# Amazon Translate vs Localazy

> Amazon Translate scores 75 (BB) to Localazy's 54.4 (C) for translation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-localazy
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-localazy.md (~4,950 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Amazon Translate scores 75 (BB) on agent readiness against Localazy's 54.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Localazy leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do translation.

- Amazon Translate: grade BB, 75/100, rank #75 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-translate.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-translate.json
- Localazy: grade C, 54.4/100, rank #909 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/localazy.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/localazy.json
- Best machine translation APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/translation/index.md
- All 105 translation comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/translation/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Amazon Translate (BB)

Good for: Operators already on AWS who want translation inside IAM and CloudTrail, with S3 batch jobs and terminology files.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 90 against 68
- Schema & documentation, 90 against 51
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 62
- Security & auth, 78 against 37
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 57

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: AWS may store and use text to improve Amazon AI services unless the organisation sets an opt-out policy

### Localazy (C)

Good for: App and game teams that keep source strings in a TMS and want agents to push keys, pull translations or run AI translation with a glossary.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 65

Watch for: No OpenAPI spec, and llms.txt only lists top-level pages


## Why the edge

### Security & auth: Amazon Translate +41

- Amazon Translate (78): Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines. SigV4 with IAM users, roles and temporary credentials, scoped per action and resource, and a `TranslateReadOnly` managed policy (30). Section 50.3 of the AWS Service Terms (last updated 30 October 2026, re-read on 1 November) still names Amazon Translate among the services whose content AWS may store and use to improve the service and other Amazon AI technologies by default. Any customer can opt out with an AI services opt-out policy in `AWS Organizations` (10 of 20). The FAQ, re-read on 1 November, says content is stored at rest in the region in use and that some may be stored in another region for service improvement. No zero-retention mode without the opt-out (5 of 15). CloudTrail logs API calls per caller (15). Vulnerability reporting policy at vdp.aws.security, SOC and ISO reports in AWS Artifact and public security bulletins, none of the 39 in the feed on 1 November naming Translate. The security.txt on aws.amazon.com, expired from 24 September 2026, was renewed and, re-read on 1 November, expires on 16 October 2027. We found no paid public bug bounty, so 2 points stay held back, as on the Polly, Transcribe, S3 and Secrets Manager listings (18 of 20). 30 + 10 + 5 + 15 + 18 = 78.
- Localazy (37): Bearer tokens in the Authorization header. A project token reaches every endpoint of one project with read and write access; a translation token reaches only the AI Translation endpoint; organisation tokens are in beta on request (20). The translation token is the only least-privilege option, and project tokens can delete keys and glossary items without a confirmation step (10). The API returns strings written by translators and contributors, with no guidance on untrusted content (5). No per-call log or audit trail for tokens found (2). localazy.com/.well-known/security.txt and /security return 404, and we found no disclosure policy or certification (0). 20+10+5+2+0 = 37.

### Schema & documentation: Amazon Translate +39

- Amazon Translate (90): The service model (API version 2017-07-01) is public in every AWS SDK and in the aws/api-models-aws repository, a machine-readable contract in the role OpenAPI plays. Since 8 October 2026 it declares Smithy RPC v2 CBOR beside AWS JSON 1.1 (25). llms.txt for the developer guide (139 lines on 1 November), a Markdown contents page with a link to the whole guide as one Markdown file (10). The guide separates real-time text, real-time documents and S3 batch jobs and says when each fits (15). Inputs typed with enums for formality, profanity and brevity, byte limits and required fields marked (15). Each action lists its errors with HTTP codes, but the API reference has syntax templates and no worked examples (10 of 15). Versioned API and a dated document history (15).
- Localazy (51): No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract was found (0). localazy.com/llms.txt is a six-link index of top-level pages, with no Markdown docs for agents (5). Each endpoint page states which token types can call it, whether write permission is needed and the minimum role, and the limits page says to use the CDN, not the API, for production fetches (14). Request bodies list required and optional fields with limits, such as 512 characters for a key and 1,000 for a comment (12). Sample requests, responses and error responses per endpoint (13). Docs pages carry 'last updated' dates and the blog posts dated release updates, but there's no API version or changelog (7). 0+5+14+12+13+7 = 51.

### Reliability: Amazon Translate +22

- Amazon Translate (90): AWS Health Dashboard with a per-service, per-region RSS feed (20). The Translate feeds for us-east-1, us-west-2 and eu-west-1 held no events on 1 November 2026 (built 07:32 PST), and Translate has no feed for the Middle East (UAE) or (Bahrain) Regions, whose open multi-service events this run counts on other AWS listings. The public dashboard lists only broad events and account-level ones go to the personal health dashboard, so a clean feed says less than a small vendor's detailed page (30). Quotas, re-read on 1 November, published with numbers for batch, terminology and parallel data calls (5 or 10 a second) and for request sizes (10,000 bytes for `TranslateText`, 100,000 bytes for a real-time document), but no rate for `TranslateText` itself, where the guide says the service scales and to contact support (10 of 15). Throttling comes back as `TooManyRequestsException` and `StartTextTranslationJob` takes a `ClientToken` for idempotency, but the Translate guide gives no backoff advice and leaves retries to the SDK defaults (10 of 15). Named in the Amazon Machine Learning Language SLA, re-read on 1 November (10). GA (10).
- Localazy (68): Hosted lines, for the REST API at api.localazy.com. Better Stack status page with Web, API, Public API, Payments and Connect API components and 30, 60 and 90-day uptime (20). The incidents page reports none for September, October or November 2026, but the Public API shows 99.805% uptime in one 30-day bucket, roughly an hour and a half of downtime with no incident posted, so the line is held below clean (25). Limits per plan of 100 requests a minute and 10 a second, plus daily import and fetch caps per project (15). No 429 or retry guidance found in the API docs (0). No SLA found on the pricing page or in the terms (0). The core API is GA; the AI Translation endpoint is marked beta (8). 20+25+15+0+0+8 = 68.

### Agent ergonomics: Amazon Translate +18

- Amazon Translate (80): API reading of the checklist. Responses carry the translation plus `AppliedSettings` and `AppliedTerminologies` and nothing else, and brevity can shorten output, but there's no field selection (20 of 25). List calls page with `NextToken` and `MaxResults`, and request limits are published, but `TranslateText` takes one string, so batching small strings means S3 jobs or many calls (15 of 20). Typed errors an agent can act on, such as `UnsupportedLanguagePairException`, `DetectedLanguageLowConfidenceException` and `TextSizeLimitExceededException` (20). `TranslateText` is stateless and batch jobs take a `ClientToken`. No read-only hints apply to a plain API (15 of 20). Three required fields, `auto` for detection, but SigV4 signing is hard without an SDK. SDKs in every major language (10 of 15).
- Localazy (62): API reading. List endpoints return whole projects, files and keys with few output controls (13). Filtering by file, language and tags, and batch imports of up to 1,000 keys and 50 files a request (14). Error responses are documented per endpoint, with HTTP codes and messages (12). No idempotency keys, and the docs warn against parallel imports into the same new file (8). Official TypeScript API client, a CLI and Android and iOS libraries, with few required fields (15). 13+14+12+8+15 = 62.

### Transparency & trust: Amazon Translate +15

- Amazon Translate (72): Closed service under the AWS Service Terms (15). The FAQ, service terms and opt-out guide agree that AWS may use content by default and that an organisation policy stops it, and a DPA and sub-processor list exist. The same FAQ, re-read on 1 November, says AWS will only use content with your consent, which sits awkwardly beside a default you have to switch off (20 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated deprecation notices found for Translate (0). Sub-processors listed and the region chosen per request, but the FAQ allows some content to be stored in another region (15 of 20).
- Localazy (57): Editorial half only. Closed service under terms that name Localazy s.r.o. of Brno and Czech law; the CLI is BSD-3-Clause and the API client MIT (15). The privacy policy keeps data while the service is used and 24 months after, and includes a DPA, but says nothing on whether content sent to Localazy AI is used for training (15). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (0). The DPA links a list of suppliers and subprocessors on an external knowledge base we didn't read (10). 15+15+0+10 = 40.

### Maintenance & community: Localazy +10

- Amazon Translate (65): Read as a closed service from its own service model, as this run reads every AWS listing. The translate model in aws/api-models-aws changed on 8 October 2026 (commit 11f19c6), adding Smithy RPC v2 CBOR as a second protocol beside AWS JSON 1.1, 24 days before 1 November (30). In the 90 days from 3 August that is one model change. `@aws-sdk/client-translate` shipped 60 versions in the same window, to 3.1161.0 on 30 October, and every one but 3.1148.0 (8 October, the same CBOR change) is a version bump that doesn't change the service, so they count at half, as amazon-sns's client versions were read (10 of 20). The document history's newest entry is still brevity on 2023-10-31. AWS re:Post and paid support plans exist, SDK issue trackers not checked (5 of 15). Official SDKs current, `@aws-sdk/client-translate` 3.1161.0 and boto3 (15). SDKs regenerate from the model on AWS's release train, CI not checked (5 of 10). 30 + 10 + 5 + 15 + 5 = 65.
- Localazy (75): @localazy/api-client 2.3.2 on 26 October 2026 (30). Releases 2.3.0 (12 August), 2.3.1 (29 September) and 2.3.2 (26 October) in the last 90 days (20). Support by email, blog release updates, and public GitHub repositories, but we didn't read issue reply times (7). The TypeScript client and the CLI (2.0.12 on 31 July 2026) are current (13). The client repository shows coverage badges; we didn't confirm CI runs (5). 30+20+7+13+5 = 75.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Translate | Localazy | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 68 | Amazon Translate +22 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 90 | 51 | Amazon Translate +39 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 62 | Amazon Translate +18 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 78 | 37 | Amazon Translate +41 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 35 | Localazy +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 75 | Localazy +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 57 | Amazon Translate +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **75 · BB** | **54.4 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Translate | Localazy |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Localazy s.r.o. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://translate.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | Token |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for translation | $15 per 1M characters | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-26 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 601k npm/wk | 61k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | none |

## How the scores have moved

### Amazon Translate

- +5.4 on 1 November 2026 (B to BB): security, product, correction
- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.3 on 8 October 2026: checklist

### Localazy

No score change since it was listed.

## 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, and the document history has no new capability since October 2023.

**Localazy.** Localazy is a localisation platform whose REST API, CLI and AI Translation endpoint use project-scoped bearer tokens, with published limits, a free plan and a no-card trial. There's no OpenAPI spec, no 429 guidance, no security.txt or disclosure policy, and project tokens carry full read and write access.

## 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

### Localazy

1. Ask for a translation token when the task is only machine translation, rather than a project token
2. Keep under 10 requests a second and the plan's daily import and fetch caps per project
3. Use the Localazy CDN, not the API, to fetch translations in a live app
4. Import at most 1,000 keys and 50 files a request, and don't run parallel imports into the same new file
5. Check the account's credit balance before bulk AI translation, since each word uses credits

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Translate or Localazy?

Amazon Translate scores 75 (BB) on agent readiness against Localazy's 54.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Localazy leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

### Do Amazon Translate and Localazy need an API key?

Amazon Translate needs an API key. Localazy needs an access token.

### Can an agent call Amazon Translate and Localazy without installing anything?

Amazon Translate has a hosted endpoint at https://translate.us-east-1.amazonaws.com. No hosted endpoint is listed for Localazy.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-localazy.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-localazy.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "amazon-translate", "b": "localazy"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare amazon-translate localazy`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-translate.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/localazy.json

## Other comparisons with Amazon Translate or Localazy

- [Amazon Translate vs Azure Translator](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-azure-translator.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs Crowdin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-crowdin.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs DeepL API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-deepl-api.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs Google Cloud Translation](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-google-cloud-translation.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs Lara Translate API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-lara-translate.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs LibreTranslate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-libretranslate.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs Lingo.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-lingo-dev.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs Lingvanex Translation API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-lingvanex.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs Lokalise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-lokalise.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs Phrase](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-phrase.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs Smartcat](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-smartcat.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs SYSTRAN Translate API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-systran.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs TranslatePlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-translateplus.md)
- [Azure Translator vs Localazy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-translator-vs-localazy.md)
- [Crowdin vs Localazy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-localazy.md)
- [DeepL API vs Localazy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepl-api-vs-localazy.md)
- [Google Cloud Translation vs Localazy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-translation-vs-localazy.md)
- [Lara Translate API vs Localazy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lara-translate-vs-localazy.md)
- [LibreTranslate vs Localazy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/libretranslate-vs-localazy.md)
- [Lingo.dev vs Localazy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingo-dev-vs-localazy.md)
- [Lingvanex Translation API vs Localazy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingvanex-vs-localazy.md)
- [Localazy vs Lokalise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localazy-vs-lokalise.md)
- [Localazy vs Phrase](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localazy-vs-phrase.md)
- [Localazy vs Smartcat](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localazy-vs-smartcat.md)
- [Localazy vs SYSTRAN Translate API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localazy-vs-systran.md)
- [Localazy vs TranslatePlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localazy-vs-translateplus.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp