# Machine translation APIs for AI agents

> 7 translation listings ranked by the Anchor benchmark. Leader DeepL API (BB). APIs that translate text and documents between languages, with glossaries, formality control and document formatting kept intact. Compared on quality in the languages you need, glossary support, data retention and price per million characters.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/translation
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/translation.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/translation.min.md (~430 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/translation.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-05

APIs that translate text and documents between languages, with glossaries, formality control and document formatting kept intact. Compared on quality in the languages you need, glossary support, data retention and price per million characters.

- Tools ranked: 7 · agent-ready (BB or better): 2 · accept x402: 0 · hosted endpoints: 7 · desk reviews by the panel: 14
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools.json (list) · https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/rankings.json (ranked) · https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/x402.json (payable) · https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/capabilities.json (by capability)
- Grades run AA, A, BB, B, C, D, E, F · methodology: https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/

- Capabilities in this category: translate.text, translate.documents, translate.glossary, translate.detect, translate.formality
- https://letme.dev/translate.text picks the top-graded tool in this list and says how to call it direct; calling through letme comes later (https://www.anchorterminal.com/letme/index.md)

## Ranking

| # | Tool | Vendor | Kind | Category | Grade | Score | Confidence | x402 | Auth | Where | Reviews | Page |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 70 | DeepL API | DeepL | HTTP API | Translation | BB | 72.4 | medium | no | OAuth or key | hosted + local | 3.5/5 (2) | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepl-api.md |
| 73 | Azure Translator | Microsoft Azure | HTTP API | Translation | BB | 72.2 | medium | no | OAuth or key | hosted | 3.5/5 (2) | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-translator.md |
| 105 | Amazon Translate | Amazon Web Services | HTTP API | Translation | B | 69.8 | high | no | API key | hosted | 4/5 (2) | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-translate.md |
| 130 | Google Cloud Translation | Google Cloud | HTTP API | Translation | B | 68.2 | high | no | OAuth or key | hosted | 3.5/5 (2) | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-cloud-translation.md |
| 225 | Lara Translate API | Translated | HTTP API | Translation | C | 61.7 | medium | no | OAuth or key | hosted + local | 3/5 (2) | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lara-translate.md |
| 367 | LibreTranslate | LibreTranslate | HTTP API | Translation | D | 49.8 | medium | no | API key | hosted | 4/5 (2) | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/libretranslate.md |
| 434 | Lingvanex Translation API | Lingvanex | HTTP API | Translation | F | 37.2 | medium | no | API key | hosted | 2.5/5 (2) | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lingvanex.md |

Scores are from public evidence against the published checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/), with Performance and Task success pending. p95 latency and context cost come from our probes, which haven't run yet.

## Summaries

### 70. DeepL API, BB (72.4)

Translation API for text and documents in over 100 languages, with glossaries, formality control, style rules, custom instructions, a writing endpoint and a voice API. Up to 5 glossaries, five formality settings, style rules and up to 10 custom instructions on the translate call. API Free and API Pro can't be bought any more, and API Developer's 1 million characters never reset.

- Page: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepl-api · Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepl-api.md · JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepl-api.json
- Capabilities: translate.text, translate.documents, translate.glossary, translate.detect, translate.formality, speech.translation · endpoint: `https://api.deepl.com/v2/translate`

### 73. Azure Translator, BB (72.2)

Microsoft's translation API, now part of Foundry Tools. $10 per million characters pay as you go, 2 million free a month on F0, commitment overage down to $5.50. The 2026-06-06 schema breaks v3.0 clients and drops BreakSentence and dictionary lookups from the spec.

- Page: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-translator · Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-translator.md · JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/azure-translator.json
- Capabilities: translate.text, translate.documents, translate.glossary, translate.detect, translate.formality · endpoint: `https://api.cognitive.microsofttranslator.com`

### 105. Amazon Translate, B (69.8)

AWS's neural translation API across 75 languages. IAM policies scope access per action and resource, with a `TranslateReadOnly` managed policy, and CloudTrail logs each call. AWS may store and use text to improve Amazon AI services unless the organisation sets an opt-out policy.

- Page: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-translate · Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-translate.md · JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-translate.json
- Capabilities: translate.text, translate.documents, translate.glossary, translate.detect, translate.formality · endpoint: `https://translate.us-east-1.amazonaws.com`

### 130. Google Cloud Translation, B (68.2)

Google's API for translating text and documents. 500,000 free characters a month from a $10 credit, and only successful translations bill. Basic (v2) documents the API key as a URL query parameter.

- Page: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-cloud-translation · Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-cloud-translation.md · JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-cloud-translation.json
- Capabilities: translate.text, translate.documents, translate.glossary, translate.detect · endpoint: `https://translation.googleapis.com`

### 225. Lara Translate API, C (61.7)

Translated's translation model behind SDKs and an MCP server, with glossaries, translation memories, faithful, fluid or creative styles, free-text instructions, document translation and language detection. Glossaries, translation memories, styles and instructions on every translate call. Texts may be used for model improvement unless a request sets `noTrace`.

- Page: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lara-translate · Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lara-translate.md · JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lara-translate.json
- Capabilities: translate.text, translate.documents, translate.glossary, translate.detect · endpoint: `https://mcp-v2.laratranslate.com/v1`

### 367. LibreTranslate, D (49.8)

Open-source machine translation API built on Argos Translate models. Open source under AGPL-3.0, self-hosted with no text leaving your network. No status page, SLA or terms of service for the hosted API.

- Page: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/libretranslate · Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/libretranslate.md · JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/libretranslate.json
- Capabilities: translate.text, translate.documents, translate.detect · endpoint: `https://libretranslate.com`

### 434. Lingvanex Translation API, F (37.2)

Cloud machine translation API for text and HTML in about 110 languages, with auto-detection and transliteration, from a vendor that also sells on-premise translation servers. $5 per million characters list price. Product pages disagree on bulk and on-premise prices.

- Page: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lingvanex · Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lingvanex.md · JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lingvanex.json
- Capabilities: translate.text, translate.detect · endpoint: `https://api-b2b.backenster.com/b1/api/v3`

## How we test this category

The same texts in six language pairs, one with a glossary and one as a formatted document. We check the glossary terms, the formatting, latency, what the provider keeps and the cost per million characters. This test hasn't run yet, so Task success is pending and the grades here come from the categories assessed from public evidence.

## Indexed, not reviewed (7)

Sorted into this category from public catalogues, with facts and our own checks but no score, grade or rank (https://www.anchorterminal.com/indexed/index.md).

| Listing | Kind | What it does | Why it's here |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [ChangeThisFile](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/changethisfile-mcp.md) | MCP server | 1,000+ conversion routes plus translate, extract tables, compress. 25 free/month, then a free key. | vendor's own |
| [Claidex MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/claidex-failure-intelligence.md) | MCP server | Biomedical failure intelligence platform for terminated trials and translational analysis. | vendor's own |
| [i18n-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/i18nagent-i18n-agent.md) | MCP server | AI-powered translation for 48 languages with context-aware quality | vendor's own |
| [live-translate-mcp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/waxberry-live-translate-mcp.md) | MCP server | MCP server for local speech translation (EN ↔ 中文) via Whisper + Claude + Piper | vendor's own |
| [Paxa Labs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/paxalabs-mcp.md) | MCP server | Thai, English, Mandarin speech AI: TTS with playback, transcription, translation, OCR, extraction | vendor's own |
| [sonenta.com MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sonenta-mcp.md) | MCP server | MCP server for Sonenta translation management: keys, translations, a11y, and source-health tools. | vendor's own |
| [translatize.com MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/translatize-mcp.md) | MCP server | Read, search, edit and branch Translatize translation labels and fill missing translations. | vendor's own |