SFW API vs Google Cloud Vision SafeSearch
Last updated Mon Nov 09 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
| SFW API | Google Cloud Vision SafeSearch | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 500 credits/month | 1,000 units/month |
| Price | $10 for 10,000 ($1.00/1k), down to $0.50/1k | $1.50 per 1,000 units, $0.60 above 5M |
| Output | level 0–3 with scores, flags, policy | five likelihood buckets for adult, racy, violence, medical, spoof |
| Granularity | ordinal level with calibrated scores | VERY_UNLIKELY … VERY_LIKELY |
| Video | frames in the same call | separate Video Intelligence API |
| Storage | nothing stored | per Google Cloud terms |
Choose SafeSearch if you already use Cloud Vision for OCR or labels and only need a coarse adult/racy signal. Choose the SFW API when you need to tell swimwear from implied nudity from explicit content and want a numeric scale.
Mapping
| SafeSearch | SFW API |
|---|---|
adult LIKELY / VERY_LIKELY | level 3 Explicit (sometimes 2) |
racy LIKELY / VERY_LIKELY with adult ≤ POSSIBLE | level 1–2 |
| both ≤ UNLIKELY | level 0 |