# DeepL API vs Google Cloud Translation > DeepL API has a score of 72.4 (BB) against Google Cloud Translation's 68.2 (B). Both do translate text. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 49 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepl-api-vs-google-cloud-translation - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepl-api-vs-google-cloud-translation.md (~1,500 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepl-api-vs-google-cloud-translation.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepl-api-vs-google-cloud-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 DeepL API has a score of 72.4 (BB) against Google Cloud Translation's 68.2 (B). Both do translate text. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 49 points. - DeepL API: grade BB, 72.4/100, rank #70 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepl-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepl-api.json - Google Cloud Translation: grade B, 68.2/100, rank #130 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-cloud-translation.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-cloud-translation.json ## Which one, for what Pick DeepL API for schema & documentation (+25), agent ergonomics (+9), payments & pricing (+10), maintenance & community (+49). Pick Google Cloud Translation for reliability (+38). ## Score by category | Category | Weight | DeepL API | Google Cloud Translation | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 52 | 90 | Google Cloud Translation +38 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 95 | 70 | DeepL API +25 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 74 | DeepL API +9 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 82 | 80 | DeepL API +2 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 20 | DeepL API +10 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 38 | DeepL API +49 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 80 | DeepL API +4 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **72.4 · BB** | **68.2 · B** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | DeepL API | Google Cloud Translation | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API | | Vendor | DeepL | Google Cloud | | Hosted endpoint | `https://api.deepl.com/v2/translate` | `https://translation.googleapis.com` | | Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP | | Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key | | Pricing | Freemium | Freemium | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | MIT (MCP server) | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) | | Tools exposed | 13 | 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 | yes | no | | MCP registry | not listed | not listed | | Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-04-09 | | Popularity | 117 stars, 328k npm/wk, 291k PyPI/wk | 561k npm/wk, 2.3M PyPI/wk | | Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) | ## Verdicts **DeepL 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. **Google Cloud Translation.** 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. ## Before you call either ### DeepL API 1. Match the host to the key. Keys ending `:fx` go to api-free.deepl.com, others to api.deepl.com 2. Send the key in the `Authorization: DeepL-Auth-Key` header, since query and body keys now get 403 3. Retry 429 and 529 with exponential backoff but stop on 456, which means the quota is spent 4. Set `tag_handling` to html for markup so the tags survive and aren't billed 5. Put a key-level usage limit on any key an agent holds, and scope it to the endpoints it needs ### Google Cloud Translation 1. Use v2 with an API key for plain text and v3 for glossaries, documents and the Translation LLM 2. Set `mimeType` to text/plain on v3 when the input isn't HTML 3. Back off on 403 User Rate Limit Exceeded as you would on a 429 4. Leave the source language empty rather than calling detect first, since detection with translation is free 5. Keep requests near 5,000 characters. v3 rejects more than 30,000 code points ## Other comparisons with DeepL API or Google Cloud Translation - [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) - [Azure Translator vs DeepL API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-translator-vs-deepl-api.md) - [Azure Translator vs Google Cloud Translation](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-translator-vs-google-cloud-translation.md) - [DeepL API vs Lara Translate API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepl-api-vs-lara-translate.md) - [DeepL API vs LibreTranslate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepl-api-vs-libretranslate.md) - [DeepL API vs Lingvanex Translation API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepl-api-vs-lingvanex.md) - [Google Cloud Translation vs Lara Translate API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-translation-vs-lara-translate.md) - [Google Cloud Translation vs LibreTranslate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-translation-vs-libretranslate.md) - [Google Cloud Translation vs Lingvanex Translation API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-translation-vs-lingvanex.md)