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Translation · head to head

Gengo vs Google Translate

Gengo logo

Gengo

Translation

Human translation marketplace and API, priced per word from $0.06, owned by Lionbridge since 2019

From
On request
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

  • Only Google Translate has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Gengo it is not a fit for specialised legal, medical or literary translation, since the crowdsourced model is built for higher-volume, lower-complexity 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.
  • They diverge on capability: Gengo covers Standard and Pro quality tiers, Google Translate covers Text translation.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Gengo and Google Translate differ
AttributeGengoGoogle Translate
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelPer wordPer million characters
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebWeb, iOS, Android, Chrome

Identical on both: 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 Gengo

  • Standard and Pro quality tiers
  • Developer API
  • No minimum spend
  • Crowdsourced translator network
  • Bulk file upload
  • CMS and platform integrations

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.

Gengo

  • An e-commerce seller translating product listings into multiple languages without a minimum spend requirementnot Google Translate
  • A company integrating the Gengo API into a content pipeline to automatically route text for human translationnot Google Translate
  • A support team needing occasional human-translated responses without committing to Unbabel’s enterprise minimumnot Google Translate
  • A publisher needing straightforward, transparently priced human translation for shorter, lower-stakes contentnot Google Translate

Google Translate

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

Where each one falls short

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

Gengo

  • It is not a fit for specialised legal, medical or literary translation, since the crowdsourced model is built for higher-volume, lower-complexity content.
  • Quality consistency depends on which individual translator from the crowdsourced network is assigned, which can vary more than a dedicated agency relationship would.
  • Turnaround, while fast for its category, is still meaningfully slower than a machine translation API, since every job requires a human to complete it.
  • Since being acquired by Lionbridge in 2019, Gengo’s product direction is now set within a much larger localisation company’s priorities rather than as an independent business.
  • Per-word pricing, while transparent, is still substantially more expensive per unit of content than a machine translation API, so it is a poor fit for translating very large volumes of low-stakes 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

Gengo

On request
  • Standard$0.06/month
    • Human translation, $0.06 per word starting rate
    • No minimum spend or setup fee
  • Pro$undefined/month
    • Higher-quality tier, rate varies by language pair and content type
    • Human translation with additional review

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 Gengo if

  • You need standard and pro quality tiers.
  • You also want developer api.
Gengo 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 Gengo or Google Translate better?
Neither clearly leads. Gengo starts at On request and Google Translate at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Gengo or Google Translate?
Google Translate has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Gengo and Free for Google Translate.
Does Gengo or Google Translate run on more platforms?
Gengo runs on Web. Google Translate runs on Web, iOS, Android, Chrome.
Can I use Google Translate for free?
Yes. Google Translate has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Gengo starts at On request.
What is Gengo best used for?
Gengo is most often used for an e-commerce seller translating product listings into multiple languages without a minimum spend requirement, a company integrating the gengo api into a content pipeline to automatically route text for human translation, a support team needing occasional human-translated responses without committing to unbabel’s enterprise minimum, a publisher needing straightforward, transparently priced human translation for shorter, lower-stakes content. Of those, an e-commerce seller translating product listings into multiple languages without a minimum spend requirement and a company integrating the gengo api into a content pipeline to automatically route text for human translation are not what Google Translate is typically brought in for.
What can Gengo do that Google Translate cannot?
Gengo covers Standard and Pro quality tiers, Developer API, No minimum spend, Crowdsourced translator network. Google Translate covers Text translation, Real-time conversation mode, Camera translation, Document upload.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Gengo: Is Gengo machine translation or human translation?

Human translation. It should be compared with Unbabel, not with Google Translate, Microsoft Translator or Amazon Translate, which are machine translation APIs.

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.

Gengo: Is there a minimum spend?

No, Gengo publishes per-word pricing with no minimum spend or setup fee, unlike Unbabel’s enterprise-gated rate structure.

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.

Gengo: Who owns Gengo?

Lionbridge, a larger localisation and AI data services company, acquired Gengo in January 2019.

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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