Google Cloud Vision API Product Search vs Watson
Google Cloud Vision API Product Search
docs.cloud.google.comWatson
searchwatson.comSide by side
| Figure | Google Cloud Vision API Product Search | Watson |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $0.10/mo | $24.99/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 5 | 7 |
| Spec score · AI Reverse Image Search Tools | 8.0 (#11) | 7.6 (#22) |
| Purpose | Vision API Product Search lets retailers create products with reference images, group them into product sets, and find visually and semantically similar products from user query images. | Watson is a reverse image search app that finds visually similar images on publicly accessible webpages and links to the source pages. |
| Support | Google Cloud directs users to Stack Overflow with the google-cloud-vision tag, a discussion group, and paid support packages that can include 24/7 coverage, phone support, and a technical support manager. | Watson lists a two-business-day response target and directs users to email support for search, result, purchase, account, privacy, and safety issues. |
Plans
Google Cloud Vision API Product Search
- Prediction, 0–1,000 images/monthFree
- Storage, 0–1,000 images/monthFree
- Storage, 1,001–20,000,000 images/month$0.10 a month
- Prediction, 5,000,001–20,000,000 images/month$1.80 a month
- Prediction, 1,001–5,000,000 images/month$4.50 a month
Watson
- Free search creditFree
- 1 Search Credit$0.99, paid once
- 5 Search Credits$4.99, paid once
- 10 Search Credits$9.49, paid once
- 25 Search Credits$22.99, paid once
- Watson Monthly$24.99 a month
- 50 Search Credits$44.99, paid once
In their own words
Google Cloud Vision API Product Search
Google Cloud Vision API Product Search lets retailers build catalogs from products and reference images, organize them into product sets, and find visually or semantically similar items from query images. Supported categories include homegoods, apparel, toys, packaged goods, and general. Query images can come from Google Cloud Storage, a web URL, or a base64 string. Optional product-label filters support AND or OR expressions under documented rules. Calls are available through REST, RPC, and Google Cloud client libraries, while CSV import can create product sets, products, and reference images in bulk. The free plan covers prediction and storage for 0–1,000 images monthly. Listed paid storage starts at $0.10 per 1,000 images; prediction is $4.50 or $1.80 per 1,000 at higher tiers. Index updates occur approximately daily. Limits include 20 MB images, 10 MB JSON objects, and 16 images per request.