It's not a secret that people are more likely to buy from a website in their local language. This means that offering only one language you lose not only sales but international growth opportunities.
However, translating hundreds or thousands of products and pages is expensive, time-consuming and hard to maintain. That's where Google Translate Integration for Magento comes in handy.
So, in this guide, you'll learn everything about the Magento Google Translate Integration, whether it's worth it, and how to set it up the easiest way possible — through the .
But let's start from the beginning.
What is Magento Google Translate Integration?
Magento Google Translate Integration is a process of incorporating the Google Translate technology (through API or a widget) into Magento in order to automatically translate website content into multiple languages.
There are two integration approaches.
Google Translate widget (free)
It's a website add-on that translates content for visitors on the fly. In other words, people just see content in their local language while visiting your website. No content is actually translated within your store.
While it might be a quick solution, if you want to improve users' experience, it's quite limited. You don't have any control over the translations or what people see, and receive no SEO benefits at all.
Google Translate API (paid)
Google Translation API or Cloud Translation API is a machine translation technology that integrates directly into your store. It allows you to translate texts on your website automatically and apply them directly within your admin.
This allows you to cover more keywords and drive more traffic from search.
That's why the Google Translate API is a recommended choice if you want to scale your translations across the entire store.
This approach gives you full control over what content is displayed for each language, regardless of the number of languages you serve.
Google Translate widget vs. Google Translate API
It's quite obvious why it's best to use the Google Translate API rather than a widget. However, let's quickly sum up the difference between these two to give you a full picture.
Although a quick solution, the Google Translate Widget comes with a lot of limitations:
- Lost SEO opportunities — search engines don't index the translations since no new (translated) pages are created.
- Inconsistency — all translations appear dynamically, there is no way to edit or change them.
- Poor user experience — page content appears translated only for the user's browser, not the website.
While you can use it, Google Translate API offers a much better outcome:
- Optimised SEO — all products, categories and other pages are translated directly in your admin panel, so search engines index and rank them in search.
- More control — once translations are added, you can edit, remove and customise them however you like.
- Better scalability — you can translate hundreds of products automatically, for multiple languages at once.
That's exactly why we've decided to use the Translation API in our Magefan Translator. However, like many Google APIs, Translation is not completely free.
Google Translation API Pricing
Google offers you two editions — Basic and Advanced — with a different set of features.
- Basic — operates on the pre-trained Neural Machine Translation (NMT) model. It's simpler and optimised for handling user-generated content like social media, comments and chat.
- Advanced — more optimised for long-form content and customisations. It includes custom features like glossaries and batch requests, and allows you to choose a custom model.
Both editions are paid. However, the first 500,000 characters sent for the Translation API to process each month are free. That's about 71,428 - 12,5000 words per month.
Then the pricing for the Basic edition starts from $20 for a million characters per month. It's about 150,000 - 200,000 words. So you shouldn't worry about the enormous charges.
How to Set Up Google Translation API?
It might seem overwhelming at first. But the Magefan Translation extension handles the technical part. All you need to do is create a Google Cloud project, if you haven't already, and enable the Translation API.
If you've already created a Google Cloud project, just skip the first two steps.
Step 1: Create a Google Cloud project
Since the Translation API is a part of the Google Cloud architecture, you need to have a project to work with the API.
Navigate to the Google Cloud Console, click on Select a project and hit the New Project button.
Specify the Project name and Location, and click Create. Choosing an organisation is not required when creating a project.
Once you finish, move to the Select a project dropdown and select your project to continue.
Step 2: Enable billing
Although there are a lot of free Google Cloud resources, some of them are still paid. So when you create a project, Google requires you to add the billing account and specify who pays for the used resources, if any.
This usually includes providing your tax information (VAT and organisation) and card details.
Find the flyout menu on the top left corner, choose Billing and continue with the required steps.
Important: you need to create a billing account even if you start a trial. Once it ends, you won't be charged automatically until you manually activate your full account.
Step 3: Enable Translation API
Navigate to the same flyout menu on the top left corner and find the APIs & Services > Library option. Find the Cloud Translation API there and click Enable.
Note: you will be asked to create a billing account to enable the API if you've missed this step before.
Once the API is enabled, you land on the API page with all the metrics, quotas and other details.
Step 4: Get API keys
To connect the Google Translation API with Magento, you need to generate the API key. For that, switch to the Credentials tab, hit + Create Credentials and choose the API Key option.
It will take a moment for the system to generate the API key. Just copy it once you finish.
Set up Google Translate in Magento
As promised before, Magefan Translator will cover most of the work for you. So, once you have your Google Translate API keys, there are only a few steps left.
1. Paste Google Translation API keys in the admin
Just navigate to Stores > Configuration > Magefan Extensions > Translation > Translation APIs > Google Translation API and paste it there.
Additionally, set Google as a Default Translator and specify the Default Locale which you want to use for translations.
2. Specify the daily usage limit
If you don't want to overload the system or exceed the free month characters, just specify the Daily Usage Limit. Choose whether to Limit usage By characters or requests and set a number of them in the Count field.
Then just Save the settings and start your auto-translation journey. Just navigate to any product, category or other page and hit Auto Translate. It is that simple.
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Alternatively, you can also bulk translate multiple pages through the Mass actions.
3. Schedule auto translations
In case you don't want to do anything outside of the Config section, just Schedule Translation. Enable a corresponding option and choose all Sources (or some specific ones) to translate and hit Translate all Entities.
You don't have to do anything after that. Google Translate will then go through each page, gradually translating all existing content and updating it if any of it is edited.
However, the best part is, that you can go through every translation and edit it manually if you want to.
Google Translation Common Challenges
Although the Magento Google Translate Integration significantly reduces the workload, there are still some challenges to be ready for.
Inaccurate translations
Machine translations are evolving rapidly. But they might still misinterpret some industry-specific works.
So, to protect your brand names or some niche terminology from being translated, you need to create a Glossary and upload it to the Google Cloud API. However, it's available only in the Advanced plan.
Or you can simply edit the translation manually across your website, if needed. But it might take a while.
SEO challenges
If you don't handle your translation properly, especially for the landing page, it can harm your SEO. Search engines might simply not recognise the translated pages as different versions and treat them as duplicate content.
Make sure to translate URLs and metadata, and "connect" your page variants with the hreflang tags.
API costs
Although you get 500,000 free characters every month, and the cost of 1,000,000 characters is just $20, the translations can still get costly. Especially with large catalogues.
If you don't want to spend much on translations every month, start with high-traffic pages and only active products and categories. Don't translate everything at once.
Preserving a brand voice
You can create a glossary for the brand names and industry-specific terms, so that Google doesn't misinterpret them. However, you still have to pay attention to the critical pages.
It's best to review and manually edit a homepage, about us pages or any promotional content in case Google doesn't get it right. That's the only way to ensure authenticity in those specific pages.
Anticipating these challenges allows you to make the most of the Magento Google Translation Integration. However, if you're not ready to go with Google, there are some other options.
Magento Google Translate Integration vs. Alternatives
Google is the most popular translation tool for Magento. But it's not the only option. Considering the side of your business and goals, some other tools might be more effective in your case.
Note: Magefan Translator supports both ChatGPT and DeepL. So you can easily switch between them for more effective translations.
DeepL Integration
DeepL is famous for its natural-sounding translations, especially in European countries. All because it handles context better than Google Translate and offers premium quality translations.
But, if you're considering the Magento 2 DeepL Integration for your store, expect higher pricing and fewer languages than with Google.
ChatGPT Integration
The best part about ChatGPT for translation is that you can adapt the tone of voice, preserve your brand style and even give it some specific instructions.
It's a great option for stores that want brand-consistent and human-like translations.
But, similar to DeepL, Magento ChatGPT integration can get expensive at scale. And it's a bit slower than other APIs.
Are API Translations the Future?
Google Translation API, along with other APIs we've mentioned, keep evolving. They offer more features, like glossaries, overrides and fine-tuning, to maintain brand consistency.
And most importantly, they process thousands of products fast. That's the level that manual translations and widget-like tools can't compete with.
You can definitely translate Magento manually. But if you want to scale fast without spending hours on that, API translations offered by Magefan Translator are the best option.
