Lara Translate AI

What is Lara Translate AI?

Lara Translate AI (also branded Lara Translate, or simply Lara) is a professional AI translation platform built by Translated that handles text, documents, images and audio, plus a live AI interpreter for speech. It runs as a web app, as iOS and Android apps, and as an API, CLI and MCP server.

Translated s.r.l., based in Rome, Italy, operates the service. The model is trained on professional translations rather than text scraped from the web and adapts to a user's terminology and corrections. It is also the official successor to ModernMT.

Claims such as twice the accuracy of the largest generic LLMs are vendor statements. Its evaluation counts a translation as accurate when at least two of three professional translators approve it, across 16,800 translations from English into the 21 most requested localization languages.

Core features

All web-plan features draw from a single monthly character pool rather than separate limits, so heavy use of the voice interpreter or image translation leaves less for documents and text.

Text translation and styles

• Three styles: Faithful for manuals, legal and technical content, Fluid for general content, and Creative for marketing, literature and creative writing.
• Clarifying questions: when a source is unclear, Lara asks for instructions, such as which gender or context to use.
• Context and alternatives: users can add context notes and generate multiple valid options for each segment.
• Quality feedback: an AI feature labels each translation Excellent, Good or Ambiguous Source, which the terms describe as a guide rather than a definitive judgment.

Documents, images and audio

• Layout-preserving AI document translation: complex layouts, multi-column pages, slide designs and styled content are rebuilt after translation.
• Batches: multiple Word, PowerPoint, PDF and XLIFF files can be translated in parallel into several target languages at once, with glossaries and translation memories applied automatically.
• Scanned PDFs: enabling "Translate Images" at upload runs an OCR workflow on scanned pages, images and diagrams, and the file returns in its original format.
• Images: formats include JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, AVIF, HEIC, TIFF, BMP and scanned PDF, with translated text overlaid to match the original font size and style as closely as possible.
• Audio: MP3, WAV, OGG, WEBM and Opus files can be translated into 69 languages, in bulk and into several languages at once.

Voice Interpreter

Lara Interpreter is an experimental consecutive interpreter listed with 186 languages: a speaker holds the microphone button, releases it after a thought, and the translated audio follows. Waiting for each speaker to finish lets the model capture a full sentence's context, which the vendor links to higher accuracy in meetings and medical appointments.

Adaptation and human review

• Learning from edits: the system analyzes a user's corrections to internalize preferred style and phrasing for future projects.
• Lara Think: an SDK model that runs multi-step analysis across glossaries, style guides and contextual metadata; the vendor says it corrects approximately 80% of major linguistic issues.
• AI + Human translation: a linguist from Translated's network of 600,000 professionals reviews the AI output, for legal, financial or official documents.

Adaptation has a privacy cost: Learning Mode stores translation and context texts to improve the model, while Incognito Mode stores nothing and keeps quality static.

Guide

Translating a document

1. Create a free account; documents require one, while plain text does not.
2. Upload files, and for scanned PDFs enable "Translate Images" so OCR runs.
3. Choose target languages and a style, and apply any glossaries or translation memories.
4. Monitor progress and download all translated files in a single step.

Running an interpreted conversation

1. Sign in, since unregistered users cannot access the interpreter.
2. Choose the two languages from the dropdowns; the last pair is remembered.
3. Press and hold the microphone button while speaking, then release it.
4. Listen to the translation and read it on screen; each second uses 400 characters.

Automating localization with the CLI

1. Install it with pnpm install -g @translated/lara-cli.
2. Add LARA_ACCESS_KEY_ID and LARA_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET to a .env file, then run lara-cli init.
3. Define rules in .lara.yml; JSON, PO, TypeScript, Vue, Markdown/MDX and Android XML are parsed by file extension.
4. Connect GitHub Actions so translation runs on every push or pull request.

The CLI is free to download, but its translations draw from the API subscription or pay-as-you-go quota.

Lara Translate AI use cases and examples

• Front desks and clinics: the interpreter targets hospitality and retail desks, patient intake when a human interpreter is unavailable, factory safety briefings and customs.
• Multi-market document sets: one job can return every file in several target languages.
• Audio localization: 2 files and 3 target languages produce 6 translated audio files.
• App localization: the CLI runs in GitHub Actions on each push.
• Foreign-language websites: the browser extension translates a page in one click or a highlighted passage, for researchers or teams checking supplier sites.
• Sensitive paperwork: AI + Human translation adds a linguist's review for legal, financial or official documents.

Who is it for

• Occasional users: the Free plan gives 60,000 characters per month across all features, with no credit card.
• Professional translators: official plugins cover Matecat, memoQ, Trados Studio, Wordfast and Wordscope, with CAT tool and API usage at $24.99 per 1M characters on Pro and $19.99 per 1M characters on Team.
• Teams on one budget: any number of users share one pool at no per-user cost, and glossaries and translation memories can be shared with specific groups.
• Developers and agent builders: the API covers text, document, image and audio translation on all plans, and an MCP server and CLI add further entry points.
• Enterprises: the Enterprise plan adds data residency, SSO, a dedicated account manager and a custom SLA with 99.9% uptime.
• ModernMT customers: existing ModernMT API keys keep working until December 31, 2026, and migration carries over translation memories and glossaries.

It fits less well for buyers who need a public price for human review, since AI + Human work is quoted per project, and for teams that want adaptive learning without any content storage.

Platforms

The AI translation API is reached through SDKs that sign and encrypt requests, and a low-level REST API is offered only on request. Some product pages also list Kotlin, C# and Swift SDKs that the developer documentation omits.

• Integrations: native connectors for Crowdin, Blackbird, n8n and Google Sheets, a Zapier app, and MCP hosts such as Claude Desktop and Cursor.
• Extension scope: whole pages or selected text on any site, plus Gmail, Google Docs and Google Slides.
• Rate limits: free API accounts process up to 1,000 characters per second and paid tiers up to 10,000 characters per second.
• Mobile gap: the iOS app can toggle existing glossaries and memories, but editing them still needs the browser.

Pricing

Lara Translate pricing is shown in USD or EUR; annual billing shows a monthly equivalent and is charged once per year.

Free allows 10 MB documents and no glossaries; Pro 200 MB and one glossary; Team 200 MB, unlimited users and unlimited glossaries.

How usage is counted

Spaces and punctuation count for text and documents. Extra usage is billed at renewal, or on the monthly reset day for annual plans.

API pricing

Audio and image API rates match across plans and currencies: €0.08 or $0.08 per audio minute, €0.40 or $0.40 with voice cloning, €0.05 or $0.05 for audio-to-text, and per image €0.02 or $0.02 for text transcription, €0.15 or $0.15 for overlay, €0.20 or $0.20 for inpainting and €0.50 or $0.50 for a generative rebuild. Only source-text characters are billed, and paid API document requests carry a 20,000-character minimum, waived on the free API plan. The free developer tier includes 10,000 characters per month, with 500,000 more unlockable once through sales.

Refunds and cancellation

• Human review: priced per project from word count and complexity.
• No refunds: subscriptions are billed in advance and are non-refundable, with no refunds for partial months or downgrades unless upgrading; outage credits are discretionary below 98% availability.
• Cancellation and failed payments: a cancelled plan runs to the end of its period and then moves to Free, and a failed renewal is retried for 7 days before the downgrade.

Lara Translate AI alternatives

An AI tool directory lists DeepL first among alternatives to Lara Translate AI, and Google Translate also translates documents in the browser.

DeepL suits Word, PowerPoint and PDF work within a 5 MB cap, although files translated without a subscription are not editable. Google Translate covers four formats but skips text in images and scanned PDF pages and offers no document translation on mobile. Lara Translate AI covers more formats and scans, in exchange for a character quota.

Limitations

Quota boundaries

• Free stops at the cap: once 60,000 characters are used, translations pause until the next reset.
• Paid plans bill overage automatically: Pro and Team are never blocked, so a busy month can cost more than the plan price.
• App documents: each one draws at least 20,000 characters from the pool, and unused characters do not roll over unless otherwise stated.
• Interpreter: labeled experimental and unavailable to unregistered users.
• Audio: files up to 200 MB and 2 hours; results stay downloadable for 1 hour.
• Translation memories: one TMX file per import or export, up to 1 GB.

Figures that differ between pages

• Free documents: the plan table shows 10 MB, while the document FAQ describes 4 pages per day with files up to 200 MB.
• Scanned PDFs: pricing lists scanned PDF support as a Pro addition, while the document FAQ places it on the Free plan.
• Interpreter allowance: the interpreter FAQ lists 5 minutes per month free for registered users, 30 minutes on Pro and 60 minutes per seat on Team, while the usage rules meter it from the shared pool.
• Coverage: interpreter languages appear as 180+, 182 and 186, audio translation as 69 or 50+ languages, and document formats as anything from 55 to 72.
• Currency: the terms say fees are paid in EUR, while the pricing page also lists USD.

Output quality

• No guarantee on feedback: the user keeps full responsibility for reviewing and finalizing translations.
• Creative drift: in an early English-to-Spanish test by an independent translator (November 2024, during the beta), the Creative style added elements absent from the source, and none of the tested outputs, including a Google Translate version, adapted most idioms; newer models may differ.

Privacy, data use and rights

• API default: requests run in Learning Mode unless "noTrace": true is set, so source text, translations and context may be stored to improve Lara's models.
• Inconsistent wording: marketing pages say data never trains public models, while the terms describe Learning Mode storage that improves Lara's own model.
• Incognito Mode: texts are processed in memory and discarded after translation, history is not saved and sharing links are disabled; the browser extension still sends the text to Lara's servers.
• Shared links: anyone opening a shared translation URL can view and modify it in the web app.
• Rights: users keep ownership of content, but outputs may not be used to train or evaluate other AI models.
• Retention: Learning Mode content is kept as long as the model needs it unless deletion is requested, profiles are deleted within 90 days of cancellation barring legal requirements (encrypted backups may keep some data), contract data may be kept for 10 years, and account deletion is requested by email.
• Android disclosures: voice recordings may be shared for app functionality, and in-app search history for analytics.
• Compliance and jurisdiction: the vendor states it uses ISO 27001 certified infrastructure and operates under the GDPR; disputes fall under Italian law and the Court of Rome.

FAQ

Q1. Is Lara Translate AI free?

Yes, within limits: the Free plan includes 60,000 characters per month without a credit card, and documents and the interpreter need a free account.

Q2. Does it use my texts to improve its model?

Only in Learning Mode. Incognito Mode, or "noTrace": true on API requests, keeps content from being stored.

Q3. Can I get a refund?

Generally no: subscriptions are non-refundable apart from discretionary outage credits, and a cancelled plan runs until the paid period ends.