# Azure Translator vs LibreTranslate

> Azure Translator has a score of 72.2 (BB) against LibreTranslate's 49.8 (D). Both do translate text. The largest gap is reliability, 48 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-04

Azure Translator has a score of 72.2 (BB) against LibreTranslate's 49.8 (D). Both do translate text. The largest gap is reliability, 48 points.

- Azure Translator: grade BB, 72.2/100, rank #73 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-translator.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/azure-translator.json
- LibreTranslate: grade D, 49.8/100, rank #367 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/libretranslate.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/libretranslate.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Azure Translator for reliability (+48), schema & documentation (+18), agent ergonomics (+17), security & auth (+30), maintenance & community (+30), transparency & trust (+19).

Pick LibreTranslate for payments & pricing (+20).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Azure Translator | LibreTranslate | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 83 | 35 | Azure Translator +48 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 65 | Azure Translator +18 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 65 | Azure Translator +17 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 75 | 45 | Azure Translator +30 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | LibreTranslate +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 40 | Azure Translator +30 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 61 | Azure Translator +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **72.2 · BB** | **49.8 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Azure Translator | LibreTranslate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Microsoft Azure | LibreTranslate |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cognitive.microsofttranslator.com` | `https://libretranslate.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | AGPL-3.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-06-06 | 2026-05-26 |
| Popularity | 156k npm/wk, 40k PyPI/wk | 17k stars, 4.5k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Azure Translator.** $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.

**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

### Azure Translator

1. Send `Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Region` with the key for a regional resource
2. Pin `api-version=3.0` until your client handles the 2026-06-06 `inputs` and `value` shape
3. Batch up to 1,000 strings a call rather than one call per string
4. Spread load across the hour, since the character caps are hourly and bursts get 429
5. Treat 403001 as the free quota running out, not a permissions error

### 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

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