Machine Translation

Machine translation (MT) is the automated process of translating text from one natural language, such as English, into another, such as German, using computer software.

While not always recommended as a standalone solution, it can be a valuable tool in certain localization scenarios — for example, generating initial translations of software strings that human translators will later review and refine through post-editing, or quickly handling internal and non-customer-facing content where perfect accuracy is less critical.

How to use Machine Translation

Machine Translation is enabled by default in Localizely, allowing you to automatically fill in missing translations. It works with texts containing placeholders and HTML code, though plural keys and texts using ICU syntax (e.g., select, gender) are not currently supported.

Localizely integrates with Amazon Translate and Google Translate as its machine translation providers.

When you register, you receive 2,000 free characters to try out both Machine Translation and AI Translation. If you find you need more, the project owner can easily purchase additional characters on the Billing page.

Bulk Machine Translation

Bulk Machine Translation lets you automatically fill in missing translations across multiple languages and string keys in one go.

To run a bulk translation, go to the Translations page and click the More button. From the menu that appears, select Auto-translate. This will open a dialog where you can configure the Machine Translation settings.

In the dialog, select the target languages you want to translate into. Optionally, you can narrow down the string key selection by applying a tag filter.

Inline Machine Translation

Inline Machine Translation lets you translate individual string keys directly from the Translations table.

To use it, click the Auto-translate button next to a string key, then select Translate via MT from the menu that appears. This will automatically fill in the missing translations.

Configuration

By default, only the project owner and admins can use Machine Translation and AI Translation to automatically generate translations. To allow translators to use these features as well, enable the corresponding option on the Settings page.