Language & translation · AWS vs Google Cloud
Amazon Comprehend vs Cloud Natural Language API
Amazon Comprehend maps to the Cloud Natural Language API: entities, sentiment, syntax, content classification, and moderation.
Side-by-side comparison
| Aspect | Amazon Web Services | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Service | Amazon Comprehend | Cloud Natural Language API |
| Lifecycle | Topic modeling, event detection, and prompt safety classification are no longer available to new customers (maintenance, Mar 31, 2026). Other features are unaffected. | Generally available |
| What it is | NLP. Entities, key phrases, sentiment and targeted sentiment, language detection, PII, syntax, toxicity, and custom classification/entity recognition. | Pretrained entity, sentiment, syntax, classification, and text moderation analysis. |
| Pricing model | Per unit of text (100 characters), with a 3-unit minimum per request, by feature. Custom models add training and endpoint-hour charges. | Billed per 1,000-character unit per feature, with a monthly free tier. |
| Docs | Amazon Comprehend docs | Cloud Natural Language API docs |
| Pricing page | Amazon Comprehend pricing | Cloud Natural Language API pricing |
Key differences
- Key-phrase extraction and language detection have no separate method; use entities or Cloud Translation's language detection.
Pricing summary
Pricing models only. No prices are quoted because they change by region and over time.
- AWS
- Per unit of text (100 characters), with a 3-unit minimum per request, by feature. Custom models add training and endpoint-hour charges. Amazon Comprehend pricing →
- GCP
- Billed per 1,000-character unit per feature, with a monthly free tier. Cloud Natural Language API pricing →
And on Azure?
Direct match Azure's equivalent is Azure Language. AWS vs Azure comparison →
FAQ
What is the Google Cloud equivalent of Amazon Comprehend?
Amazon Comprehend maps to the Cloud Natural Language API: entities, sentiment, syntax, content classification, and moderation.
How does pricing compare between Amazon Comprehend and Cloud Natural Language API?
AWS: Per unit of text (100 characters), with a 3-unit minimum per request, by feature. Custom models add training and endpoint-hour charges. Google Cloud: Billed per 1,000-character unit per feature, with a monthly free tier. Check the official pricing pages for current rates.
What is the Azure equivalent?
Azure Language (direct match). The Azure equivalent of Amazon Comprehend is Azure Language.