Host LibreTranslate without installing anything
A machine translation engine running on your own machine: an API for your tools, and text that goes nowhere else.
Starting at €15.99/month
Introduction
LibreTranslate installed, updated and backed up by us, on a machine in France. You install nothing and configure no server: the application is online a few minutes after you order, under your own name.
The plan that suits it is App Performance at €15.99/month incl. VAT — 8 GB of memory. This is the one application in the catalogue whose memory is used for computing: each language pair is a neural model, loaded into memory on the first request and kept there so the next ones are fast. Two or three pairs fit in 2 GB; a full set of European languages, plus the headroom for the translation in flight, calls for the 8 GB.
The point of running it yourself is not the price, it is that the text never leaves. A contract, a medical file or a support conversation sent to an online translator leaves your control; here, the request does not cross the door. LibreTranslate is built on Argos Translate and speaks a plain REST API, which the Translate Web Pages browser extension, Weblate, Nextcloud as a translation provider, or three lines of Python can all call.
What LibreTranslate does
A REST API in three endpoints
/translate translates a string, /detect guesses the source language, /languages lists the installed pairs. JSON in, JSON out: any script can use it.
Whole-file translation
The /translate_file endpoint accepts txt, docx, pptx, odt, odp, epub and html. The document comes back in its own format, formatting intact, with no text retyped by hand.
API keys with quotas
Each key has its own ceiling of requests per minute and per day, and its own character limit per call. You can open the instance to a team without a badly written script occupying it all day.
It plugs in where you already translate
The Translate Web Pages extension for Firefox and Chrome, Weblate for an application's strings, Nextcloud as a translation provider, Matrix and Mastodon bridges: all of them can point at a LibreTranslate instance.
Who uses it, and what for
A practice that cannot send a document outside
A contract, a medical report, an exhibit in a case file: the text is translated on the machine you rent, and appears in no vendor's logs.
A support desk receiving messages in five languages
The message arrives in Dutch, the answer goes back in Dutch, and the agent works in English. Translation is called from the ticketing tool, not pasted into a tab.
A shop preparing its product descriptions
Three hundred descriptions translated overnight by a script, then read over by a human. It is the first draft that costs, not the proofreading.
A developer maintaining an application's translations
Weblate calls the instance to propose a first version of every new string; the translator approves or corrects instead of starting from a blank page.
A school welcoming families who speak other languages
Circulars and notes to parents translated in-house, with no account on a commercial service and no pupil names travelling elsewhere.
Hosted in France
In our own infrastructure in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, which we operate ourselves. The translated text stays on the machine, and nothing is kept to train a model.
Frequently asked questions
No, and it is better to know that beforehand. LibreTranslate builds on Argos Translate and open neural models: on heavily used pairs — English to French, Spanish, German — the result is good enough to understand a text and to prepare a version a human will revise. On less served languages, translation often pivots through English and loses nuance. There is no glossary and no register control.
Beyond plain text: docx, pptx, odt, odp, epub and html. The file goes to the dedicated endpoint and comes back in its original format, formatting included. Complex tables and slide text boxes usually survive; documents with floating columns less so.
No, and you should not. Each pair is a separate model, and every loaded model occupies memory. Install the pairs you actually use; adding one later does not mean reinstalling the application.
App Performance, at €15.99/month incl. VAT. It provides 8 GB of memory where the application asks for 2 GB at minimum: the headroom serves the system, not the decor. You can change plan later without reinstalling.
Yes, they are part of the service. A self-hosted application left un-updated is a security risk, not a saving.