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Translation · head to head

Amazon Translate vs Google Translate

Amazon Translate logo

Amazon Translate

Translation

AWS machine translation API priced at $15 per million characters, with a 2 million character monthly free tier for the first 12 months

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Google Translate logo

Google Translate

Translation

Free consumer translation app and website, backed by the paid Cloud Translation API priced per million characters

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Amazon Translate the generous 2 million character monthly free tier applies only for a customer’s first 12 months on AWS, so translation costs step up materially in year two with no change in usage.; Google Translate the free consumer app and the metered developer API are commercially separate products despite sharing branding, which confuses buyers evaluating cost for an integration project.
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon Translate covers Text translation API, Google Translate covers Text translation.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Amazon Translate and Google Translate actually diverge.

Attributes where Amazon Translate and Google Translate differ
AttributeAmazon TranslateGoogle Translate
PlatformsWebWeb, iOS, Android, Chrome

Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (Per million characters), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Translation).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Amazon Translate

  • Text translation API
  • Document translation
  • Active Custom Translation
  • Real-time document translation
  • Formality control
  • AWS-native integration

Only in Google Translate

  • Text translation
  • Real-time conversation mode
  • Camera translation
  • Document upload
  • Cloud Translation API
  • Custom models (AutoML Translation)

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Amazon Translate

  • An AWS-native development team wanting translation billed through the same console as the rest of their infrastructurenot Google Translate
  • A new AWS customer running a translation-heavy pilot project inside the generous first-year 2 million character monthly free tiernot Google Translate
  • A team building a translation pipeline directly integrated with S3 and Lambda for document processingnot Google Translate
  • A business wanting formality-adjusted output for specific language pairs in customer-facing contentnot Google Translate

Google Translate

  • An individual traveller or student using the free consumer app with no volume constraintsnot Amazon Translate
  • A developer embedding translated user-generated content into an app, paying per million characters translatednot Amazon Translate
  • A company needing occasional bulk document translation and using the per-page document API pricingnot Amazon Translate
  • A business training a custom domain-adapted model for specialised terminology using AutoML Translationnot Amazon Translate

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Amazon Translate

  • The generous 2 million character monthly free tier applies only for a customer’s first 12 months on AWS, so translation costs step up materially in year two with no change in usage.
  • There is no consumer-facing app or website, so it is unusable for casual personal translation the way Google Translate or Microsoft Translator are.
  • Document translation of Office files costs double the standard per-character rate, which is easy to underestimate when budgeting a document-heavy project.
  • Active Custom Translation, the tool for improving output with domain-specific data, costs four times the standard rate at $60 per million characters.
  • As with all major MT APIs, output for low-resource languages and specialised terminology often still needs human review, so it does not substitute for a human translation service on customer-facing or legally sensitive content.

Google Translate

  • The free consumer app and the metered developer API are commercially separate products despite sharing branding, which confuses buyers evaluating cost for an integration project.
  • API costs scale linearly with content volume, so a high-traffic application can accumulate significant monthly spend even at $20 per million characters.
  • Custom model training pricing starts as high as $80 per million characters at low volumes, a steep premium over the standard NMT rate for domain adaptation.
  • Machine translation output for low-resource language pairs or specialised terminology often still needs human post-editing, so the API alone does not replace professional translation for anything customer-facing at high stakes.
  • There is no bundled human-in-the-loop quality tier; a business needing verified accuracy has to pair the API with a separate service such as Unbabel or Gengo.

Pricing, plan by plan

Amazon Translate

Free
  • Standard text translation$15/month
    • $15 per million characters
    • 2 million characters per month free for the first 12 months on AWS
  • Document translation (Office files)$30/month
    • $30 per million characters, double the standard rate
  • Real-time document translation$15/month
    • Text and HTML documents, no free tier
  • Active Custom Translation$60/month
    • $60 per million characters
    • 500,000 characters per month free for the first 2 months

Google Translate

Free
  • Google Translate (consumer)Free
    • Free web, mobile and browser extension use
    • No published usage cap for personal use
  • Cloud Translation API (NMT)$20/month
    • $20 per million characters translated
    • First 500,000 characters per month free, recurring
  • Cloud Translation API (Translation LLM)$10/month
    • $10 per million characters input, $10 per million output
  • Document translation$0.08/month
    • $0.08 per page for DOCX, PPT and PDF translation

Which should you pick?

Choose Amazon Translate if

  • You need text translation api.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want document translation.
Amazon Translate review

Choose Google Translate if

  • You need text translation.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, Chrome.
  • You also want real-time conversation mode.
Google Translate review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon Translate or Google Translate better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon Translate starts at Free and Google Translate at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Translate or Google Translate?
Amazon Translate starts at Free and Google Translate at Free.
Does Amazon Translate or Google Translate run on more platforms?
Amazon Translate runs on Web. Google Translate runs on Web, iOS, Android, Chrome.
Can I use Amazon Translate for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Amazon Translate best used for?
Amazon Translate is most often used for an aws-native development team wanting translation billed through the same console as the rest of their infrastructure, a new aws customer running a translation-heavy pilot project inside the generous first-year 2 million character monthly free tier, a team building a translation pipeline directly integrated with s3 and lambda for document processing, a business wanting formality-adjusted output for specific language pairs in customer-facing content. Of those, an aws-native development team wanting translation billed through the same console as the rest of their infrastructure and a new aws customer running a translation-heavy pilot project inside the generous first-year 2 million character monthly free tier are not what Google Translate is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon Translate do that Google Translate cannot?
Amazon Translate covers Text translation API, Document translation, Active Custom Translation, Real-time document translation. Google Translate covers Text translation, Real-time conversation mode, Camera translation, Document upload.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Amazon Translate: How generous is the free tier really?

2 million characters per month, the largest of the three major cloud APIs, but only for the first 12 months after which standard per-character pricing applies to everything.

Google Translate: Is the consumer Google Translate app really free with no limits?

Yes, for personal use there is no published cap or charge; usage limits only apply to the metered developer API.

Amazon Translate: Is there a consumer app like Google Translate?

No, Amazon Translate is a developer API only, accessed through the AWS console and SDKs, with no separate public-facing app.

Google Translate: How much does the developer API cost?

$20 per million characters for standard neural machine translation, after a recurring 500,000-character monthly free allowance.

Amazon Translate: How much does document translation cost compared to text?

Double the standard rate, at $30 per million characters for Office file formats.

Google Translate: Can I train it on my own terminology?

Yes, through AutoML Translation custom models, priced separately and starting at $80 per million characters at low volumes.

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