WPML Google Translate Integration – How to Translate Your WordPress Site With Google Translate

This page is about translating WordPress content once with Google Translate via WPML and storing the translated pages on your site – not the old Google Translate widget that translated on the fly in the visitor’s browser. That widget was discontinued in 2019.

Google Translate Was Our Pick for Wide Language Coverage. Today, PTC Is Better Across the Board.

For years, Google Translate was the WPML engine to pick when you needed broad language coverage – many more language pairs than the alternatives, with consistent quality across them. That made it the natural default for sites translating into a dozen languages or more.

PTC’s language coverage now equals or exceeds what Google Translate offered through WPML. PTC natively supports every popular and niche language clients reach for, and it handles country variants as first-class targets. You can translate to European French or Canadian French as distinct languages – PTC produces noticeably different output for each (vocabulary, idiom, register). Same for US English vs UK English, Brazilian Portuguese vs European Portuguese, Latin American Spanish vs European Spanish, and so on across every language with significant regional variation. Google Translate’s WPML integration doesn’t make those per-variant adjustments – you pick a base language and Google returns its default rendering for it.

On quality, the story has also changed. PTC now translates better than Google Translate across the languages we publish quality results for, and PTC’s measured quality study (which benchmarks against DeepL, the strongest of the older machine-translation engines) makes the gap concrete: PTC 90.0 vs DeepL 77.7 on the same source content, with roughly 18× fewer issues per page. Google Translate sits below DeepL on the dimensions we tested. Google Translate is priced at 50% off the PTC rate in WPML to reflect the quality gap, and we recommend it only for sites already running on it.

Why PTC Translates Better

PTC is built for full-page contextual translation, not segment-by-segment machine translation:

• It knows your site and your audience. Before translation starts, you describe what your site is about and who it’s for. PTC uses that as context on every translation.
• It speaks the country variant you target. Pick European French and Canadian French as separate targets and PTC writes differently for each. Google Translate’s WPML integration treats them as the same language.
• It learns from your edits. When you correct a translation, PTC spots the pattern and offers to apply the same rule across every page that needs it – see How PTC learns your brand voice and translates like you do. Google Translate doesn’t notice when an edit recurs, and every Google Translate translation starts from scratch.
• It applies your glossary. Brand names, product terminology, and the way you spell things stay consistent across translations. Google Translate doesn’t apply WPML’s glossary.
• It comes with a translation quality guarantee. If a PTC translation falls short, we fix it or refund the words. Google Translate has no equivalent guarantee.

Because of that quality gap, PTC translations can usually go live without further human review. Google Translate translations need a review pass before publishing – the translation quality study walks through the kinds of issues that pass by unnoticed.

How to Switch From Google Translate to PTC on an Existing Site

Switching engines takes about a minute. Existing translations stay exactly as they are; the change only affects new translation requests.

1. Go to WPML > Settings > AI Translation.

2. In the Translation engine section, click Switch to a different engine and pick Private Translation Cloud (PTC). Save.

3. Fill in Context and target audience at the top of the AI Translation page – product or site name, a short description of what the site is about, and your target audience. PTC reads this on every translation, so the more accurately it describes your real site, the better the translations come back.

From the next translation request onward, content goes through PTC. To re-translate pages Google Translate already translated, send them through the Translations Dashboard again – pages that have grown beyond the word count you originally paid for get charged under the Translate Everything Automatically pricing rules; pages within their original size are free.

How to Use PTC on a New Site

On a new WPML site, PTC is the default after the Setup Wizard. You don’t need to switch engines – you just configure PTC’s context.

1. Go to WPML > Settings > AI Translation.

2. Fill in Context and target audience. The page shows a translation-context preview that’s exactly how PTC reads your instructions, so edit until it accurately describes your site.

3. Pick what PTC does after translating – publish directly, hold for review, or publish-and-mark-for-review.

4. Turn on Translate Everything Automatically on the Translations Dashboard, and PTC translates the whole site in the background. You publish in one language; readers see your site in theirs.

That’s it. No engine setup, no Google API project to configure, no per-engine pricing decisions.

Setting Up Google Translate With WPML

If you’ve decided to stay on Google Translate, the setup is unchanged from earlier WPML versions.

1. Add the Languages You Want to Translate Into

   Google Translate supports 100+ languages. Add the languages you need in WPML’s language settings.

2. Pick Google Translate as the Translation Engine

   Go to WPML > Settings > AI Translation. In the Translation engine section, click Switch to a different engine and pick Google Translate. Save.

3. Send Content to Translation

   Go to WPML > Translations > Dashboard, select the content you want to translate, choose Translate automatically, and click Translate.

4. Review Translations Before Publishing

   Google Translate doesn’t translate with site-level context and doesn’t learn from your edits, so reviewing before publishing is the safer default. Use the Advanced Translation Editor to edit any segment that needs work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my existing Google Translate translations disappear if I switch to PTC?

No. Switching engines only affects new translation requests. Pages already translated by Google Translate stay exactly as they are until you re-translate them.

Does Google Translate cost the same as PTC?

Google Translate is priced at 50% off the PTC rate to reflect the lower translation quality. The free words included with every WPML plan apply to either engine. See how AI translation pricing works for the full table.

Does Google Translate learn from the way I edit translations?

No. Google Translate is a segment-by-segment machine-translation engine – every translation starts from scratch. PTC is the only WPML engine that learns from your edits and applies your glossary.

Is there a translation quality guarantee for Google Translate?

No. WPML’s translation quality guarantee applies to PTC only.

Is this the same as the Google Translate widget that used to translate pages on the fly?

No. WPML translates your pages once and stores the translations on your site – every translated page has its own URL, its own SEO metadata, and is indexable by search engines. The Google Translate widget that translated in the visitor’s browser was discontinued in 2019.