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Amazon Rekognition Content Moderation

aws.amazon.com

From $0.10/mo Free plan WebAPI
Visit aws.amazon.com
Spec score 9.1 #1 of 27 in AI Content Moderation Software

What it is

Amazon Rekognition Content Moderation uses machine learning and managed APIs to automate moderation of images and videos. It detects categories including explicit or suggestive content, violence, drugs, tobacco, alcohol, hate symbols, gambling, and disturbing content. Results include labels, confidence scores, and video timestamps, which can support granular rules based on a hierarchical taxonomy. Customers can train a Custom Moderation adapter for image analysis with as few as 20 annotated images. Low-confidence predictions can be sent to Amazon Augmented AI for review by internal teams or third-party reviewers. For stored video, StartContentModeration analyzes content in an Amazon S3 bucket and publishes completion status to an Amazon SNS topic. AWS charges according to images or video duration processed, with no minimum fees or upfront commitments. The Free Tier lasts 12 months from account creation and includes 60 video-analysis minutes per month and two custom-adapter training hours monthly. Images and videos passed to the service may be stored and used to improve it unless customers opt out; stored content is encrypted at rest using AWS KMS.

Spec sheet

What it does
Amazon Rekognition Content Moderation analyzes images and videos with deep learning and returns labels and confidence scores for inappropriate, unwanted, or offensive content.Read 15 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Purpose
Amazon Rekognition Content Moderation automates image and video moderation workflows with machine learning and managed APIs.Read 2 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Integrations
TrustRadius lists Amazon S3, Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Translate, and Amazon Transcribe as integrations.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustradius.com
Security
Amazon Rekognition API endpoints support HTTPS, and its documentation says communications are encrypted using TLS.Read 2 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Compliance
AWS states that third-party audits cover Rekognition under SOC, PCI, FedRAMP, HIPAA, and other compliance programs.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Headquarters
Seattle, Washington, United StatesRead 28 Sep 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Founded
2006Read 28 Sep 2026 · aws.amazon.com
API pagination
GetContentModeration supports MaxResults and NextToken pagination when a video produces many moderation labels.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
API workflow
For stored video, StartContentModeration analyzes a video in an Amazon S3 bucket and publishes completion status to an Amazon SNS topic.Read 2 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Company founded
AWS states it launched in 2006.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com
Company headquarters
LinkedIn lists Seattle, Washington as AWS headquarters.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com
Company legal name
The maker is Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud business of Amazon.com, Inc.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com
Company size
LinkedIn lists AWS company size as 10,001+ employees.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com
Confidence control
Developers can set MinConfidence to trade recall for precision when filtering moderation results.Read 15 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Custom models
Custom Moderation trains an adapter on annotated images and supplies its AdapterID to DetectModerationLabels to improve results for a specific use case.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Data handling
Images and videos passed to Rekognition may be stored and used to improve the service unless the customer opts out; the stored content is encrypted at rest using AWS KMS.Read 2 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Deployment model
TrustRadius classifies Amazon Rekognition as SaaS and reports no mobile application.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustradius.com
Detected categories
The API detects adult content, violence, weapons, disturbing imagery, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, hate symbols, gambling, and rude gestures.Read 15 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Detection results
The service returns detected labels and video timestamps with confidence scores, which can be used with a hierarchical taxonomy to create granular rules.Read 2 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Documentation depth
AWS documentation covers getting started, SDK installation, images, stored video, streaming video, moderation APIs, custom adapters, and human review workflows.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Hierarchical labels
Moderation results use a three-level taxonomy with L1, L2, and L3 labels and include each label's taxonomy level.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Human review
The service integrates with Amazon Augmented AI so teams or third-party reviewers can assess low-confidence predictions.Read 2 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Human review integration
Amazon Augmented AI is integrated so human reviewers can handle a smaller set of machine-flagged content.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Image API
Images can be moderated synchronously with DetectModerationLabels or asynchronously with StartMediaAnalysisJob and GetMediaAnalysisJob.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Input requirements
The documented image procedure accepts JPEG or PNG input supplied as bytes or as an Amazon S3 object.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Licence
Rekognition is presented as a managed AWS SaaS/API service; the reviewed product pages do not provide an open-source licence or self-hosted distribution.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustradius.com
Limit: complexity and configuration
Gartner reviewers describe initial setup as complicated and slow, with rigid configuration and data limitations.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gartner.com
Limit: cost for small companies
TrustRadius reviewers say costs can be high for small companies and that subscription pricing affects return on investment.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustradius.com
Limit: latency and OCR scope
TrustRadius reviewers report occasional API delays and say OCR/text processing was unavailable in their Rekognition use case.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustradius.com
Limit: learning curve and price
G2 reviewers mention a learning curve, desire for lower pricing, and difficulty interpreting complex JSON output.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com
Limit: privacy and bias
G2 reviewers raise privacy, surveillance, bias, and facial-recognition misuse concerns.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com
Moderation categories
It detects categories including explicit or suggestive content, violence, drugs, tobacco, alcohol, hate symbols, gambling, and disturbing content.Read 2 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Praise: accuracy and ease
G2 reviewers repeatedly praise accurate image and video analysis, low false positives, ease of use, and straightforward AWS API integration.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com
Praise: API usability
TrustRadius reviewers praise the simple API-call workflow, reliable accuracy, image tagging, precise object detection, and easy video tagging.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustradius.com
Praise: scale and ecosystem
Gartner reviewers praise AWS scalability, mature core infrastructure, broad service coverage, IAM security, and governance tooling.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gartner.com
Rating on G2
4.3 out of 5 from 28 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com
Rating on Gartner Peer Insights
4.6 out of 5 from 5320 ratingsRead 15 Oct 2026 · gartner.com
Rating on TrustRadius
9.9 out of 10 from 5 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · trustradius.com
Regional availability
Rekognition API endpoints are offered across AWS regions including US, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Canada, Israel, South America, and GovCloud, with feature differences by region.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Scaling and billing
AWS says the service processes from a few to millions of images and videos, charges based on images or video duration processed, and has no minimum fees, licenses, or upfront commitments.Read 2 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
SDK and CLI setup
The image moderation guide requires the AWS CLI or an AWS SDK plus IAM permissions and an S3 bucket.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Security controls
AWS documents IAM, data protection, VPC endpoints, resilience, vulnerability analysis, and infrastructure security for Rekognition.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Service limitation
AWS says the Content Moderation API is not exhaustive and does not determine whether content is illegal, including child sexual abuse material.Read 15 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Service limitation: accuracy
AWS recommends testing model accuracy on a customer's own datasets because precision and recall vary with the MinConfidence setting.Read 15 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Supported languages
TrustRadius lists English, Arabic, Russian, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustradius.com
Use cases
AWS describes use cases including social media, gaming, ecommerce, advertising, and media and entertainment.Read 2 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Video API
Stored videos are moderated asynchronously through StartContentModeration and GetContentModeration.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com

Plans and prices

Amazon Rekognition Custom Moderation adapter Free $0.0012 per image for the first 1 million images in the US East (N. Virginia) example; training is $5 per hour Tiered image pricing · custom adapter can be trained with as few as 20 annotated images Read 2 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Amazon Rekognition Free Tier Free Free Tier lasts 12 months from account creation 60 free video analysis minutes per month, including Content Moderation · 2 free training hours per month for a custom moderation adapter Read 2 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Amazon Rekognition Video Content Moderation $0.10 a month $0.10/min for stored video analysis in the us-east-1 example Pay per video minute · no upfront costs or minimum fees Read 2 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Custom Moderation adapter Price not published training billed once by minute; inference billed by monthly image volume adapter can train with as few as 20 annotated images · 2 free training hours/month for 12 months Read 15 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Standard image moderation (DetectModerationLabels, Group 2) Price not published pay as you go tiered monthly image volume · no upfront fee or minimum Read 15 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Video content moderation Price not published pay as you go 60 free video-analysis minutes/month for 12 months · stored-video analysis from S3 · streaming video uses Kinesis Video Streams separately Read 15 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com

Every Amazon Rekognition Content Moderation plan and price →

Strong points and limits

Strong points

  • Detects a range of image and video content categories.
  • Returns confidence scores and timestamps for video.
  • Custom adapter training can start with 20 annotated images.
  • Low-confidence results can go to human review.
  • Free Tier includes monthly video analysis and training hours.

Limits

  • Does not moderate text or audio.
  • Data may be used to improve the service unless customers opt out.
  • Free Tier lasts 12 months from account creation.
  • Billing is based on processed images or video duration.

Who it suits

This service suits teams moderating images or video in social media, gaming, ecommerce, advertising, or media and entertainment. Teams needing human review can connect low-confidence results to Amazon Augmented AI.

Verdict

Rekognition Content Moderation is focused on image and video workflows, with adjustable rules and an option for human review. Review the data-use terms and usage-based billing before sending content for analysis.

Where Specifiction places it

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