Translation tools are compared on accuracy, but the decision that costs money is billing. These platforms charge four different ways — per character, per translated word, per seat, or not at all — and one of the most popular website tools counts words as a lifetime cap rather than a monthly allowance.
This guide covers six tools across three jobs: translating text and documents, localising a website, and localising software. Figures come from vendor pricing pages and current analysis, with ranges shown where sources differ.
Three different jobs
Text and document translation. You have something written and want it in another language. DeepL, Google Translate and a general assistant all do this.
Website localisation. A live site needs to serve multiple languages, with search engines indexing each version. This is a hosting and delivery problem as much as a translation one, and Weglot is built for it.
Software localisation. Strings in a codebase need translating continuously as the product ships, with context, glossaries and developer integrations. Lokalise is built for this.
Amazon Translate sits outside all three as raw infrastructure: an API you build on rather than an application you use.
Four billing models
Free with limits. Google Translate is free for consumer use. Its Cloud API covers the first 500,000 characters a month with a monthly credit.
Per character. The API standard. Reported rates per million characters: Microsoft Azure Translator around $10, Amazon Translate $15, Google Cloud Translation $20, DeepL $25. LLM APIs cost more for the same volume, reported around $30 for GPT-class models and $45 for Claude Opus, though they bring context handling the dedicated engines lack.
Per translated word. Weglot’s model, and the one that surprises people. Details below.
Per seat and project. Localisation platforms charge for the workflow rather than the words.
A useful piece of context on the economics: current analysis puts the total cost per word for AI-assisted localisation at roughly $0.002 against about $0.20 for human-only translation, which is why machine translation moved from optional to default for most teams.
Text and document translation
1. DeepL
DeepL remains the quality reference for European language pairs, preserving formatting in Word, PowerPoint and PDF files, with glossaries and formality control. One benchmark reports its output needing no edits 73% of the time in blind testing on those pairs.
Two things have changed. It has expanded well beyond its European core to over 200 languages, though Google’s coverage remains wider. And its API tiers were restructured: the old API Free and API Pro plans are retired, replaced by a Developer plan including one million characters in total and a Growth plan including one million a month or twelve million a year plus overage. Individual subscriptions are reported from around $8.74 a month.
Suits: documents where formatting and quality matter, particularly across European languages.
2. Google Translate
Google Translate is free, covers more languages than anything else here, and handles text, voice, camera and conversation input with offline modes on mobile. For travel, everyday use and quick comprehension, nothing competes on value.
Its Cloud Translation API is a separate commercial product at a reported $20 per million characters, with the first 500,000 monthly characters covered by a credit, and an Advanced tier for custom models at considerably higher rates.
Quality varies by language pair, and current comparisons place it behind DeepL on major European pairs while ahead on breadth.
Suits: everyday translation, unusual languages, and anything where free matters more than polish.
3. ChatGPT and other general assistants
A general assistant translates differently from a dedicated engine: it can adapt tone, explain cultural context, adjust for an audience and rewrite rather than convert. That is genuinely useful for marketing copy, where a literal translation often reads badly.
The trade-offs are cost and consistency. LLM APIs are reported at roughly $30 to $45 per million characters against $10 to $25 for dedicated engines, and output depends on how you prompt. For bulk, repeatable translation a dedicated engine is cheaper and more predictable.
Suits: nuanced content where tone and adaptation matter more than volume.
Website localisation
4. Weglot
Weglot detects site content automatically, translates it, and serves indexable multilingual versions, typically installed in minutes. It routes to several engines including DeepL, and it is one of the most-installed translation apps on Shopify and WordPress.
Three pricing mechanics deserve attention before you install it.
First, word limits are reported as lifetime caps rather than monthly resets. Once you have translated 10,000 words on the entry plan, you must upgrade — even if that translation happened a year ago. A site with 15,000 words of content outgrows the starter tier on day one.
Second, the word count reportedly includes both translated source content and the volume served to visitors, which is what catches growing stores by surprise as traffic rises.
Third, and most consequential: your translations live on Weglot’s servers. Cancel the subscription and translated pages revert to the original language. That is genuine vendor lock-in, and it should factor into a long-term decision rather than being discovered at renewal.
Suits: non-technical site owners who want multilingual quickly and accept the ongoing cost and lock-in.
Software localisation
5. Lokalise
Lokalise manages translation as part of a development pipeline: strings sync from the codebase, translators work with context and screenshots, glossaries and translation memory keep terminology consistent, and updates ship continuously rather than in batches.
It is consistently identified as the pick for SaaS product teams, with developer-first alternatives suiting open-source projects and enterprise platforms suiting hybrid human workflows. Pricing is seat and project based rather than per word, and is not published in a way this guide could verify, so request a quote against your actual language and seat count.
Suits: product teams shipping continuously in several languages.
Translation infrastructure
6. Amazon Translate
Amazon Translate is infrastructure rather than an application: characters in, translated characters out, across roughly 75 languages, with no seats, subscriptions or minimums. There is no polished editor for translators.
Pricing is $15 per million characters, with a free tier of 2 million characters a month for the first 12 months from your first request, after which there is no included free volume. It requires an AWS account.
Its case is integration rather than quality: if your stack already runs on AWS, this is the least friction. Current analysis suggests it suits marketing-scale volumes better than very large catalogues, where per-character costs accumulate.
Suits: developers already inside AWS who need translation as a service.
Comparison
Reported figures from vendor pages and current analysis. Where a vendor does not publish pricing, the table says so.
| Tool | Job | Billing model | Free tier | Reported API rate | Key limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepL | Text and documents | Subscription + API | Yes, capped | ~$25 per million chars | API Free and Pro retired |
| Google Translate | Text and documents | Free consumer; paid API | Yes, free to use | ~$20 per million chars | Quality varies by pair |
| ChatGPT | Nuanced content | Subscription or API | Yes | ~$30 per million chars | Output depends on prompting |
| Weglot | Website | Per translated word | Starter tier, 1 language | Not applicable | Lifetime word caps; lock-in |
| Lokalise | Software | Seat and project | Trial | Not applicable | Pricing not publicly published |
| Amazon Translate | Infrastructure | Per character | 2M chars/mo, first 12 months | $15 per million chars | No editor; AWS account required |
There is no accuracy column. Published quality figures come from benchmarks on specific language pairs and content types, and none of them predicts performance on your material.
Where machine translation still fails
Current analysis puts AI translation at roughly 85 to 90% of professional-translator quality for everyday and business content. The remaining gap concentrates in predictable places.
Idiom and marketing copy translate literally and land badly, which is where an LLM’s adaptation ability beats a dedicated engine. Legal, medical and regulatory text needs human review regardless of engine, because the cost of an error is not proportional to the cost of the translation. Honorifics and formality systems in languages such as Japanese and Korean remain difficult, and models differ sharply on them. And terminology consistency across a large project requires glossaries and translation memory rather than raw model quality.
The practical approach for anything published: machine-translate first, then have a fluent speaker review. That is now the standard workflow rather than a compromise.
How to choose
Occasional text and documents: Google Translate free, or DeepL where quality on European pairs matters.
Marketing copy needing adaptation: a general assistant, accepting higher per-character cost and prompt dependence.
A website: understand the word-count model before installing. Check whether caps are lifetime or monthly, whether served traffic counts, and what happens to translations if you cancel.
A software product: a localisation platform, priced by seat and workflow rather than words.
Building translation into an application: compare per-character API rates directly. The spread runs from roughly $10 to $45 per million characters for the same volume.
For translating subtitles specifically, our guide to AI subtitle generators covers tools with translation built in.
Related guides
- Best AI Subtitle Generators in 2026
- Best AI PDF Tools in 2026
- Best AI Voice Generators in 2026
- Best AI Writing Tools in 2026
- Best AI Chatbots in 2026
- Best AI Website Builders in 2026
Frequently asked questions
Which AI translator is free?
Google Translate is free for consumer use across text, voice and camera input. DeepL has a capped free tier, and general assistants translate within their free plans. Paid APIs are separate commercial products.
What happens to my website translations if I cancel?
With hosted website translation, translated pages typically revert to the original language, because the translations live on the vendor’s servers rather than in your site. Check this before committing, as it is the main form of lock-in in this category.
Are Weglot word limits monthly?
Reportedly not — they function as lifetime caps rather than resetting each month, and the count includes content served to visitors as well as translated source text. A content-heavy site can exceed an entry plan immediately.
What does a translation API cost?
Reported rates per million characters are roughly $10 for Azure, $15 for Amazon, $20 for Google Cloud and $25 for DeepL, with LLM APIs higher at around $30 to $45. Free allowances differ, and Amazon’s applies only for the first 12 months.
Is AI translation accurate enough to publish?
Current analysis puts it at roughly 85 to 90% of professional quality for general business content, which makes machine-first with human review the standard workflow. Legal, medical and regulatory material should always be reviewed by a qualified human.
Conclusion
Match the tool to the job before comparing quality. Documents and everyday text are well served by a free consumer translator or a subscription engine. Marketing copy benefits from an assistant that can adapt rather than convert. Websites and software need platforms built for continuous delivery, and those charge in entirely different ways.
Two checks matter more than any accuracy claim. If you are building on an API, compare per-character rates directly, since the spread is more than fourfold for the same volume. And if you are translating a website, establish whether word caps reset, whether served traffic counts against them, and what happens to your translated pages if you stop paying.
