Overview
Azure AI Document Intelligence (formerly Form Recognizer) is Microsoft's document AI service. The Automize Azure Doc Intelligence connector covers prebuilt models (invoices, receipts, ID documents, layout) plus custom-trained models for org-specific document types.
- Regions: Azure AI Services are regional. Pick a region near your data. Connector pins to one region per connection.
- Plans: Free tier: 500 pages/month (S0). Standard tier: pay-per-page based on model.
Setting up the connection
Auth type: API Key.
- Azure Portal → Create resource → Azure AI Document Intelligence.
- Pick region + pricing tier (F0 free or S0 standard).
- Resource → Keys and Endpoint → copy KEY 1 + Endpoint URL.
- In Automize, open Settings → Connectors → Azure Doc Intelligence → Add connection. Paste endpoint + API key.
Find your credentials at https://portal.azure.com/.
Rate limits
Free tier 1 TPS. Standard 15 TPS per resource. Long-running operations (custom model training, multi-page analyses) are async.
Data model
Two model classes:
Prebuilt models – trained by Microsoft on common doc types:
Read – plain OCR (text only)
Layout – text + tables + structure
Invoice – normalised invoice fields
Receipt – normalised receipt fields
ID Document – passports, driver's licenses
Business Card – contact extraction
Custom models – trained on your labelled samples (Studio UI)Available operations
8 operations available. Click any row to jump to its detail.
| Operation | Category | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Analyze Custom Model | General | Analyze with a custom-trained model |
| Analyze ID Document | General | Extract data from an ID document (passport, driver's license) |
| Analyze Invoice | General | Extract data from an invoice |
| Analyze Layout | General | Extract text, tables, and structure from any document |
| OCR Read | General | Simple OCR – extract text from images/PDFs |
| Analyze Receipt | General | Extract data from a receipt |
| Get Analysis Result | General | Get result of an async analysis operation |
| List Models | General | List available document models |
Operations
Analyze Custom Model
Analyze with a custom-trained model
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Model Id model_id | Yes | text | |
Urlsource urlSource | Yes | text | |
Base64Source base64Source | Yes | text |
Tips
- Use a model trained in Document Intelligence Studio on your labeled samples.
- model_id: the model's UUID from Studio. Returns fields you defined during training.
Analyze ID Document
Extract data from an ID document (passport, driver's license)
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Urlsource urlSource | Yes | text | |
Base64Source base64Source | Yes | text |
Tips
- Normalised: FirstName, LastName, DateOfBirth, DocumentNumber, CountryRegion.
- Supports passports, US driver's licenses, EU/UK IDs.
Analyze Invoice
Extract data from an invoice
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Urlsource urlSource | Yes | text | |
Base64Source base64Source | Yes | text |
Tips
- Normalised fields: InvoiceId, InvoiceDate, VendorName, CustomerName, Items[], TotalTax, AmountDue.
- Returns confidence per field – set thresholds in your downstream logic.
Analyze Layout
Extract text, tables, and structure from any document
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Urlsource urlSource | Yes | text | |
Base64Source base64Source | Yes | text |
Tips
- OCR + table detection + paragraph + heading structure. Good for general structured extraction.
OCR Read
Simple OCR – extract text from images/PDFs
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Urlsource urlSource | Yes | text | |
Base64Source base64Source | Yes | text |
Tips
- Plain OCR – text only. Cheapest model. Use for indexing / searchable archives.
- urlSource: publicly accessible URL OR base64Source: base64-encoded bytes (max 4 MB).
Analyze Receipt
Extract data from a receipt
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Urlsource urlSource | Yes | text | |
Base64Source base64Source | Yes | text |
Tips
- Normalised: MerchantName, TransactionDate, Items[], Total. Optimised for printed receipts.
Get Analysis Result
Get result of an async analysis operation
| Parameter | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Model Id model_id | Yes | text | |
Result Id result_id | Yes | text |
Tips
- Multi-page docs may run async – Start operations return an Operation-Location. Use Get Result to poll status.
List Models
List available document models
No input parameters.
Tips
- Returns prebuilt + custom models available in your resource. Use to discover custom-model IDs.
FAQ
- Doc Intelligence vs AWS Textract vs Google Doc AI – which?
- Comparable accuracy on common docs. Doc Intelligence's invoice/receipt models are slightly more business-process-friendly out of the box. Textract has stronger forms/tables on hand-written docs. Test all three on your representative docs.
- Custom model training – how?
- In Azure Document Intelligence Studio. Upload ~5 labelled samples per field, the service trains a model + returns the model_id. Then call Analyze Custom with that ID.
- URL vs base64 input?
- URL is faster (Azure fetches directly). Base64 is needed for files not publicly hosted – max 4 MB request size. For larger files, push to Blob Storage first + pass the URL.
- v3 vs v4 API?
- Connector uses v4 (2024-11-30 GA). v3 is supported for backwards compat. New builds should use v4.