Microsoft Translator
Microsoft's free-to-enterprise machine translation service for text, speech, and documents.
- Category
- Productivity & Automation
- Pricing
- Free consumer apps and free Azure tier (2M characters/month); paid Azure tiers billed per million characters; on-premises enterprise edition from ~$310,000/year
- Best for
- Microsoft Translator is the practical choice for anyone already living inside Microsoft 365 or Azure — IT teams adding translation to an internal app, support teams working inside Teams/Outlook, schools using Microsoft's education tools, or enterprises that need an on-premises or air-gapped deployment for compliance reasons.
- Official site
- www.microsoft.com/en-us/translator
- Last updated
- August 2026
Microsoft Translator is Microsoft's cloud-based, neural machine translation service, offered both as a free suite of consumer apps (web, iOS, Android, Windows) and as a paid enterprise API on Azure (branded 'Azure Translator in Foundry Tools' as of 2026). It powers translation across Microsoft's own product line — Office, Teams, Edge, Bing, SharePoint, Yammer — as well as third-party apps built on the Translator API, and the same engine underlies the live speech translation used in Skype Translator and the Microsoft Translator mobile conversation feature. It supports text translation, document translation, speech-to-speech/speech-to-text conversation translation, transliteration, and a bilingual dictionary across 100+ languages and dialects.
Positioned against Google Cloud Translation and DeepL, Microsoft Translator's core differentiator is ecosystem integration and flexible deployment: it's one of the only major MT providers offering a fully supported on-premises/disconnected-container edition for regulated and air-gapped environments, alongside Custom Translator for training domain-specific models on a customer's own bilingual data. Its free tier (2 million characters/month on Azure, plus free consumer apps) makes it accessible for individuals and educators, while its commitment-tier and volume-discount pricing scales to enterprise translation-management workloads.
Microsoft Translator is the practical choice for anyone already living inside Microsoft 365 or Azure — IT teams adding translation to an internal app, support teams working inside Teams/Outlook, schools using Microsoft's education tools, or enterprises that need an on-premises or air-gapped deployment for compliance reasons. It's also a strong free option for individuals and travelers via its consumer apps. Teams whose primary need is the single most nuanced, publication-quality translation for a narrow set of language pairs — or who want a simpler flat-rate pricing page — may prefer a specialist like DeepL; teams already deep in Google Workspace/GCP may default to Google Cloud Translation instead.
Key features
Real-Time Text Translation
Translates text between 100+ languages and dialects via a REST API, with language auto-detection, transliteration, and a bilingual dictionary with usage examples.
Live Speech Translation
Speech-to-speech and speech-to-text translation for live conversations, presentations, and meetings, powering the Microsoft Translator app's conversation feature and Skype Translator.
Custom Translator
Lets organizations train a translation model on their own bilingual content so terminology, tone, and domain-specific language match their brand or industry.
Document Translation
Translates entire documents (Word, PowerPoint, PDF, and more) while preserving original formatting and layout, billed separately from standard text translation.
Native Microsoft 365 Integration
Built directly into Word, Outlook, Teams, Edge, SharePoint, and Yammer, so users can translate content without leaving the app they're working in.
Multi-Device Conversation Mode
Up to 100 participants can join a live translated conversation from their own phones, each seeing captions in their own language — used in classrooms and international meetings.
On-Premises & Disconnected Containers
An enterprise edition and disconnected container option let regulated industries and air-gapped networks run translation without sending data to the cloud.
Free Cross-Platform Apps
iOS, Android, and Windows apps offer free text, voice, and camera (image) translation, including downloadable offline language packs.
Pricing breakdown
Consumer Apps
- Text, voice, and camera translation
- 100+ languages
- Offline language packs (Android)
- Multi-device conversation mode
Azure F0 (Free)
- 2 million characters/month of standard + custom translation training
- Text translation, language detection, transliteration
- Bilingual dictionary
Azure S1 (Pay-As-You-Go)
- Unlimited monthly volume
- Document translation billed per million characters
- Custom Translation text/training/model hosting billed separately
Commitment Tiers & Volume Discounts
- Discounted rates at 250M / 1B / 4B+ characters per month
- Separate C2-C4 tiers for high-volume Custom Translation
- Connected/disconnected container options
On-Premises Enterprise Edition
- Design, deployment, and updates included
- Fully on-premises runtime engine
- For regulated, sovereignty-restricted, or air-gapped organizations
Pros and cons
Pros
- The free tier is not a token trial: 2 million characters/month on Azure plus fully free consumer apps make this usable indefinitely for individuals, students, and small teams
- Native integration across Word, Outlook, Teams, Edge, SharePoint, and Yammer means translation happens in-context rather than requiring a separate tool
- One of the only major MT vendors with a supported on-premises/disconnected-container edition, which matters for government, healthcare, and other regulated or air-gapped environments
- Custom Translator allows domain-specific model training on a company's own translation memory, improving accuracy for specialized terminology
- G2 reviewers rate ease of setup and customer support notably highly (9.8/10 and 8.8/10 respectively) relative to competitors like DeepL
Cons
- Enterprise pricing is genuinely complex — S1 commitment tiers, C2-C4 custom-translation tiers, and container options require the Azure pricing calculator to estimate real costs
- Actual per-million-character rates aren't published as flat numbers and vary by currency/region, making quick comparison shopping harder than with flat-rate competitors
- G2 comparison data shows DeepL scoring slightly higher on 'Meets Requirements' (8.7 vs. 8.6), reflecting a perceived edge in translation nuance
- The free 2M-character Azure allowance resets monthly with no rollover, so bursty usage can hit the wall unexpectedly
What reviewers say
Microsoft Translator holds a solid 4.3/5 on G2 across 95 reviews, with reviewers rating ease of setup (9.8/10) and quality of support (8.8/10) especially highly. It's generally viewed as a dependable, easy-to-deploy option rather than best-in-class for translation nuance, where head-to-head G2 data gives DeepL a slight edge.
Frequently praised
- Rated 9.8/10 for ease of setup — the highest ease-of-setup score in its G2 comparison set
- Real-time translation scored 9.0/10, reflecting strength in live conversation/meeting use cases
- Quality of support rated 8.8/10, ahead of DeepL's 7.8/10 in a direct G2 comparison
Frequently criticized
- G2's 'Meets Requirements' score trails DeepL slightly in head-to-head comparison (8.6 vs. 8.7)
- The free tier's hard 2-million-character/month cap can be limiting for larger one-off jobs
- Fewer aggregated review-level pros/cons tags exist for Microsoft Translator than for larger competitors, so peer feedback volume is thinner overall
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Compare →Frequently asked questions
Is Microsoft Translator really free?
Yes for the consumer apps (iOS/Android/Windows/web) and for the first 2 million characters/month via the free Azure tier; heavier API usage requires a paid Azure subscription billed per character.
Can I use it without a Microsoft/Azure account?
The consumer apps require no account. The developer API requires an Azure account and subscription key, even on the free tier.
Does it support offline translation?
The Android app supports downloadable offline language packs; other platforms generally require a connection for full functionality.
How is API usage billed?
By character count of input text (including markup/whitespace), not by word or query, with separate meters for Standard Translation, Document Translation, and Custom Translation.
Can I train it on my own terminology?
Yes, via Custom Translator, which builds a model from your own bilingual training data, billed separately for training and monthly model hosting.
Is there an on-premises option?
Yes — a fully on-premises Translator edition (roughly $310,000 for a 12-month subscription, with volume pricing) is available for regulated or air-gapped deployments, plus lighter disconnected containers.
Ready to try Microsoft Translator?
Head to the official site to explore pricing and start a free trial where available.
Visit Microsoft Translator →