Detect Labels

The Vision API can detect and extract information about entities in an image, across a broad group of categories.

Labels can identify general objects, locations, activities, animal species, products, and more. If you need targeted custom labels, Cloud AutoML Vision allows you to train a custom machine learning model to classify images.

Labels are returned in English only. The Cloud Translation API can translate English labels into any of a number of other languages.

Setagaya ward street image — *Image credit*: Alex Knight on Unsplash.

For example, the image above may return the following list of labels:

Description	Score
Street	0.872
Snapshot	0.852
Town	0.848
Night	0.804
Alley	0.713

Label detection requests

Set up your GCP project and authentication

If you have not created a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) project and service account credentials, do so now. Expand this section for instructions.

Sign in to your Google Account.
If you don't already have one, sign up for a new account.
Set up a Cloud Console project.
Set up a project
Click to:
- Create or select a project.
- Enable the Cloud Vision API for that project.
- Create a service account.
- Download a private key as JSON.
You can view and manage these resources at any time in the Cloud Console.

Set the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key. This variable only applies to your current shell session, so if you open a new session, set the variable again.
Example: Linux or macOS

Replace [PATH] with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.
```
export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="[PATH]"
```
For example:
```
export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/home/user/Downloads/service-account-file.json"
```
Example: Windows

Replace [PATH] with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key, and [FILE_NAME] with the filename.

With PowerShell:
```
$env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="[PATH]"
```
For example:
```
$env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="C:\Users\username\Downloads\[FILE_NAME].json"
```
With command prompt:
```
set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=[PATH]
```
Install and initialize the Cloud SDK.

Detect Labels in a local image

The Vision API can perform feature detection on a local image file by sending the contents of the image file as a base64 encoded string in the body of your request.

REST & CMD LINE

Before using any of the request data below, make the following replacements:

base64-encoded-image: The base64 representation (ASCII string) of your binary image data. This string should look similar to the following string:
- /9j/4QAYRXhpZgAA...9tAVx/zDQDlGxn//2Q==
Visit the base64 encode topic for more information.

HTTP method and URL:

POST https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate

Request JSON body:

{
  "requests": [
    {
      "image": {
        "content": "base64-encoded-image"
      },
      "features": [
        {
          "maxResults": 5,
          "type": "LABEL_DETECTION"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

To send your request, choose one of these options:

curl

Save the request body in a file called request.json, and execute the following command:

curl -X POST \
-H "Authorization: Bearer "$(gcloud auth application-default print-access-token) \
-H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
-d @request.json \
https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate

PowerShell

Save the request body in a file called request.json, and execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth application-default print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
  -Method POST `
  -Headers $headers `
  -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
  -InFile request.json `
  -Uri "https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate" | Select-Object -Expand Content

If the request is successful, the server returns a 200 OK HTTP status code and the response in JSON format.

A LABEL_DETECTION response includes the detected labels, their score, topicality, and an opaque label ID, where:

mid - if present, contains a machine-generated identifier (MID) corresponding to the entity's Google Knowledge Graph entry. Note that mid values remain unique across different languages, so you can use these values to tie entities together from different languages. To inspect MID values, refer to the Google Knowledge Graph API documentation.
description - the label description.
score - the confidence score, which ranges from 0 (no confidence) to 1 (very high confidence).
topicality - The relevancy of the ICA (Image Content Annotation) label to the image. It measures how important/central a label is to the overall context of a page.

{
  "responses": [
    {
      "labelAnnotations": [
        {
          "mid": "/m/01c8br",
          "description": "Street",
          "score": 0.87294734,
          "topicality": 0.87294734
        },
        {
          "mid": "/m/06pg22",
          "description": "Snapshot",
          "score": 0.8523099,
          "topicality": 0.8523099
        },
        {
          "mid": "/m/0dx1j",
          "description": "Town",
          "score": 0.8481104,
          "topicality": 0.8481104
        },
        {
          "mid": "/m/01d74z",
          "description": "Night",
          "score": 0.80408716,
          "topicality": 0.80408716
        },
        {
          "mid": "/m/01lwf0",
          "description": "Alley",
          "score": 0.7133322,
          "topicality": 0.7133322
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

C#

Before trying this sample, follow the C# setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API C# API reference documentation.

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// Load an image from a local file.
var image = Image.FromFile(filePath);
var client = ImageAnnotatorClient.Create();
var response = client.DetectLabels(image);
foreach (var annotation in response)
{
    if (annotation.Description != null)
        Console.WriteLine(annotation.Description);
}

Go

Before trying this sample, follow the Go setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Go API reference documentation.

View on GitHub Feedback


// detectLabels gets labels from the Vision API for an image at the given file path.
func detectLabels(w io.Writer, file string) error {
	ctx := context.Background()

	client, err := vision.NewImageAnnotatorClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	f, err := os.Open(file)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	defer f.Close()

	image, err := vision.NewImageFromReader(f)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	annotations, err := client.DetectLabels(ctx, image, nil, 10)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	if len(annotations) == 0 {
		fmt.Fprintln(w, "No labels found.")
	} else {
		fmt.Fprintln(w, "Labels:")
		for _, annotation := range annotations {
			fmt.Fprintln(w, annotation.Description)
		}
	}

	return nil
}

Java

Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Java API reference documentation.

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public static void detectLabels(String filePath, PrintStream out) throws Exception, IOException {
  List<AnnotateImageRequest> requests = new ArrayList<>();

  ByteString imgBytes = ByteString.readFrom(new FileInputStream(filePath));

  Image img = Image.newBuilder().setContent(imgBytes).build();
  Feature feat = Feature.newBuilder().setType(Type.LABEL_DETECTION).build();
  AnnotateImageRequest request =
      AnnotateImageRequest.newBuilder().addFeatures(feat).setImage(img).build();
  requests.add(request);

  try (ImageAnnotatorClient client = ImageAnnotatorClient.create()) {
    BatchAnnotateImagesResponse response = client.batchAnnotateImages(requests);
    List<AnnotateImageResponse> responses = response.getResponsesList();

    for (AnnotateImageResponse res : responses) {
      if (res.hasError()) {
        out.printf("Error: %s\n", res.getError().getMessage());
        return;
      }

      // For full list of available annotations, see http://g.co/cloud/vision/docs
      for (EntityAnnotation annotation : res.getLabelAnnotationsList()) {
        annotation.getAllFields().forEach((k, v) -> out.printf("%s : %s\n", k, v.toString()));
      }
    }
  }
}

Node.js

Before trying this sample, follow the Node.js setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Node.js API reference documentation.

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// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const vision = require('@google-cloud/vision');

// Creates a client
const client = new vision.ImageAnnotatorClient();

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following line before running the sample.
 */
// const fileName = 'Local image file, e.g. /path/to/image.png';

// Performs label detection on the local file
const [result] = await client.labelDetection(fileName);
const labels = result.labelAnnotations;
console.log('Labels:');
labels.forEach(label => console.log(label.description));

PHP

Before trying this sample, follow the PHP setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API PHP API reference documentation.

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namespace Google\Cloud\Samples\Vision;

use Google\Cloud\Vision\V1\ImageAnnotatorClient;

// $path = 'path/to/your/image.jpg'

function detect_label($path)
{
    $imageAnnotator = new ImageAnnotatorClient();

    # annotate the image
    $image = file_get_contents($path);
    $response = $imageAnnotator->labelDetection($image);
    $labels = $response->getLabelAnnotations();

    if ($labels) {
        print("Labels:" . PHP_EOL);
        foreach ($labels as $label) {
            print($label->getDescription() . PHP_EOL);
        }
    } else {
        print('No label found' . PHP_EOL);
    }

    $imageAnnotator->close();
}

Python

Before trying this sample, follow the Python setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Python API reference documentation.

View on GitHub Feedback

def detect_labels(path):
    """Detects labels in the file."""
    from google.cloud import vision
    import io
    client = vision.ImageAnnotatorClient()

    with io.open(path, 'rb') as image_file:
        content = image_file.read()

    image = vision.types.Image(content=content)

    response = client.label_detection(image=image)
    labels = response.label_annotations
    print('Labels:')

    for label in labels:
        print(label.description)

    if response.error.message:
        raise Exception(
            '{}\nFor more info on error messages, check: '
            'https://cloud.google.com/apis/design/errors'.format(
                response.error.message))

Ruby

Before trying this sample, follow the Ruby setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Ruby API reference documentation.

View on GitHub Feedback

# image_path = "Path to local image file, eg. './image.png'"

require "google/cloud/vision"

image_annotator = Google::Cloud::Vision::ImageAnnotator.new

response = image_annotator.label_detection(
  image:       image_path,
  max_results: 15 # optional, defaults to 10
)

response.responses.each do |res|
  res.label_annotations.each do |label|
    puts label.description
  end
end

Detect Labels in a remote image

For your convenience, the Vision API can perform feature detection directly on an image file located in Google Cloud Storage or on the Web without the need to send the contents of the image file in the body of your request.

REST & CMD LINE

Before using any of the request data below, make the following replacements:

cloud-storage-image-uri: the path to a valid image file in a Cloud Storage bucket. You must at least have read privileges to the file. Example:
- ```
gs://cloud-samples-data/vision/label/setagaya.jpeg
```

HTTP method and URL:

POST https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate

Request JSON body:

{
  "requests": [
    {
      "image": {
        "source": {
          "gcsImageUri": "cloud-storage-image-uri"
        }
      },
      "features": [
        {
          "maxResults": 5,
          "type": "LABEL_DETECTION"
        },
      ]
    }
  ]
}

To send your request, choose one of these options:

curl

Save the request body in a file called request.json, and execute the following command:

curl -X POST \
-H "Authorization: Bearer "$(gcloud auth application-default print-access-token) \
-H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
-d @request.json \
https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate

PowerShell

Save the request body in a file called request.json, and execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth application-default print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
  -Method POST `
  -Headers $headers `
  -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
  -InFile request.json `
  -Uri "https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate" | Select-Object -Expand Content

If the request is successful, the server returns a 200 OK HTTP status code and the response in JSON format.

A LABEL_DETECTION response includes the detected labels, their score, topicality, and an opaque label ID, where:

mid - if present, contains a machine-generated identifier (MID) corresponding to the entity's Google Knowledge Graph entry. Note that mid values remain unique across different languages, so you can use these values to tie entities together from different languages. To inspect MID values, refer to the Google Knowledge Graph API documentation.
description - the label description.
score - the confidence score, which ranges from 0 (no confidence) to 1 (very high confidence).
topicality - The relevancy of the Image Content Annotation (ICA) label to the image. It measures how important/central a label is to the overall context of a page.

{
  "responses": [
    {
      "labelAnnotations": [
        {
          "mid": "/m/01c8br",
          "description": "Street",
          "score": 0.87294734,
          "topicality": 0.87294734
        },
        {
          "mid": "/m/06pg22",
          "description": "Snapshot",
          "score": 0.8523099,
          "topicality": 0.8523099
        },
        {
          "mid": "/m/0dx1j",
          "description": "Town",
          "score": 0.8481104,
          "topicality": 0.8481104
        },
        {
          "mid": "/m/01d74z",
          "description": "Night",
          "score": 0.80408716,
          "topicality": 0.80408716
        },
        {
          "mid": "/m/01lwf0",
          "description": "Alley",
          "score": 0.7133322,
          "topicality": 0.7133322
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

C#

Before trying this sample, follow the C# setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API C# API reference documentation.

View on GitHub Feedback

// Specify a Google Cloud Storage uri for the image
// or a publicly accessible HTTP or HTTPS uri.
var image = Image.FromUri(uri);
var client = ImageAnnotatorClient.Create();
var response = client.DetectLabels(image);
foreach (var annotation in response)
{
    if (annotation.Description != null)
        Console.WriteLine(annotation.Description);
}

Go

Before trying this sample, follow the Go setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Go API reference documentation.

View on GitHub Feedback


// detectLabels gets labels from the Vision API for an image at the given file path.
func detectLabelsURI(w io.Writer, file string) error {
	ctx := context.Background()

	client, err := vision.NewImageAnnotatorClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	image := vision.NewImageFromURI(file)
	annotations, err := client.DetectLabels(ctx, image, nil, 10)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	if len(annotations) == 0 {
		fmt.Fprintln(w, "No labels found.")
	} else {
		fmt.Fprintln(w, "Labels:")
		for _, annotation := range annotations {
			fmt.Fprintln(w, annotation.Description)
		}
	}

	return nil
}

Java

Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Java API reference documentation.

View on GitHub Feedback

public static void detectLabelsGcs(String gcsPath, PrintStream out) throws Exception,
    IOException {
  List<AnnotateImageRequest> requests = new ArrayList<>();

  ImageSource imgSource = ImageSource.newBuilder().setGcsImageUri(gcsPath).build();
  Image img = Image.newBuilder().setSource(imgSource).build();
  Feature feat = Feature.newBuilder().setType(Type.LABEL_DETECTION).build();
  AnnotateImageRequest request =
      AnnotateImageRequest.newBuilder().addFeatures(feat).setImage(img).build();
  requests.add(request);

  try (ImageAnnotatorClient client = ImageAnnotatorClient.create()) {
    BatchAnnotateImagesResponse response = client.batchAnnotateImages(requests);
    List<AnnotateImageResponse> responses = response.getResponsesList();

    for (AnnotateImageResponse res : responses) {
      if (res.hasError()) {
        out.printf("Error: %s\n", res.getError().getMessage());
        return;
      }

      // For full list of available annotations, see http://g.co/cloud/vision/docs
      for (EntityAnnotation annotation : res.getLabelAnnotationsList()) {
        annotation.getAllFields().forEach((k, v) ->
            out.printf("%s : %s\n", k, v.toString()));
      }
    }
  }
}

Node.js

Before trying this sample, follow the Node.js setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Node.js API reference documentation.

View on GitHub Feedback

// Imports the Google Cloud client libraries
const vision = require('@google-cloud/vision');

// Creates a client
const client = new vision.ImageAnnotatorClient();

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following lines before running the sample.
 */
// const bucketName = 'Bucket where the file resides, e.g. my-bucket';
// const fileName = 'Path to file within bucket, e.g. path/to/image.png';

// Performs label detection on the gcs file
const [result] = await client.labelDetection(
  `gs://${bucketName}/${fileName}`
);
const labels = result.labelAnnotations;
console.log('Labels:');
labels.forEach(label => console.log(label.description));

PHP

Before trying this sample, follow the PHP setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API PHP API reference documentation.

View on GitHub Feedback

namespace Google\Cloud\Samples\Vision;

use Google\Cloud\Vision\V1\ImageAnnotatorClient;

// $path = 'gs://path/to/your/image.jpg'

function detect_label_gcs($path)
{
    $imageAnnotator = new ImageAnnotatorClient();

    # annotate the image
    $response = $imageAnnotator->labelDetection($path);
    $labels = $response->getLabelAnnotations();

    if ($labels) {
        print("Labels:" . PHP_EOL);
        foreach ($labels as $label) {
            print($label->getDescription() . PHP_EOL);
        }
    } else {
        print('No label found' . PHP_EOL);
    }

    $imageAnnotator->close();
}

Python

Before trying this sample, follow the Python setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Python API reference documentation.

View on GitHub Feedback

def detect_labels_uri(uri):
    """Detects labels in the file located in Google Cloud Storage or on the
    Web."""
    from google.cloud import vision
    client = vision.ImageAnnotatorClient()
    image = vision.types.Image()
    image.source.image_uri = uri

    response = client.label_detection(image=image)
    labels = response.label_annotations
    print('Labels:')

    for label in labels:
        print(label.description)

    if response.error.message:
        raise Exception(
            '{}\nFor more info on error messages, check: '
            'https://cloud.google.com/apis/design/errors'.format(
                response.error.message))

Ruby

Before trying this sample, follow the Ruby setup instructions in the Vision API Quickstart Using Client Libraries. For more information, see the Vision API Ruby API reference documentation.

View on GitHub Feedback

# image_path = "Google Cloud Storage URI, eg. 'gs://my-bucket/image.png'"

require "google/cloud/vision"

image_annotator = Google::Cloud::Vision::ImageAnnotator.new

response = image_annotator.label_detection(
  image:       image_path,
  max_results: 15 # optional, defaults to 10
)

response.responses.each do |res|
  res.label_annotations.each do |label|
    puts label.description
  end
end

gcloud command

To detect labels in an image, use the gcloud ml vision detect-labels command as shown in the following example:

gcloud ml vision detect-labels gs://cloud-samples-data/vision/label/setagaya.jpeg

Try it

Try label detection below. You can use the image specified already (gs://cloud-samples-data/vision/label/setagaya.jpeg) or specify your own image in its place. Send the request by selecting Execute.