Google Cloud Vision Alternative: VIN OCR API

What Google Cloud Vision Is

Google Cloud Vision provides general-purpose text detection for images. Choosing between it and an API comes down to where processing runs, how you pay, and which documents you need.

Where StructOCR Differs

StructOCR is a server-side REST API: you send an image and receive structured JSON for vin. There is no SDK to embed, billing is 1 credit per successful request, credits never expire, and failed requests are not billed. See the VIN API docs or try the free scanner.

Where This Fits

• Choose Google Cloud Vision when: you need general text from many kinds of images and will build VIN extraction logic yourself.
• Choose StructOCR when: you want the VIN itself returned as a field, with the carrier type, instead of raw text blocks.
• Use both when: You capture on a device with one tool and need server-side extraction or a fallback for uploaded images with the other.

Try the API in a Few Lines

A complete request takes one HTTP call with your API key.

Prerequisite: Python 3.9+, `pip install requests`, and a STRUCTOCR_API_KEY

import base64
import os
import requests

with open("vin.jpg", "rb") as image_file:
    image = base64.b64encode(image_file.read()).decode("ascii")

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.structocr.com/v1/vin",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["STRUCTOCR_API_KEY"]},
    json={"img": image},
    timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
data = response.json()["data"]
print("vin:", data.get("vin"))
print("confidence:", data.get("confidence"))
print("carrier_type:", data.get("carrier_type"))

Response Shape

Illustrative fields returned by the StructOCR API for this document type.

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "vin": "…",
    "confidence": "…",
    "carrier_type": "…"
  }
}