By Jeff Chin, Product Manager
Back in May, we announced the deprecation of the free Translate API v1. Today, we’re introducing a paid version of the Google Translate API for businesses and commercial software developers. The Google Translate API provides a programmatic interface to access Google’s latest machine translation technology. This API supports translations between 50+ languages (more than 2500 language pairs) and is made possible by Google’s cloud infrastructure and large scale machine learning algorithms.
The paid version of Translate API removes many of the usage restrictions of previous versions and can now be used in commercial products. Translation costs $20 per million (M) characters of text translated (or approximately $0.05/page, assuming 500 words/page). You can sign up online via the APIs console for usage up to 50 M chars/month.
Developers who created projects in the API Console and started using the Translate API V2 prior to today will continue to receive a courtesy limit of 100K chars/day until December 1, 2011 or until they enable billing for their projects.
For academic users, we will continue to offer free access to the Google Translate Research API through our University Research Program for Google Translate. For website translations, we encourage you to use the Google Website Translator gadget which will continue to be free for use on all web sites. In addition, Google Translate, Translator Toolkit, the mobile translate apps for iPhone and Android, and translation features within Chrome, Gmail, etc. will continue to be available to all users at no charge.
Jeff Chin is the Product Manager for Google Translate. Whenever he travels, Jeff enjoys learning and trying to speak the local language, and finding good local restaurants and food to eat.
Posted by Scott Knaster, Editor
Sounds great and it's awesome that you managed to keep the freebies going..
ReplyDeleteone question: the "Detect Language" api calls remain free? (we use it to detect the language a user used to write a review)
ReplyDelete5 cents per page is still expensive, it could easily add up to hundred of dollars. Can you guys reduce it further? One cent per page should be okay.
ReplyDeleteFantastic, thank you very much! I am very happy you have decided to offer the service for a fee and I hope this means it can stay alive for a while.
ReplyDeleteThis is a historic moment in the Language Translation Industry.
ReplyDeleteThanks Google. You are opening so many entrepreneurial opportunities.
sounds great but I want this google translate feature in marathi language can you can do this.
ReplyDelete20 dollars for a million character seems fair if you can monetize your service or page...otherwise it's another expense adding up!
ReplyDeleteV2 seems to be still buggy as far as handling tags. I'm getting messed up closing tags in the translation, while the same translation comes back fine in v1.
ReplyDeleteI understand bad or average translations, but for a paid service I hope the tag part is going to be handled properly.
farewell!
ReplyDeletethis service can freely disappear from CAT tools, included my Wordfast: after some months using it (MT not Wordfast), I can definitely say that MT is boring to death
please create paypal payment method. i don't have credit card to paid... willing to paid.
ReplyDeleteGreat news!
ReplyDeletegood idee, we just now have to check if it is expansive or not ..... wait and see, but better than nothing
ReplyDeleteI can see this is going to be the same with all API's that Google announce. Introduce them for free, sites get developed around them and then once hooked developers/web site owners are hit with charges.
ReplyDeleteOK for those making decent income from their sites but not so good for those making 'pocket money'
Hi,
ReplyDeleteGreat news that the Translate API isn't going to die - thanks!
I have a couple of questions about how the billing will work with version 2:
I'm currently using v.1, if I transition to v.2 prior to Dec 1, does billing start immediately, or does it only kick in after Dec 1? (I've been using v1 for a year, but have not yet signed up for my v2 API key)
Is the character count for the text I send to Google, or for the translated text that is returned?
Do all calls to the API contribute to the 1 million character count? There are three kinds of calls:
Translate Text - will be billed.
Discover Supported Languages - will calls to this API be billed?
Detect Language - will calls to this API be billed?
For the Translate Text API calls, I have a question about the billing of text that ends up not needing to be translated. Specifically, I'll be sending text from an international forum in which some of the posts will be in the preferred destination language already, and some will not. I'll need to send all posts, and would not be supplying a Source Language. Would I be billed for requests which contain text that is already in the Target Language, or only for the requests which end up actually being translated? Perhaps an example would help make sense of that overly verbose question ;)
For all requests, the Target Language is English, in none of the calls do I specify the Source Language
I send a block of Spanish text to the API, API returns English text.
My assumption is that I get billed here.
I send a block of English text to the API, and I assume the API will just return my original text.
The question is - Does this request get billed as part of my million character count?
Does the text sent through the Detect Language requests?
I'm unclear on how the billing will work. The Terms state that I'll be billed monthly - will I be billed for the number of characters I've had translated this month? Do I use the API, and then only get billed when I pass 1 million characters? Or is it pre-paid, I put in $20, and translate until that money is used up.
Thanks for the clarification.
Mike
Great news! Quick question. Since now it's a paid service, where can I find the information on the SLA for the service. What type of percent accuracy guarantees are there.
ReplyDeleteI ask because I have seen as low as 60% accuracy when translating between Spanish and Portuguese and vice versa, especially when dealing with technical topics.
I would love to use it more in depth, espcially if accuracy increases.
Can you offer Google Translate as on offline utility? Paying for each tanslation pair separately would make sense (e.g. French-German / German-French would be separate from German-English / English-German). A facility for updates would be essential.
ReplyDeleteWhat about our free and open source projects. Can't they use the translation API without profiting GOOGLE? We don't profit ourselves from our free and open source projects. Why should we pay a tax to a huge powerful corporate-government entity like GOOGLE?
ReplyDeleteI was incorrect in the problem I reported earlier about closing tag being corrupted: the problem was on the JSON parser I was using. Queries with tags seem to work as well as in V1.
ReplyDeleteHi. My company could be interested in using the translation API alongside with other MT systems. Is that possible? Is the 50 M character/month upper limit negotiable? Thanks.
ReplyDeletemay Google return it's dictionary back..there is huge differences between Google translation and Google dictionary they do not do the same function..for example if i wish to translate this Chinese idiom 三人成虎 this idiom has been translated as" Three into the Tiger" in google translation while google dictionary were giving the right translation which is "1- Three people spreading reports of a tiger makes you believe there is one around.
ReplyDelete2-A repeated slander makes others believe.
thanks google
Hey guys,
ReplyDeleteThank you for making a commercial service for Google Translate API.
Could you please clarify the billing terms... If 1 million characters is $20, how much is say 500 characters? Is it prorated, or is there a minimum $20/month cost to use API?
bonjour et bienvenu a toute et a tous
ReplyDeleteI don't think that this statement is true:
ReplyDelete"Developers who created projects in the API Console and started using the Translate API V2 prior to today will continue to receive a courtesy limit of 100K chars/day until December 1, 2011 or until they enable billing for their projects."
Me neither. it stopped working for me and I can't get any explanation why it is disabled.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that this statement is true:
"Developers who created projects in the API Console and started using the Translate API V2 prior to today will continue to receive a courtesy limit of 100K chars/day until December 1, 2011 or until they enable billing for their projects."
Hi! Will Detect Language API calls be billed ? In "Pricing" are specified usage fees for Translation but it is not mentioned Detection.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
How can i get more information about this? i would like to start using the paid service .
ReplyDeleteThanks.
It will be very expensive for countries like mine, another company will surely take his place with another free API, but for now thanks Google!
ReplyDeletegooooooooooooooooooooooood
ReplyDeletewas planning to built a free website for my own language it seems have to think again it's quite expensite 5 cent is quivalent to 2.5 taka, and average daily earning is 150 taka. :( quite expensive.
ReplyDeleteWell, this just stinks. If you Google are able to count how many characters a website is using for translations, then you could have just blocked those websites responsible for "substantial economic burden caused by extensive abuse".
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft Translation API is about to become very popular.
Fast calculation: an average (?) website with 1000 characters in each page will pay 1 USD to Google for each page to be translated.
ReplyDelete- Does it sound reasonable? Or just a ripoff by Google?
Join us for the Google Translate Fans/Protest group here: http://www.facebook.com/DontShutDownGoogleTranslate
Why did you cut off Perl from your V.2? We are having an entire CMS with thousands of users who would be VERY happy... if you also would allow Perl (cgi and not... php) scripts into your payed version..
ReplyDeleteHow can i translate my website with business translate service?
ReplyDeleteAs said earlier, but without any answer, what about opensource CAT? I remember google supported the development of free video codec for html5. Why not the same for translation???
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of Service Level Agreement will be applicable to the pay Translation API?
ReplyDeleteI suppose that I'll get refund in case of incorrect translation, isn't it?
Je ne comprend pas votre article car je ne peux plus traduire de l'anglais vers le français avec gtranslate : "Suspected Terms of Service Abuse. Please see http://code.google.com/apis/errors".
ReplyDeleteC'est ennuyeux ;(
Olá Jeff Chin, meu nome é Marcos,sou do Brasil, São Paulo. Sou estudande de Java e fiz uma programa academico para o meu curso de java e useu nesse meuu projeto a google-api-translate-java-0.95 para traduzir o JTextField que o usuário digitar. Como posso continuar usando a API da google pra fins academicos? Posso mandar mais informações sobre o meu projeto caso vocês queiram avaliar se é mesmo academico ou não.
ReplyDeleteVocês podem conferir o que estou dizendo no meu blog http://escribasvirtuais.blogspot.com/2011/10/hifenizador-silabico.html
ReplyDeleteEsse aplicativo será apresentado no CONIC Semesp 2011 com o título APLICATIVO DE HIFENIZAÇÃO, TRADUÇÃO E BUSCA DE SIGNIFICADOS COM UTILIZAÇÃO EM COMPUTAÇÃO EM NUVEM.
I like Google... .. but really to pay per use of language API does not seem right ... perhaps you should consider the non-profit projects, educational or institutional ...and translations were always reference for localization issues and idioms in each country
ReplyDeleteI never thought google would be a company like this. I always thought that google is different from other companies, google know how to make profits without incriminating others like us
ReplyDeletei love using google translate, and i comment on this blog using google translate :(, so sad this service will be gone in next month :(
if i allowed choose between google translate and google chrome, i will be absolutely choose google translate
this service help us " to communicating with others" without needing to know their language
I find it a nice idea. If we all paid for what we use the market would be healthy. All this freebies just killed the software market. No one can anymore make a living from software because the industry was flooded with happy smile slaves working for free.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind paying the $20 a million - I just need to know how to. From Wordfast I gather that a new release of Classic will have space for the entry of a code from Google that confirms payment. How, though, do I go about getting Google to sell me a code?
ReplyDeleteSo to translate this page, with comments (11,700 characters), is about 23 US cents.
ReplyDeleteI guess there's not a easy way to add advertising to the translation output so we have to pay.
Im trying to enable the 'checkout' and after entering the CC details, it still says "Billing is not enabled". (its been ~ 10 mins) since I entered the CC details. When I click on enable checkout, a new page popups up but nothing happens.. it just sits there !!
ReplyDeleteClient for Google Translate is not owned or operated by Google, Inc.
ReplyDeleteHowever, you have to give kudos to Client for Google Translate for this clever deception, which is perpetuated with rate change announcement.
The application (API) is reasonably simple and I'm sure that this rate increase will stimulate competition, which is greatly needed. Perhaps Google (the REAL Google) will even come up with a free application rather than the hokey metered version being sold here.
yes but every users that have not a credit card must to be able to pay translation api v.2 with paypal. NOW IS NOT POSSIBLE, is possible pay only with a credit card!!
ReplyDeleteTHIS IS INCORRECT!
Google == Greedgle....
ReplyDeleteI use free software to manage a website for a small catholic school the services a mostly low to middle income community with a lot of diversity.. you just broke my ability to translate the site cleanly for families that have parents and grand parents who are not native English speakers ... I will be moving to Microsoft's still free API... Its amazing to see Greedgle start making Microsoft look like the better internet citizen...
Can i know how to calculate and generate the billing? is the billing per month, or hit the limit or? which i have read through the review and i didn't see any answer being provided.
ReplyDeleteWith the new pay structure will the Google translate API still work with the perl Lingua::Translate::Google module? If yes, what changes are needed in the API interface? I'm sure the API must carry some ID with it in order for the payment system to calculate who is submitting the request.
ReplyDelete