Google has launched a paid version of the Google Translate API which will translate between more than 50 languages, and can be used in commercial products.
In May, Google announced it was phasing out the Translate API, shutting it down completely by December this year. However, Google later reversed its decision, saying it would instead provide a paid-for version of the Translate API.
The paid version, Translate API V2, is now open for business, and will have a number of features unavailable in the free version.
Developers who started using it prior to August 24, 2011 will receive a “courtesy limit of 100K characters per day free until December 1, 2011 (or until the enable billing for their projects).
Writing in the Google blog, product manager Jeff Chin explained how the company would charge businesses that used the translate tool on their sites.
“The paid version of Translate API removes many of the usage restrictions of previous versions and can now be used in commercial products. Translation costs $20 per million (M) characters of text translated (approximately $0.05/page, assuming 500 words/page). You can sign up online via the APIs console for usage up to 50 M chars/month.”
While business and commercial software developers will now have to pay, academic users will still have free access to the Google Translate Research API.
The Android and iPhone translate apps remain free of charge as does the Google Website translator toolkit.
Read the official Google blog here.
