Azure AI Content Understanding SDK for Python

Multimodal AI service that extracts semantic content from documents, video, audio, and image files for RAG and automated workflows.

Installation

bash

pip install azure-ai-contentunderstanding

Environment Variables

bash

CONTENTUNDERSTANDING_ENDPOINT=https://<resource>.cognitiveservices.azure.com/

Authentication

python

import os
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding import ContentUnderstandingClient
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

endpoint = os.environ["CONTENTUNDERSTANDING_ENDPOINT"]
credential = DefaultAzureCredential()
client = ContentUnderstandingClient(endpoint=endpoint, credential=credential)

Core Workflow

Content Understanding operations are asynchronous long-running operations:

•Begin Analysis — Start the analysis operation with begin_analyze() (returns a poller)
•Poll for Results — Poll until analysis completes (SDK handles this with .result())
•Process Results — Extract structured results from AnalyzeResult.contents

Prebuilt Analyzers

Analyzer	Content Type	Purpose
`prebuilt-documentSearch`	Documents	Extract markdown for RAG applications
`prebuilt-imageSearch`	Images	Extract content from images
`prebuilt-audioSearch`	Audio	Transcribe audio with timing
`prebuilt-videoSearch`	Video	Extract frames, transcripts, summaries
`prebuilt-invoice`	Documents	Extract invoice fields

Analyze Document

python

import os
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding import ContentUnderstandingClient
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

endpoint = os.environ["CONTENTUNDERSTANDING_ENDPOINT"]
client = ContentUnderstandingClient(
    endpoint=endpoint,
    credential=DefaultAzureCredential()
)

# Analyze document from URL
poller = client.begin_analyze(
    analyzer_id="prebuilt-documentSearch",
    inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/document.pdf")]
)

result = poller.result()

# Access markdown content (contents is a list)
content = result.contents[0]
print(content.markdown)

Access Document Content Details

python

from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import MediaContentKind, DocumentContent

content = result.contents[0]
if content.kind == MediaContentKind.DOCUMENT:
    document_content: DocumentContent = content  # type: ignore
    print(document_content.start_page_number)

Analyze Image

python

from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput

poller = client.begin_analyze(
    analyzer_id="prebuilt-imageSearch",
    inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/image.jpg")]
)
result = poller.result()
content = result.contents[0]
print(content.markdown)

Analyze Video

python

from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput

poller = client.begin_analyze(
    analyzer_id="prebuilt-videoSearch",
    inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/video.mp4")]
)

result = poller.result()

# Access video content (AudioVisualContent)
content = result.contents[0]

# Get transcript phrases with timing
for phrase in content.transcript_phrases:
    print(f"[{phrase.start_time} - {phrase.end_time}]: {phrase.text}")

# Get key frames (for video)
for frame in content.key_frames:
    print(f"Frame at {frame.time}: {frame.description}")

Analyze Audio

python

from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput

poller = client.begin_analyze(
    analyzer_id="prebuilt-audioSearch",
    inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/audio.mp3")]
)

result = poller.result()

# Access audio transcript
content = result.contents[0]
for phrase in content.transcript_phrases:
    print(f"[{phrase.start_time}] {phrase.text}")

Custom Analyzers

Create custom analyzers with field schemas for specialized extraction:

python

# Create custom analyzer
analyzer = client.create_analyzer(
    analyzer_id="my-invoice-analyzer",
    analyzer={
        "description": "Custom invoice analyzer",
        "base_analyzer_id": "prebuilt-documentSearch",
        "field_schema": {
            "fields": {
                "vendor_name": {"type": "string"},
                "invoice_total": {"type": "number"},
                "line_items": {
                    "type": "array",
                    "items": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "description": {"type": "string"},
                            "amount": {"type": "number"}
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
)

# Use custom analyzer
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput

poller = client.begin_analyze(
    analyzer_id="my-invoice-analyzer",
    inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/invoice.pdf")]
)

result = poller.result()

# Access extracted fields
print