POEditor's Automatic Translation feature allows you to use the machine translation engines from Google, Azure AI Translator and DeepL to translate strings in your POEditor software localization project.

If you're translating strings with HTML or variables, note that machine translation engines are not renowned for their ability to preserve these, so syntax may not always come out as expected.

Who has access to the Automatic Translation feature

All POEditor accounts, paid or free, have the Automatic Translation feature integrated. On a project level, it can be accessed by owners and admins. Contributors can also access it if the owner or an admin grants them access by going to Settings and setting Automatic Translation to Everyone in Advanced Settings.

How the Automatic Translation functionality works

The Automatic Translation feature uses machine translation characters with Google Translate, Azure AI Translator or DeepL to translate strings in POEditor localization projects.

All accounts on POEditor come with 10 000 complementary AT characters. However, since AT characters are not free of charge (the APIs from Google, Azure AI Translator and DeepL charge for use), if you need more, you will have to go to Account Settings > Profile > Automatic Translations Characters Left and then press the Manage link, where you can purchase one of our available packages.

The AT feature only completes the singular forms of the empty translation fields, and does not touch the already localized strings.

Automatic translations are marked with a specific flag in the translation pages, which appears on hover and can be clicked in order to be removed.

The flag can also be unchecked in bulk using the option Remove Automatic Flag at the bottom of the language page.

How to machine translate strings with the Automatic Translation feature

In any language page, click in the menu on Automatic Translation, then select the language pair for the machine translation engine ('I want to translate from' and 'to') and the translation source in your project (the strings you want to translate).

Do not set to use the texts in Project Terms if your project terms are keys/string ids! If you do, you will end up translating them. Choose any other option from the languages available.

For each integrated translation engine, there are some Advanced Options available, which you can choose from.

How to machine translate multiple languages in bulk

After machine translating one language, you can use the same setup to translate more languages from your localization project.

POEditor will automatically detect the languages in your project that match those available with your preferred machine translation provider.

Confirm the matches and get machine translations for those languages clicking the Translate now buttons.

Automatic Translation via API

Our localization platform allows users to get automatic translations via API, in order to further automate the machine transaltion process. More information on how to machine translate strings this way is available in this article.