Since edge detection is the early step in object recognition, it is significant to know the differences between edge detection techniques. Representing an image by its edges has the advantage of reducing the amount of data required to be stored while retaining most of the image information. Transmitting of the edge pixels in an image or multimedia would result in a great deal of compression and there exists very reliable algorithms to reconstruct the entire image based on the edge map. In this research paper the relative performance of various edge detection techniques is carried out with a set of images. It have been observed that that the Canny edge detection algorithm produces higher accuracy in detection of edges and execution time compared with Sobel edge detection algorithm.