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Translate API FAQ

Contents

  1. Access to the Google Translate API
  2. Pricing and support
  3. Data confidentiality
  4. Attribution
  5. Technical Questions

Access to the Google Translate API

How do I sign up?
See setup instructions for how to sign up for the Google Translate API service.
How do I create a corporate account and not use my personal gmail account?
You can sign up for a Google Account using your work email address. Then use the account you just created when you login to the Google Developers Console .
Is there any free quota?
No, the Google Translate API is only available as a paid service. Please see Pricing and Support for more details. However we do offer the Google Website Translator gadget, which will translate your website without charge.
What languages are supported?
See the list of supported languages .
Why are some languages that are available through the Google Translate web interface not available through the API?
Some languages are not available in the API because they are Alpha languages, meaning the translation quality is not yet good enough.
Can I resell the Google Translate API?
No, you are not permitted to resell the Google Translate API service.
Can my users sign up for their own Translate API key and use it in my application?
Yes. However, one requirement is that you identify the application by providing a unique user agent and/or referrer when making requests to the Google Translate API with your user's key.

Pricing and Support

What happened to earlier free versions of Translate API?
Google Translate API v1 is no longer available as of December 1, 2011 and has been replaced by Google Translate API v2 . Google Translate API v1 was officially deprecated on May 26, 2011. The decision to deprecate the API and replace it with the paid service was made due to the substantial economic burden caused by extensive abuse.
Where can I find pricing information?
Please read the Pricing and Terms for detailed information on pricing.
How do you calculate translation usage?
Use of the translation and language detection functionality is calculated per million characters submitted to the service, where 1 million characters = 10 6 characters. Use is charged 'pro rata'. That is, where the charges are adjusted in proportion to the number of characters actually provided.
Can I be billed in weekly installments, or can my bill be broken up into multiple payments?
No, at the moment we only support a single monthly charge.
Do you offer any discounts for non-profit or educational use?
No discounts are currently offered at this time. If you would like to make your website available in other languages, we continue to offer the Google Website Translator gadget without charge.
How do you charge for multi-byte character sets?
Google charges on a per character basis, even if the character is multiple bytes. For example, translating "こんにちは" to English counts as 5 characters.
Do you charge on the number of bytes returned by the API?
Google only charges on the input to the Translate API, on a per character basis.
How do I disable billing?

To disable billing for your project, do the following:

  1. Go to the Google Developers Console .
  2. Select a project.
  3. In the sidebar on the left, select Billing .
  4. At the top of the page, select Cancel Billing .

After you disable billing, you will receive one last bill for charges that occurred between the beginning of the billing cycle and when you cancelled.

Caution: When you disable billing, it is disabled for all services in that project. You can not disable billing for individual services or APIs. For more information, see the Google Developers Console billing help guide .

What are my support options?
We invite users to post their questions in our discussion forum . Our team will be actively monitoring your posts and answering questions, although we cannot guarantee a response. We understand that different customers have different needs, and we plan to announce additional support options in the future. For specific billing questions, please use the billing support form so that your question can be addressed by the billing team.

Premium support is available for our larger customers, at a charge. Please contact us if you are interested in this service.
How are charges calculated for ideographic languages?
Use of the Google Translate API is charged by the number of source characters. For example, translating 您好 into “hello” is charged as 2 characters, whereas translating “hello” into 您好 is charged as 5 characters.
How is language detection charged?
Language detection is charged at the same rate as translation: by the number of input characters.
Are calls to the discover supported language charged?
No. There is no charge for calls to the get languages method.
Will I be billed for requests that aren't translated?
If the translation result is successfully returned with an HTTP response code of 200, you will be charged for the request. Note that this applies even if the source and target languages are the same. You will not be charged for requests that return with an HTTP response error code.
Are bulk or discount pricing available?
Use of the Google Translate API is currently charged at a flat rate, though this may change in the future. If you have any commercial enquiries please contact us .
Can I increase my translation limits?
By default, the billable limit is set to 2 million characters per day, but this can be increased up to 50 million characters per day.

To view or change usage limits for your project, or to request an increase to your total limit, do the following:

  1. Go to the Google Developers Console .
  2. Select a project.
  3. In the sidebar on the left, select APIs & auth , then select an API.
  4. On the API's info page, select the Quota link near the API name.
Are there any payment options besides by credit card?
Yes, offline payment is now possible for those customers who expect to use more than 1M characters per day. Please contact us .
I changed my credit card and Google is unable to bill me. What do I do?
To update the billing information or to request a re-billing of a failed request:
  1. Go to the Google Developers Console .
  2. Select a project.
  3. In the sidebar on the left, select Billing .
  4. Select Billing settings and edit, add, or remove your payment information.

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Data Confidentiality

Does Google look at or use the text I send for translation?
Google will not use any of your content for any purpose except to provide you with the service.
Will Google share the text I translate with others?
We will not make the content of the text that you translate available to the public, or share it with anyone else, except as necessary to provide the Translate API service. For example, sometimes we may need to use a third-party vendor to help us provide some aspect of our services, such as storage or transmission of data. We won’t share the text that you translate with any other parties, or make it public, for any other purpose.
Will the text I send for translation, the translation itself, or other information about translation requests be stored on Google servers? If so, how long and where is the information kept?
When you send Google text for translation, we must store that text for a short period of time in order to perform the translation and return the results to you. The stored text is typically deleted in a few hours, although occasionally we will retain it for longer while we perform debugging and other testing. Google also temporarily logs some metadata about translation requests (such as the time the request was received and the size of the request) to improve our service and combat abuse. For security and reliability, we distribute data storage across many machines in different locations. You can read more about our data security practices here .
Does the Google Translate API support secure connections?
Yes, we provide SSL connection support for secure connectivity to the Translate API.
Does Google claim ownership of the content I send for translation?
Google does not claim any ownership in any of the content that you transmit in the Translate API.
How does Google protect and ensure the security of the data I send for translation?
Please refer to the following webpage which describes the security measures in place for Google’s Cloud Services.
Does Google use my data for training purposes?
No, Google does not use the content you translate to train and improve our machine translation engine. In order to improve the quality of machine translation, Google needs parallel text - the content along with the human translation of that content.

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Attribution

Do I have to attribute Google when publishing the results of translation
Usually, yes. See the attribution guidelines for more information.
If I’m post-editing the translation results, do I need to display attribution?
No. If you are post-editing the machine translation, no attribution is required.

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Technical Questions

How do I tell Google Translate API to NOT translate something?
You can use the following HTML tag <span class=&quote;notranslate&quote;> </span> . Note that this functionality requires the source text to be submitted in HTML.
I get an HTTP 403 error when I call the API.
You may be exceeding your quota: either the daily billable total, or the limit on request characters per second.

To view or change usage limits for your project, or to request an increase to your total limit, do the following:

  1. Go to the Google Developers Console .
  2. Select a project.
  3. In the sidebar on the left, select APIs & auth , then select an API.
  4. On the API's info page, select the Quota link near the API name.
I sometimes get HTTP 500 (Internal Errors) response from the API
This could happen if you submit text without the source language specified. If Google cannot determine the source language given the text (usually because the text is too short), we will return a 500. This situation can be fixed by specifying the source language explicitly.
Can I specify multiple target languages in one request?
No, the V2 API only allows one target language per request.
What is the maximum number of characters per request?
The maximum size of each text to be translated is 5000 characters, not including any HTML tags.
Is it possible to get multiple translations of a word?
No. This feature is only available via the web interface at translate.google.com

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Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License , and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License . For details, see our Site Policies .

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