Complete guide to machine translation tools in 2026
Machine translators continue to be widely adopted in 2026. MTPE service is becoming more and more popular. These automated translators are getting more accurate by the year, converting large volumes of text into other languages in seconds. This allows the human translator to save time and focus on more complex nuances such as jokes, puns or cultural references.
There are numerous online machine translators to choose from and deciding on the most suitable one can be a challenge. This article explores the advantages and disadvantages of five well-known machine translators, helping you find the most suitable option for your personal needs.
What are the best machine translation tools in 2026?
| Languages | File upload | API | Free version | Special features | Suitable for | |
| DeepL | 100+ | Yes | Yes – separate API plan | Yes | AI-powered writing assistance in 9 languages | Casual users and small businesses |
| 250+ | Yes | Yes – 0.5M characters/month free | Yes | Extensive image translation | Casual users, small- and medium-sized businesses | |
| Microsoft | 100+ languages and dialects | Yes – paid document translation | Yes – 2M characters/month free | Yes | Document and image translation, custom models and glossaries | Small- to enterprise-level businesses |
| Amazon | 75 | Yes | Yes | 2M characters/month free for 12 months | Brevity function, profanity masking | Small- to enterprise-level businesses |
| ChatGPT | 100+ (varies by model) | Yes – limited on Free | Yes – separately paid API | Yes | Document, image and audio translation | Casual users to enterprise level businesses |
For this purpose, we analyse a sample paragraph which was originally in Swedish, and translated into English by the machine translators of DeepL, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and ChatGPT. The paragraph is sourced from the website Swish.nu, Sweden’s leading mobile payment application.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of DeepL?
DeepL allows you to translate up to 50,000 characters per month for free, while premium plans starting at €7.49 per month offer between 300,000 and unlimited characters per month.
In the free version, users are allowed one non-editable file translation each month, and the file size for uploads is restricted to 5 MB. Additionally, users can create one glossary containing up to 5 entries per language pair.
The paid plans include up to 100 editable file translations, supporting file uploads of up to 100 MB. Depending on the plan, users can create one, five or an unlimited number of glossaries, with 5, 1,000 or unlimited entries per language pair. The paid version also provides advanced functionalities like team administration, single sign-on (SSO), and seamless CAT tool integration. In addition, DeepL’s paid versions focus on maximum data security.
Pro versions allow you to specify whether the translation will be formal or informal. Furthermore, when translating into Japanese, you have the option to select either an informal or a polite tone, a significant linguistic distinction.
DeepL also has a mobile app, allowing on-the-go translations and image translation. On the other hand, DeepL’s image translation is currently in beta and supports standalone PNG and JPEG/JPG files in all DeepL-supported languages. Images embedded in documents are not translated automatically.
Users commend DeepL for its high level of accuracy. However, it supports more than 100 languages, a limitation compared to Google Translate’s more than 250 languages.
Source text in Swedish
Med butiksappar kan kunden skanna och betala varor själv med mobilen. På så sätt försvinner köerna och risken för trängsel minskar. Visste du att hälften av alla 18 till 29-åringar har lämnat butiken för att kön var för lång och att lika många undviker att gå in i butiker med för mycket folk i? (Ombemannat, Swish 2023). Om kassan försvinner kan personalen dessutom bli friare att erbjuda en högre grad av service.
Translation example by DeepL
In-store apps allow customers to scan and pay for goods themselves with their phones. This eliminates queues and reduces the risk of congestion. Did you know that half of all 18- to 29-year-olds have left the store because the line was too long and that the same number of people avoid entering crowded stores? (Unmanned, Swish 2023). Moreover, if the cash register disappears, staff may be freer to offer a higher level of service.
With a simple and easy-to-follow sentence structure, DeepL machine translation offers a better flow than most other programs. In the first two sentences, DeepL has eliminated the Swedish med (‘with’) and på så sätt (‘in this way’), which are redundant in English. In the third sentence, DeepL has steered clear of verbatim translation of the source text; While the Swedish version says butiker med för mycket folk i (literally ‘stores/shops with too many people in them’), DeepL has used ‘crowded stores’.
On the other hand, DeepL has translated ombemannat as ‘unmanned’, whereas in this context it means ‘remanned’ or ‘restaffed’. This suggests that DeepL excels in concise and well-flowing translations, but may not be the optimal choice for achieving a precise word-for-word translation.
Is Google Translate a good choice for machine translation?
Although often seen as the epitome of incorrect translations, Google Translate has come a long way since its switch to neural machine translation and its later adoption of Gemini-based AI.
Neural machine translation (NMT) is a widely used approach to machine translation. Although NMT also uses language corpora and statistical calculations, neural machine translation engines are based on artificial neural networks. One could say that artificial neural networks are trained to translate. They are programmed to search for patterns from the texts provided (somewhat similarly to the human brain) and then provide translations themselves based on the patterns they detect. Unlike statistical translation systems, NMT engines look at the entire source sentence instead of individual phrases, providing more grammatically correct and fluent translated sentences.
Google Translate offers versatile features like app integration and website translation, and supports more than 250 languages. Its offline mode and document translation for files up to 10 MB enhance usability.
One notable strength is Google Translate’s image translation capability, covering an extensive set of languages and alphabets. The online translator can translate text in images and display it over the original image, making it really efficient at fast translation of advertisements or invitations.
However, using Google Translate’s free online version for confidential information is not recommended, as the data is processed under Google’s Privacy Policy and may be used to provide, maintain, improve and personalise its services, depending on the user’s settings. Higher levels of data privacy are provided by the paid version, Google Cloud Translation API.
Source text in Swedish
Med butiksappar kan kunden skanna och betala varor själv med mobilen. På så sätt försvinner köerna och risken för trängsel minskar. Visste du att hälften av alla 18 till 29-åringar har lämnat butiken för att kön var för lång och att lika många undviker att gå in i butiker med för mycket folk i? (Ombemannat, Swish 2023). Om kassan försvinner kan personalen dessutom bli friare att erbjuda en högre grad av service.
Translation example by Google Translate
With store apps, the customer can scan and pay for goods themselves with their mobile phone. In this way, the queues disappear and the risk of congestion is reduced. Did you know that half of all 18 to 29-year-olds have left the store for being too tall and that the same number avoid entering stores with too many people in them? (Restaffed, Swish 2023). If the cash register disappears, the staff can also be freer to offer a higher level of service.
Unlike DeepL, Google has used the sentence constructions ‘With store apps, the customer can…’ and ‘In this way, the queues disappear’. While not actually wrong as such, it makes the text longer and less easy to read.
Google Translate has also made a translation mistake. In the original text, 18 till 29-åringar har lämnat butiken för att kön var för lång translates to ‘18- to 29-year-olds have left the store because the queue was too long’, but Google has translated it to ‘18 to 29-year-olds have left the store for being too tall’. This is a serious translation error that completely changes the meaning of the text.
This said, Google Translate correctly translated ombemannat to ‘restaffed’, which DeepL got wrong. According to Swish the correct term would be ‘remanned’ but if the consistency in terms is not essential, ‘restaffed’ conveys the meaning very well.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Microsoft Translator?
Microsoft Translator, with Bing Translator as its web interface, is Microsoft’s translation service. It shares similarities with Google Translate, but Microsoft Translator offers a more cost-effective price-to-characters ratio. Microsoft’s paid translation API, Azure Translator, offers standard text translation at half the price of Google Cloud Translation. Azure Translator’s free tier includes 2,000,000 characters per month, while its pay-as-you-go tier costs $10 per million characters.
In contrast, Google Cloud Translation’s NMT service includes the first 500,000 characters per month free, and any surplus characters cost $20 per million characters.
For casual users, Microsoft Translator stands out by suggesting over 200 commonly used phrases for travel and business, including directions, lodging, and dining. Its mobile app excels at image translation and real-time speech translation. With more than 135 languages and dialects and speech translation in 48 languages and dialects, Microsoft Translator offers broad language coverage.
For professional users, Microsoft Translator’s features include application and workflow integration through REST APIs and connectors, document translation, and the Custom Translator portal. It offers different specialised features depending on whether it is meant for personal, business, or educational use.
Some Microsoft Translator users have reported accuracy problems, claiming that it particularly struggles with longer sentences. However, its integration into the Microsoft ecosystem, including Office, Edge, and Bing, makes Microsoft Translator the first choice for many.
Source text in Swedish
Med butiksappar kan kunden skanna och betala varor själv med mobilen. På så sätt försvinner köerna och risken för trängsel minskar. Visste du att hälften av alla 18 till 29-åringar har lämnat butiken för att kön var för lång och att lika många undviker att gå in i butiker med för mycket folk i? (Ombemannat, Swish 2023). Om kassan försvinner kan personalen dessutom bli friare att erbjuda en högre grad av service.
Translation example by Microsoft Translator (Bing)
With in-store apps, customers can scan and pay for items themselves with their mobile phone. In this way, queues disappear and the risk of congestion is reduced. Did you know that half of all 18 to 29-year-olds have left the store because the queue was too long and that just as many avoid going into stores with too many people in them? (Restaffed, Swish 2023). In addition, if the cash register disappears, the staff may be freer to offer a higher level of service.
Much like Google Translate, Microsoft Translator retains longer sentence structures, potentially making the text less easy to grasp. Nevertheless, this translation shows no apparent mistakes.
What features does Amazon Translate offer?
To use Amazon Translate, you must first create an account on Amazon Web Services. The Amazon Translate Free Tier offers a complimentary service for up to 12 months, enabling users to translate up to 2 million characters per month.
Amazon Translate supports translation between 75 languages. It can be integrated into various applications, websites, or services.
Emphasising data security, Amazon Translate incorporates encryption, access control, and compliance with industry standards to safeguard user data.
Amazon Translate also offers a range of additional settings. Users can create custom terminology, helping improve consistency in domain-specific translations. It is also possible to enable the brevity setting for supported language pairs in real-time text translations, making it suitable for texts with specific length requirements, such as captions, subtitles, headlines, or form fields. Moreover, for supported languages, users can choose the formality of the translation output and utilise profanity masking to filter inappropriate language.
Source text in Swedish
Med butiksappar kan kunden skanna och betala varor själv med mobilen. På så sätt försvinner köerna och risken för trängsel minskar. Visste du att hälften av alla 18 till 29-åringar har lämnat butiken för att kön var för lång och att lika många undviker att gå in i butiker med för mycket folk i? (Ombemannat, Swish 2023). Om kassan försvinner kan personalen dessutom bli friare att erbjuda en högre grad av service.
Translation example by Amazon Translate
With store apps, customers can scan and pay for goods themselves using their mobile phone. In this way, the queues disappear and the risk of congestion is reduced. Did you know that half of all 18 to 29-year-olds have left the store because the queue was too long and that just as many avoid going into shops with too many people in them? (Remanned, Swish 2023). In addition, if the cash register disappears, staff can be freer to offer a higher level of service.
The output from Amazon Translate closely mirrors that of Microsoft Translator. While it’s longer than DeepL’s result, it doesn’t contain any translation errors.
Can ChatGPT be used for translation?
Although ChatGPT is not created specifically for translation, it can still produce great results. ChatGPT supports multilingual conversations and translations in many languages and casual users can access the Free plan at no cost, but usage limits apply. For those seeking additional features and higher usage limits, ChatGPT Plus costs $20 per month and supports working with uploaded files. API usage is billed separately.
In contrast to the other translation programs mentioned in this post, ChatGPT allows users to provide prompts for adjusting formality, length, style, and output type. For instance, if you desire a more casual and humorous tone for your website’s translation, you can say that to ChatGPT. Alternatively, if your text needs to take on a formal letter style, you can instruct ChatGPT to tailor it accordingly.
However, ChatGPT’s built-in knowledge cutoff varies by model, although it can use web search to access current information when needed. The process of creating prompts for accurate translations can be time-consuming.
This is a translation generated using only the ‘translate’ prompt:
Source text in Swedish
Med butiksappar kan kunden skanna och betala varor själv med mobilen. På så sätt försvinner köerna och risken för trängsel minskar. Visste du att hälften av alla 18 till 29-åringar har lämnat butiken för att kön var för lång och att lika många undviker att gå in i butiker med för mycket folk i? (Ombemannat, Swish 2023). Om kassan försvinner kan personalen dessutom bli friare att erbjuda en högre grad av service.
Translation example by ChatGPT
With store apps, the customer can scan and pay for items themselves using their mobile phones. This way, queues disappear, and the risk of crowding decreases. Did you know that half of all 18 to 29-year-olds have left a store because the line was too long, and as many avoid entering crowded stores? (Staffed, Swish 2023). If the cashier disappears, the staff may also become more available to provide a higher level of service.
ChatGPT’s translated output closely resembles that of Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. However, a grammatical mistake is noticeable in ChatGPT’s first sentence, where ‘customer’ is singular, but ‘mobile phones’ is plural. This indicates that, regardless of the machine translator’s reliability, a human translator should always perform a thorough grammar check.
Below is the rephrased translation, using the prompt ‘write in a humorous and down-to-earth manner’:
ChatGPT Prompt
Prompt: Write in a humorous and down-to-earth manner
Rephrased translation by ChatGPT
With these cool store apps, you become the boss of your shopping destiny – scan and pay with your phone like a pro. Say goodbye to those never-ending lines and the risk of getting stuck in a human traffic jam. Fun fact: Did you know that a bunch of young guns (like half of 18 to 29-year-olds) has ditched a store just because the queue was playing the slow game? Same goes for dodging shops that feel like sardine cans – no thanks! And, hey, if the cash register takes a hike, the staff can unleash their superpowers and deliver some top-notch service. Who said shopping couldn’t be a breeze?
The ChatGPT prompt rewrote this text using entertaining metaphors, creative adjectives, intriguing questions and target group-related elements.
If the result of the prompt is not exactly what you want, you can always change it. Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, this process can ultimately be time-consuming.
In summary, the distinctions between the machine translators available online are minimal. Each translator possesses unique strengths and weaknesses, which are often unpredictable and context-dependent. Therefore, proficiency in both the source and target languages is essential for the user of machine translation.
Examining the particular paragraph, DeepL demonstrated a more independent approach, omitting redundant sentence constructions in English. In contrast, Amazon and Microsoft proved to be the most dependable, displaying no noticeable translation errors. It is crucial to note that results can fluctuate depending on diverse input texts, and even the same machine translator may yield different outcomes for the same text on different days.
