Translate PDF
Translate the text of a PDF into another language
Click or drop a PDF file hereChoose a PDF file
Max 5 pages / 3,000 characters translated — a hard cap to keep translation cost-effective and free for everyone.
About Translate PDF
Translate PDF has two modes. "Text only" reads the first 5 pages of your PDF in the browser and sends up to 3,000 characters of their text through our server to OpenAI's gpt-4o-mini, then shows the translation in one of 10 languages. "Whole PDF (layout kept)" is offered only when our Google Cloud Translation service is set up: the PDF becomes a new PDF with the same layout, images, and tables, in any of 133 languages. A scanned page gives no text in "Text only".
How to translate a PDF
- 1Click or drop the PDF to translate.
- 2If the page shows "Whole PDF (layout kept)" and "Text only", pick one; otherwise the text mode is used.
- 3Choose the "Target language" and click "Translate PDF".
- 4Save a translated PDF with "Download"; for text, use "Copy translation" or "Download" to get translation.txt.
Formats and limits
- Input format
- Text only
- The first 5 pages, cut at 3,000 characters, into 10 languages; result on the page and as a .txt file
- Whole PDF (layout kept)
- Up to 20 pages and 20 MB per PDF, and 20 pages a day per visitor, into 133 languages
- Usage limits
- Text only: hourly and daily limits per network shared with the site's tools that rely on a paid service, plus a monthly site budget. Whole PDF: its own monthly budget.
Where your file is processed
In "Text only", the PDF stays in your browser and only the extracted text goes through our server to OpenAI. In "Whole PDF (layout kept)", the file is uploaded in parts to our server, our server sends it to Google Cloud Translation, and our server deletes the translated PDF as soon as this page has received it, or after 15 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
How much of my PDF is translated?
5 pages at most in "Text only": the text of the first pages, cut at 3,000 characters. "Whole PDF (layout kept)", when the page offers it, translates up to 20 pages per PDF; split a longer file with Split PDF and translate the parts.
Does the translation keep the layout?
Yes in "Whole PDF (layout kept)": Google Cloud Translation returns a new PDF with the same layout, images, and tables. No in "Text only", which gives plain text on the page that you can copy or download.
Which languages can a PDF be translated into?
10 in "Text only": English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, and Russian. 133 in "Whole PDF (layout kept)", listed by name in the language menu.
Is there a daily limit?
Yes. "Text only" counts toward an hourly and daily limit per network shared with the site's other tools that rely on a paid service, and toward a monthly site budget. "Whole PDF (layout kept)" allows 20 pages a day per visitor and has a monthly budget of its own.
Tips and tricks
- ✓For a scanned PDF, use OCR PDF before using "Text only", since a scan has no text to extract.