Top 10 Best Translation APIs in 2021

A translation API is a software interface that allows developers to incorporate machine translation into their products. It enables applications to easily and quickly translate text from one language to another without storing or managing any translation data. It receives text in one language and returns the same text translated into another language. A translation API may also contain information about the source and target languages, such as the language used to create the original text.

A translation platform is a set of tools and services that enables a company or individual to translate their content into multiple languages. These platforms include a translation API and additional tools such as terminology management, human translation, and localization.

A translation API can be a valuable tool for software developers who want to include multilingual functionality in their applications. Translation API can translate between different character sets, such as ASCII and Unicode.

With the current increase in globalization, there is a need for the development of translation services that can remove language barriers that normally hinder effective communication between people.

Fortunately, there are several translation APIs that have been developed to make the process of translating web pages, phrases, and words painless.

What is Translation API?

A translation API can dynamically translate text between language pairs. State-of-the-art text translation APIs support thousands of language pairs. Translation APIs may also programmatically detect input language. These APIs are based on statistical machine translation and machine learning.

What’s more, some of the software have exposed their Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to enable developers to integrate their features and incorporate translation capabilities into their own applications—without building them from scratch.

To assist you in making the best decision on the most suitable API to use, we reviewed several translation APIs based on the following four main criteria:

• API features: We evaluated the outstanding features of each of the translation APIs
• Supported languages: We assessed the languages that each of the APIs support.
• Pricing: We analyzed the cost of integrating each of the APIs into applications.
• Ease of use: We looked at the ease of using each of the APIs.

Eventually, we developed the following list of the top 10 best translator APIs:

• Google Translate API
• Microsoft Translation API
• Translate API
• Text Translation API
• SYSTRAN.io Translation API
• MyMemory Translation API
• My Translator Pro API
• Linguatools Translate API
• Yandex Translate API
• IBM Watson Language Translator API

Top 10 Best Translation APIs

TL;DR: Here’s a table that summarizes our key findings.

API	API Features	Supported Languages	Pricing	Ease of Use
Google Translate API	Translate text, detect the source language	More than 100	Free for 50 requests per day, then $0.05 for each additional request	Easy
Microsoft Translation API	Translate text, detect the source language, transliterate words, bilingual dictionary capabilities	More than 60	Free and varying paid plans from $25 to $200 per month	Easy
Translate API	Translate text, detect the source language	104	Free and varying paid plans from $19 to $59 per month	Easy
Text Translation API	Translate text, translate text in an HTML web page	More than 12	Free and varying paid plans from $20 to $75 per month	Easy
SYSTRAN.io Translation API	Translate text, detect the source language	More than 130	Free	Easy
MyMemory Translation API	Search human or machine translations, insert translations	Several	Free and paid plans of $299 or $499 per month	Easy
My Translator Pro API	Translate text, detect the source language	More than 64	Free and paid options of $269 and $469 per month	Easy
Linguatools Translate API	Translate from and to the German language for other six languages	6	Free and varying paid plans from $4.90 to $24.90 per month	Easy
Yandex Translate API	Translate text, predictive typing, pronunciation and usage examples, dictionary with transcription	More than 90	Free	Easy
IBM Watson Language Translator API	Translate text, create domain-specific models, customize translations	More than 20	Free	Easy

1. Google Translate API

The Google Translate API lets you leverage Google’s powerful cloud-based machine learning technology to translate texts between languages automatically.

API features: With the Google Translate API, you can quickly translate an arbitrary string of text from one language to the other. Furthermore, when the source language is not known, the API can detect the provided language. The API’s underlying technology is constantly being updated to incorporate improvements from Google’s research teams, leading to enhanced translation services.

Supported languages: The API supports more than 100 languages.

Pricing: On the Rakuten RapidAPI platform, the API is available for free, but you’ll be limited to 50 requests per day. If you exceed the daily free limit, you’ll pay $0.05 for each additional request.

Ease of use: Just like with other Google’s products, the Translate API is well documented with lots of integration samples, which makes it easy to use. Furthermore, there is also a vibrant community to assist you with any integration challenges.

How do I integrate Google Translate API? If you have this question on your mind then head over to Google Translate API Tutorial. You also get a free Google Translate API Key by registering with us.

2. Microsoft Text Translation API

The Microsoft Text Translation API allows you to harness Microsoft’s machine translation technology for creating applications capable of providing multi-language support.

API features: Apart from allowing you to translate text into multiple languages, the Microsoft Translation API comes with features for automatically detecting the language of the source text, transliterating words and sentences from one script to the other, and bilingual dictionary capabilities for showing alternative translations from or to the English language.

Supported languages: The API supports more than 60 languages.

Pricing: On Rakuten RapidAPI, you can use the API for free, as long as you make less than 2,500 requests per month. For a more extended usage, you can opt for any of its paid plans, which starts from $25 per month to $200 per month.

Ease of use: Microsoft provides quick-start guides, tutorials, and other helpful resources to help you in making the most of the API.

Is Microsoft Translator API free? It has a free tier which gives you 2500 requests per month. The paid plans cost between $0.003 to $.002 per request.

3. Translate API

Translate API is a simple API that allows you to translate an arbitrary string of text from one language to the other.

API features: Besides translating texts, you can use the Translate API to detect the language of the input texts. The API relies on source translators from trusted and powerful systems like Google, Oxford, and many others.

Supported languages: The API supports 104 languages.

Pricing: There is a free plan that is limited to 2,000 requests per month. The paid plans range from $19 per month to $59 per month.

Ease of use: There is simple documentation that makes it easy to get up and running with the API within a few minutes.

4. Text Translation API

The Text Translation API is a simple API that allows you to easily translate texts from one language to the other.

API features: With the Text Translation API, you can complete translations from one supported language to the other supported language. Furthermore, the API allows you to translate text in an HTML web page to another language. You can specify the HTML tags to be extracted and translated.

Supported languages: The API supports more than 12 languages.

Pricing: As long as you make less than 5 requests per day, you can use the API for free. For increased usage, you can go for any of its paid plans, which starts from $20 per month to $75 per month.

Ease of use: There is simple documentation to help you in getting up and running with the API as fast as possible.

5. SYSTRAN.io Translation API

SYSTRAN is a company that provides a wide range of API services, which you can use to bring spectacular language processing capabilities to your applications.

API features: The SYSTRAN.io Translation and NLP API gives you programmatic access to SYSTRAN’s machine translation technology for automatically translating documents from one language to the other. The API can also identify the language of the source document, in case it’s not defined. (Check our curated list of best NLP APIs.)

Supported languages: The API supports more than 130 languages.

Pricing: On Rakuten RapidAPI, the SYSTRAN.io Translation API is available for free.

Ease of use: SYSTRAN provides detailed documentation and code samples to make it easy integrating the API into apps and websites.

6. MyMemory Translation API

MyMemory is an expansive online database that contains billions of words translated by professional human translators.

API features: With the MyMemory Translation API, you can search for translations available in the extensive MyMemory database. The translations are ranked based on quality and similarity, allowing you to get the best translation for a given source text. If a human translation is not available, the API provides a state-of-the-art machine translation. Furthermore, you can use the API to insert translations into the MyMemory database.

Supported languages: The API supports several languages.

Pricing: On Rakuten RapidAPI, you can use the API for free, as long as you translate less than 10,000 words per month. Beyond the free plan, you can pay either $299 or $499 per month and translate 500,000 or 1,000,000 words per month respectively.

Ease of use: The API has been designed to be easy to implement. There is also exhaustive documentation to assist you in getting started quickly.

7. My Translator Pro API

The My Translator Pro API is an easy to use API for carrying out text translations.

API features: The My Translator Pro API lets you access top-notch translation technology for accurately translating texts from one language to the other. Furthermore, if the source language is not defined, the API automatically detects it.

Supported languages: The API supports more than 64 languages.

Pricing: With the free version of the API, you can make up to 11,000 requests per month. The paid options are priced at $269 per month and $469 per month.

Ease of use: The API comes with simple and easy to follow documentation to enable faster integration.

8. Linguatools Translate API

The Linguatools Translate API searches for a word in a bilingual dictionary and returns its translations that are ordered according to frequency.

API features: With the Linguatools Translate API, you can complete translations from and to the German language for other six languages. You can filter the API results according to word class or minimum frequency.

Supported languages: The API supports translations from and to the German language for different languages, such as English, Dutch, Czech, Spanish, Italian, and Polish.

Pricing: The Linguatools Translate API is available for free, but you’ll be restricted to 1,000 requests per month. For more extended usage, you can go for any of its paid plans, which starts from $4.90 per month to more than $24.90 per month.

Ease of use: There is simple documentation to assist you in integrating the API into your application with ease.

9. Yandex Translate API

The Yandex Translate API offers programmatic access to the Yandex cloud-based machine translation service for easier embedding in mobile or web applications.

API features: With the Yandex Translate API, you can automatically translate separate words, complete small texts, or huge quantities of text such as technical documentation. The API also comes with features for predictive typing, pronunciation and usage examples, dictionary with transcription, and many others.

Supported languages: The API supports more than 90 languages.

Pricing: On Rakuten RapidAPI, the Yandex Translate API is available for free.

Ease of use: Yandex provides comprehensive documentation, detailed descriptions, and other helper materials to help you in consuming the API with ease.

Yandex Translate API is not free. You have to make a minimum payment of $15.

10. IBM Watson Language Translator API

The IBM Watson Language Translator API allows you to tap into the powerful IBM neural machine translation technology and translate texts from one language to another.

API features: With the IBM Watson Language Translator API, you can easily translate texts to different languages. The API comes with several domain-specific models that increase the speed and accuracy of the translations. Furthermore, you can customize your translations according to your preferred terminology and language.

Supported languages: The API supports more than 20 languages.

Pricing: On Rakuten RapidAPI, you can use the API for free.

Ease of use: IBM is known for providing comprehensive developer documentation and other helpful resources to make its API services easy to consume, and this API is no exception.

Conclusion

That’s Rakuten RapidAPI’s list of the Top 10 Best Translation APIs. If you are working with words in your app then you should also check out our list of dictionary APIs here. We hope you’ll find an API that you can use to add multi-language capabilities to your applications.

You can click here to search for other amazing translation APIs on our platform.

About Rakuten RapidAPI

Rakuten RapidAPI is the world’s largest API marketplace with 8,000+ third-party APIs and used by over 500,000 active developers. We enable developers to build transformative apps through the power of APIs. Find, test and connect to all the APIs you need in one place!

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