v1

latestOpenAPI 3.0.0Apache 2.0 License2026-07-1465453454.1 KB

Compares a face in the source input image with each of the 100 largest faces detected in the target input image.

If the source image contains multiple faces, the service detects the largest face and compares it with each face detected in the target image.

CompareFaces uses machine learning algorithms, which are probabilistic. A false negative is an incorrect prediction that a face in the target image has a low similarity confidence score when compared to the face in the source image. To reduce the probability of false negatives, we recommend that you compare the target image against multiple source images. If you plan to use CompareFaces to make a decision that impacts an individual's rights, privacy, or access to services, we recommend that you pass the result to a human for review and further validation before taking action.

You pass the input and target images either as base64-encoded image bytes or as references to images in an Amazon S3 bucket. If you use the AWS CLI to call Amazon Rekognition operations, passing image bytes isn't supported. The image must be formatted as a PNG or JPEG file.

In response, the operation returns an array of face matches ordered by similarity score in descending order. For each face match, the response provides a bounding box of the face, facial landmarks, pose details (pitch, roll, and yaw), quality (brightness and sharpness), and confidence value (indicating the level of confidence that the bounding box contains a face). The response also provides a similarity score, which indicates how closely the faces match.

By default, only faces with a similarity score of greater than or equal to 80% are returned in the response. You can change this value by specifying the SimilarityThreshold parameter.

CompareFaces also returns an array of faces that don't match the source image. For each face, it returns a bounding box, confidence value, landmarks, pose details, and quality. The response also returns information about the face in the source image, including the bounding box of the face and confidence value.

The QualityFilter input parameter allows you to filter out detected faces that don’t meet a required quality bar. The quality bar is based on a variety of common use cases. Use QualityFilter to set the quality bar by specifying LOW, MEDIUM, or HIGH. If you do not want to filter detected faces, specify NONE. The default value is NONE.

If the image doesn't contain Exif metadata, CompareFaces returns orientation information for the source and target images. Use these values to display the images with the correct image orientation.

If no faces are detected in the source or target images, CompareFaces returns an InvalidParameterException error.

This is a stateless API operation. That is, data returned by this operation doesn't persist.

For an example, see Comparing Faces in Images in the Amazon Rekognition Developer Guide.

This operation requires permissions to perform the rekognition:CompareFaces action.

post/#X-Amz-Target=RekognitionService.CompareFaces

Headers

X-Amz-Target'RekognitionService.CompareFaces' required

Request body

SimilarityThresholdnumber float

The minimum level of confidence in the face matches that a match must meet to be included in the <code>FaceMatches</code> array.

QualityFilter'NONE' | 'AUTO' | 'LOW' | 'MEDIUM' | 'HIGH'
<p>A filter that specifies a quality bar for how much filtering is done to identify faces. Filtered faces aren't compared. If you specify <code>AUTO</code>, Amazon Rekognition chooses the quality bar. If you specify <code>LOW</code>, <code>MEDIUM</code>, or <code>HIGH</code>, filtering removes all faces that don’t meet the chosen quality bar. The quality bar is based on a variety of common use cases. Low-quality detections can occur for a number of reasons. Some examples are an object that's misidentified as a face, a face that's too blurry, or a face with a pose that's too extreme to use. If you specify <code>NONE</code>, no filtering is performed. The default value is <code>NONE</code>. </p> <p>To use quality filtering, the collection you are using must be associated with version 3 of the face model or higher.</p>

Response

Success

SourceImageOrientationCorrection'ROTATE_0' | 'ROTATE_90' | 'ROTATE_180' | 'ROTATE_270'
<p>The value of <code>SourceImageOrientationCorrection</code> is always null.</p> <p>If the input image is in .jpeg format, it might contain exchangeable image file format (Exif) metadata that includes the image's orientation. Amazon Rekognition uses this orientation information to perform image correction. The bounding box coordinates are translated to represent object locations after the orientation information in the Exif metadata is used to correct the image orientation. Images in .png format don't contain Exif metadata.</p> <p>Amazon Rekognition doesn’t perform image correction for images in .png format and .jpeg images without orientation information in the image Exif metadata. The bounding box coordinates aren't translated and represent the object locations before the image is rotated. </p>
TargetImageOrientationCorrection'ROTATE_0' | 'ROTATE_90' | 'ROTATE_180' | 'ROTATE_270'
<p>The value of <code>TargetImageOrientationCorrection</code> is always null.</p> <p>If the input image is in .jpeg format, it might contain exchangeable image file format (Exif) metadata that includes the image's orientation. Amazon Rekognition uses this orientation information to perform image correction. The bounding box coordinates are translated to represent object locations after the orientation information in the Exif metadata is used to correct the image orientation. Images in .png format don't contain Exif metadata.</p> <p>Amazon Rekognition doesn’t perform image correction for images in .png format and .jpeg images without orientation information in the image Exif metadata. The bounding box coordinates aren't translated and represent the object locations before the image is rotated. </p>

Example response

{
  "FaceMatches": [
    {
      "Face": {
        "BoundingBox": {
          "Height": 0.33481481671333313,
          "Left": 0.31888890266418457,
          "Top": 0.4933333396911621,
          "Width": 0.25
        },
        "Confidence": 99.9991226196289
      },
      "Similarity": 100
    }
  ],
  "SourceImageFace": {
    "BoundingBox": {
      "Height": 0.33481481671333313,
      "Left": 0.31888890266418457,
      "Top": 0.4933333396911621,
      "Width": 0.25
    },
    "Confidence": 99.9991226196289
  }
}
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