Create an Azure AI Video Indexer (VI) account

  • Article

Warning

Over the past year, Azure AI Video Indexer (VI) announced the removal of its dependency on Azure Media Services (AMS) due to its retirement. Features adjustments and changes were announced and a migration guide was provided.

The deadline to complete migration was June 30, 2024. VI has extended the update/migrate deadline so you can update your VI account and opt in to the AMS VI asset migration through August 31, 2024.

However, after June 30, if you have not updated your VI account, you won't be able to index new videos nor will you be able to play any videos that have not been migrated. If you update your account after June 30, you can resume indexing immediately but you won't be able to play videos indexed before the account update until they are migrated through the AMS VI migration.

Note

Face identification, customization and celebrity recognition features access is limited based on eligibility and usage criteria in order to support our Responsible AI principles. Face identification, customization and celebrity recognition features are only available to Microsoft managed customers and partners. Use the Face Recognition intake form to apply for access.

To start using Azure AI Video Indexer, create an Azure AI Video Indexer account.

This article walks you through the steps of creating the Azure AI Video Indexer account and its accompanying resources. The account that gets created is Azure Resource Manager (ARM) account. For information about different account types, see Overview of account types.

Trial account

You can use a free, trial account Azure AI Video Indexer and try it out with your content. No Azure subscription is required. The account provides up to 2,400 minutes of free indexing when using the Azure AI Video Indexer website or the Azure AI Video Indexer API (see developer portal).

Note

Trial accounts that haven't been used for 12 months might be deleted. To prevent its deletion, simply sign in the trial account.

The trial account option isn't available on the Azure Government cloud. For other Azure Government limitations, see Limitations of Azure AI Video Indexer on Azure Government.

Classic account

You can no longer create a classic account.

Classic accounts will be retired on June 30th, 2024. If you currently have a classic account, see the migration guide.

Prerequisites

  • An Azure subscription
  • At the subscription level, either the Owner role, or both Contributor and User Access Administrator roles

To determine what roles have currently been assigned, see View the access a user has to Azure resources.

  1. In the Azure portal, select + Create a resource.
  2. Search for and select Azure AI Video Indexer. The Create a Video Indexer resource page appears.
  3. Create a resource group and selecting the region.
  4. Give the account a name in the Resource name field.
  5. Connect the account to storage. Either…
    1. Select an existing storage account from the Storage account dropdown or
    2. Create a new storage account. For more information about creating a storage account, see Create a storage account. Storage accounts for VI must be a Standard general-purpose v2 storage account.
  6. Select or create a user assigned managed identity. (If you forget, a prompt in the storage overview page appears later in the process.)
  7. Select Review + create. Validation of the configuration starts.
  8. When validation is complete, select Create.
  9. When the deployment is complete, select Go to resource. The storage resource overview page appears.
  10. If you assigned a system assigned managed identity during the storage creation process, a notification on the page says that you must select a managed identity role assignment. Select the Assign role button.

Government account

Government accounts have special requirements and limitations.

  • Only paid accounts are available on Azure Government.
  • No manual content moderation available in Azure Government. In the public cloud, when content is deemed offensive based on a content moderation, the customer can ask for a human to look at that content and potentially revert that decision.
  • For Azure Government, a Bing description of celebrities and named entities identified isn't presented. It's a UI capability only.

Prerequisites for connecting to Azure Government

  • An Azure subscription in Azure Government.
  • A Microsoft Entra ID account in Azure Government.
  • Prerequisites for permissions and resources as described in the Paid account section.

Create new account via the Azure Government portal

To create a paid account in Azure Government, follow the instructions in Create-Paid-Account. This API end point only includes Government cloud regions.

If you aren't an Owner or Contributor for any Azure AI Video Indexer accounts in Azure Government, you're'given an empty experience from which you can start creating your account.

If you're already a contributor or an administrator of an existing Azure AI Video Indexer account in Azure Government, you're taken to that account and from there you can use the steps described in the Paid account section.