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Head to head · Translate text · October 2026 research run

Amazon Translate vs LibreTranslate

Amazon Translate has a score of 69.8 (B) against LibreTranslate's 49.8 (D). Both do translate text. The largest gap is reliability, 55 points.

Amazon TranslateAmazon Web Services · HTTP API B69.8/100#105 of 452 LibreTranslateLibreTranslate · HTTP API D49.8/100#367 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Amazon Translate for

  • reliability (+55)
  • schema & documentation (+25)
  • agent ergonomics (+15)
  • security & auth (+30)
  • transparency & trust (+12)

Pick LibreTranslate for

  • payments & pricing (+20)
  • maintenance & community (+15)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAmazon TranslateLibreTranslateEdge
Reliability16%209035Amazon Translate +55
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29065Amazon Translate +25
Agent ergonomics13%16.28065Amazon Translate +15
Security & auth14%17.57545Amazon Translate +30
Payments & pricing10%12.52040LibreTranslate +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.82540LibreTranslate +15
Transparency & trust7%8.87361Amazon Translate +12
Negative events≤1500
Total69.8 · B49.8 · D

Facts side by side

FactAmazon TranslateLibreTranslate
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorAmazon Web ServicesLibreTranslate
Hosted endpointhttps://translate.us-east-1.amazonaws.comhttps://libretranslate.com
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePaid
x402nono
LicencenoneAGPL-3.0
Tools exposednonenone
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last release2023-10-312026-05-26
Popularity601k npm/wk17k stars, 4.5k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews4/5 (2)4/5 (2)

Verdicts

Amazon Translate

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.

LibreTranslate

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.

Before you call either

Amazon Translate

  1. Chunk real-time text under 10,000 bytes, not characters, so multibyte scripts fit less per call
  2. Pass SourceLanguageCode auto to detect the source language, and handle DetectedLanguageLowConfidenceException
  3. Read AppliedSettings in the response, since unsupported formality or profanity settings are dropped without an error
  4. Retry TooManyRequestsException with backoff, which the AWS SDKs do by default
  5. Set the AI services opt-out policy before sending private text

LibreTranslate

  1. Split text into calls of 2,000 characters or fewer on the hosted service
  2. Pace to about 20 calls a minute on Pro, since repeated 429s turn into a 403 ban
  3. Pass source=auto to detect and translate in one call
  4. Set format=html for markup
  5. Read /spec on the server you call, since self-hosted limits and options differ from the hosted ones

Other comparisons with Amazon Translate or LibreTranslate

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