Configuring automatic suggestions#

Changed in version 4.13: Prior to Weblate 4.13, the services were configured in the Configuration.

The support for several machine translation and translation memory services is built-in. Each service can be turned on by the administrator for whole site (under Automatic suggestions in Management interface) or at the project settings:

Note

They come subject to their terms of use, so ensure you are allowed to use them how you want.

The services translate from the source language as configured at Component configuration, see Source language.

See also

Automatic suggestions

Alibaba#

New in version 5.3.

Service ID:

alibaba

Configuration:

`key`	Access key ID
`secret`	Access key secret
`region`	Region ID

Alibaba Translate is a neural machine translation service for translating text and it supports up to 214 language pairs.

See also

Alibaba Translate Documentation

Amagama#

Service ID:: amagama
Configuration:: This service has no configuration.

Special installation of tmserver run by the authors of Virtaal.

Apertium APy#

Service ID:

apertium-apy

Configuration:

url

API URL

A libre software machine translation platform providing translations to a limited set of languages.

The recommended way to use Apertium is to run your own Apertium-APy server.

Amazon Translate#

Service ID:

aws

Configuration:

`key`	Access key ID
`secret`	API secret key
`region`	Region name

Amazon Translate is a neural machine translation service for translating text to and from English across a breadth of supported languages.

See also

Amazon Translate Documentation

Baidu#

Service ID:

baidu

Configuration:

`key`	Client ID
`secret`	Client secret

Machine translation service provided by Baidu.

This service uses an API and you need to obtain an ID and API key from Baidu to use it.

See also

Baidu Translate API

DeepL#

Service ID:

deepl

Configuration:

`url`	API URL
`key`	API key
`formality`	Formality	Uses the specified formality if language is not specified as (in)formal

DeepL is paid service providing good machine translation for a few languages. You need to purchase DeepL API subscription or you can use legacy DeepL Pro (classic) plan.

API URL to use with the DeepL service. At the time of writing, there is the v1 API as well as a free and a paid version of the v2 API.

https://api.deepl.com/v2/ (default in Weblate): Is meant for API usage on the paid plan, and the subscription is usage-based.
https://api-free.deepl.com/v2/: Is meant for API usage on the free plan, and the subscription is usage-based.
https://api.deepl.com/v1/: Is meant for CAT tools and is usable with a per-user subscription.

Previously Weblate was classified as a CAT tool by DeepL, so it was supposed to use the v1 API, but now is supposed to use the v2 API. Therefore it defaults to v2, and you can change it to v1 in case you have an existing CAT subscription and want Weblate to use that.

The easiest way to find out which one to use is to open an URL like the following in your browser:

https://api.deepl.com/v2/translate?text=Hello&target_lang=FR&auth_key=XXX

Replace the XXX with your auth_key. If you receive a JSON object which contains “Bonjour”, you have the correct URL; if not, try the other three.

Weblate supports DeepL formality, it will choose matching one based on the language (for example, there is de@formal and de@informal).

The service automatically uses Glossary, see Glossaries in automatic suggestion.

Glosbe#

Service ID:: glosbe
Configuration:: This service has no configuration.

Free dictionary and translation memory for almost every living language.

The API is gratis to use, but usage of the translations is subject to the license of the used data source. There is a limit of calls that may be done from one IP in a set period of time, to prevent abuse.

See also

Glosbe website

Google Cloud Translation Basic#

Service ID:

google-translate

Configuration:

key

API key

Machine translation service provided by the Google Cloud services.

This service uses the Google Translation API v2, and you need to obtain an API key and turn on billing in the Google API console.

See also

Google translate documentation

Google Cloud Translation Advanced#

Service ID:

google-translate-api-v3

Configuration:

`credentials`	Google Translate service account info	Enter a JSON key for the service account.
`project`	Google Translate project	Enter the numeric or alphanumeric ID of your Google Cloud project.
`location`	Google Translate location	Choose a Google Cloud Translation region that is used for the Google Cloud project or is closest to you.

Machine translation service provided by the Google Cloud services.

This service uses the Google Translation API v3 and you need credentials in JSON format to access it.

In order to use this service, you first need to go through the following steps:

IBM Watson Language Translator#

New in version 4.16.

Service ID:

ibm

Configuration:

`url`	API URL
`key`	API key

Warning

This service is deprecated by vendor and will be withdrawn entirely as of 10 December 2024.

IBM Watson Language Translator translates text from one language to another. The service offers multiple domain-specific models.

LibreTranslate#

New in version 4.7.1.

Service ID:

libretranslate

Configuration:

`url`	API URL
`key`	API key

LibreTranslate is a free and open-source service for machine translations. The public instance requires an API key, but LibreTranslate can be self-hosted and there are several mirrors available to use the API for free.

https://libretranslate.com/ (official public instance): Requires an API key to use outside of the website.

Azure AI Translator#

Service ID:

microsoft-translator

Configuration:

`key`	API key
`base_url`	Application base URL	Available choices: `api.cognitive.microsofttranslator.com` – Global (non-regional) `api-apc.cognitive.microsofttranslator.com` – Asia Pacific `api-eur.cognitive.microsofttranslator.com` – Europe `api-nam.cognitive.microsofttranslator.com` – North America `api.translator.azure.cn` – China `api.cognitive.microsofttranslator.us` – Azure US Government cloud
`endpoint_url`	Authentication service URL	Regional or multi-service can be specified using region field below. Available choices: `api.cognitive.microsoft.com` – Global `api.cognitive.azure.cn` – China `api.cognitive.microsoft.us` – Azure US Government cloud
`region`	Authentication service region

Machine translation service provided by Microsoft in Azure portal as a one of Cognitive Services.

Weblate implements Translator API V3.

The service automatically uses Glossary, see Glossaries in automatic suggestion.

Translator Text API V2#

The key you use with Translator API V2 can be used with API 3.

Translator Text API V3#

You need to register at Azure portal and use the key you obtain there. With new Azure keys, you also need to set region to locale of your service.

Hint

For Azure China, please use your endpoint from the Azure Portal.

ModernMT#

New in version 4.2.

Service ID:

modernmt

Configuration:

`url`	API URL
`key`	API key

See also

ModernMT API

MyMemory#

Service ID:

mymemory

Configuration:

`email`	Contact e-mail
`username`	Username
`key`	API key

Huge translation memory with machine translation.

Free, anonymous usage is currently limited to 100 requests/day, or to 1000 requests/day when you provide a contact e-mail address in email. You can also ask them for more.

See also

MyMemory website

Netease Sight#

Service ID:

netease-sight

Configuration:

`key`	Client ID
`secret`	Client secret

Machine translation service provided by NetEase.

This service uses an API, and you need to obtain key and secret from NetEase.

See also

NetEase Sight Translation Platform

OpenAI#

New in version 5.3.

Service ID:

openai

Configuration:

`key`	API key
`model`	OpenAI model	Available choices: `auto` – Automatic selection `gpt-4-1106-preview` – GPT-4 Turbo `gpt-4` – GPT-4 `gpt-3.5-turbo` – GPT-3.5 Turbo
`persona`	Translator persona	Describe the persona of translator to improve the accuracy of the translation. For example: “You are a squirrel breeder.”
`style`	Translator style	Describe the style of translation. For example: “Use informal language.”

Performs translation using OpenAI.

The OpenAI API is powered by a diverse set of models with different capabilities and price points. Automatic selection chooses the best model available, but you might want to choose a specific model that matches your needs.

Use persona and style fields to further fine-tune translations. These will be used in a prompt for OpenAI and allow you to change the style of the translations.

The service automatically uses Glossary, see Glossaries in automatic suggestion.

See also

OpenAI models, OpenAI API keys

SAP Translation Hub#

Service ID:

sap-translation-hub

Configuration:

`url`	API URL
`key`	API key
`username`	SAP username
`password`	SAP password
`enable_mt`	Enable machine translation
`domain`	Translation domain	The ID of a translation domain, for example, BC. If you do not specify a domain, the method searches for translations in all available domains.

Machine translation service provided by SAP.

You need to have a SAP account (and the SAP Translation Hub enabled in the SAP Cloud Platform) to use this service.

You can also configure whether to also use machine translation services, in addition to the term database.

Note

To access the Sandbox API, you need to set url and key.

To access the productive API, you need to set url, username and password.

tmserver#

Service ID:

tmserver

Configuration:

url

API URL

You can run your own translation memory server by using the one bundled with Translate-toolkit and let Weblate talk to it. You can also use it with an amaGama server, which is an enhanced version of tmserver.

First you will want to import some data to the translation memory:

build_tmdb -d /var/lib/tm/db -s en -t cs locale/cs/LC_MESSAGES/django.po
build_tmdb -d /var/lib/tm/db -s en -t de locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/django.po
build_tmdb -d /var/lib/tm/db -s en -t fr locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/django.po

Start tmserver to listen to your requests:

tmserver -d /var/lib/tm/db

Configure Weblate to talk to it, the default URL is http://localhost:8888/tmserver/.

Weblate#

Service ID:: weblate
Configuration:: This service has no configuration.

Weblate machine translation service can provide translations for strings that are already translated inside Weblate. It looks for exact matches in the existing strings.

Weblate Translation Memory#

Service ID:: weblate-translation-memory
Configuration:: This service has no configuration.

Use Translation Memory as a machine translation service. Any string that has been translated in past (or uploaded to the translation memory) can be translated in this way.

Yandex#

Service ID:

yandex

Configuration:

key

API key

Machine translation service provided by Yandex.

This service uses a Translation API, and you need to obtain an API key from Yandex.

Yandex v2#

New in version 5.1.

Service ID:

yandex-v2

Configuration:

key

API key

Machine translation service provided by Yandex.

This service uses a Translation API, and you need to obtain an API key from Yandex Cloud.

Youdao Zhiyun#

Service ID:

youdao-zhiyun

Configuration:

`key`	Client ID
`secret`	Client secret

Machine translation service provided by Youdao.

This service uses an API, and you need to obtain an ID and an API key from Youdao.

Custom machine translation#

You can also implement your own machine translation services using a few lines of Python code. This example implements machine translation in a fixed list of languages using dictionary Python module:

# Copyright © Michal Čihař <michal@weblate.org>
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later

"""Machine translation example."""

import dictionary

from weblate.machinery.base import MachineTranslation


class SampleTranslation(MachineTranslation):
    """Sample machine translation interface."""

    name = "Sample"

    def download_languages(self):
        """Return list of languages your machine translation supports."""
        return {"cs"}

    def download_translations(
        self,
        source,
        language,
        text: str,
        unit,
        user,
        search: bool,
        threshold: int = 75,
    ):
        """Return tuple with translations."""
        for t in dictionary.translate(text):
            yield {"text": t, "quality": 100, "service": self.name, "source": text}

You can list your own class in WEBLATE_MACHINERY and Weblate will start using that.