To translate PO files online, import your .po or .pot file into a POEditor project, translate the strings with AI, machine translation or your own translators, and export each language as a localized .po file. Here's how to set it up.
How to open and edit a PO file
A PO file is a plain-text gettext file: each entry has a msgid (the source string or a key) and a msgstr (its translation). You can open it in any text editor, but it's easy to break the format and hard to see what's still untranslated. In POEditor, you import the file once and edit or translate the strings in a web editor, with plural forms kept for each language.
1. Create a translation project
Log in to your POEditor account (if you don't have one, you can create one for free here), add a new project in your Dashboard and add your software's source language to it.
2. Import your .po or .pot file
Use Import in the project page to import the strings (msgids) from your .po or .pot file as terms in your localization project.
If your msgids are keys and not the strings in the source language, use the option Also import translations to a language to add the source strings from msgstr to the source language in your POEditor project (they will be imported as translations). Then set this language as Default Reference Language in the project's settings.
3. Translate your PO strings
Add the languages you want, then choose how to translate them:
- AI translation with your own OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Azure AI or Amazon Bedrock account. You can customize the prompt to match your tone.
- Machine translation with Google Translate, DeepL or Azure AI Translator.
- Your own translators, invited as contributors to specific languages.
- Human translations, ordered from the available LSPs.
Translation memory (available from the Start plan) suggests earlier translations of similar strings, and QA checks and QE feature catch issues before export.
4. Export localized PO files
Click Export in any translation page to download that language as a .po file or as a compiled .mo file, or use one of the other export options.
If you want to automate the import/export, use the POEditor API, one of the integrations with code hosting platforms or Workflows.
How to convert PO files
To convert a PO file to another format, import it as above and choose the format you need when you export. Plural forms are kept if the new format supports them - iOS XLIFF is the exception: its plurals are structured differently, so they are not converted.