%)
- –Trails competitors on structured field accuracy: ~82% in a 2025 invoice benchmark, 4th of 5 behind GPT-4o+OCR, Azure, and GPT-4o image
- –Weak table/line-item extraction (~40% in invoice testing), called the worst invoice recognizer in one benchmark
- –Custom Extractor / Form Parser is expensive at $30 per 1,000 pages
AWS Textract vs Google Document AI: questions
- Which has better documentation, AWS Textract or Google Document AI?
- Google Document AI scores higher on documentation and developer experience: 85 vs 82 out of 100.
- Which is more reliable, AWS Textract or Google Document AI?
- AWS Textract scores higher on reliability: 95 vs 93 out of 100.
- Do AWS Textract and Google Document AI have a free tier?
- AWS Textract: yes (1,000 pages/mo for 3 months (DetectDocumentText only)). Google Document AI: yes ($300 GCP credit (90 days)).
- How are AWS Textract and Google Document AI priced?
- AWS Textract: Per 1k pages. Google Document AI: Per 1k pages.
- Which has more official SDKs?
- Both list 10 official SDKs.