googletrans-curl

googletrans-curl is a fast, drop-in replacement fork of googletrans that integrates curl-cffi to eliminate Google Translate HTTP 429 Too Many Requests and rate-limiting blocks via browser TLS fingerprint impersonation.

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Drop-in Replacement for googletrans

The PyPI distribution package is named googletrans-curl, but the Python import namespace remains googletrans:

# Uninstall old package if present
pip uninstall googletrans

# Install drop-in replacement
pip install googletrans-curl

Existing applications continue importing googletrans with zero code modifications:

from googletrans import Translator

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Why googletrans-curl?

The upstream googletrans uses httpx for HTTP requests. Google Translate's web endpoints actively monitor client TLS handshakes and HTTP/2 settings, frequently rejecting automated Python HTTP clients with HTTP 429 Too Many Requests or HTTP 403 Forbidden.

googletrans-curl solves this by introducing a flexible HTTP layer backed by curl-cffi. By impersonating real browser fingerprints (default: Chrome), requests match legitimate browser traffic and bypass fingerprint-based rate limiting.

Architecture

                  Existing Application
                          │
                          │ from googletrans import Translator
                          ▼
                  ┌───────────────┐
                  │  Translator   │
                  │  Python API   │
                  └───────┬───────┘
                          │
                  ┌───────▼───────┐
                  │ HTTP Session  │
                  │  Abstraction  │
                  └───┬───────┬───┘
                      │       │
      transport="curl"│       │ transport="httpx"
                      │       │
                      ▼       ▼
                  curl-cffi httpx
                      │
           (Chrome impersonation)
                      │
                      ▼
            Google Translate Service

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Features

• Drop-in Compatible: 100% compatible with existing googletrans code.
• Anti-429 Protection: Uses curl-cffi with Chrome TLS/HTTP2 impersonation.
• Pluggable Transports: Switch between curl (anti-blocking) and standard httpx.
• Async First: Native async/await support with async context manager.
• Bulk Translation: Efficiently translate batches of text in a single request.
• Auto Language Detection: Automatically detect language and confidence scores.
• CLI Tool Included: Includes the command-line utility translate.
• Complete Type Annotations: Fully typed for modern Python environments.

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Installation

pip install googletrans-curl

Requirements: Python 3.8 or newer.

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Quickstart

Basic Usage (Async)

import asyncio
from googletrans import Translator

async def main():
    async with Translator() as translator:
        # Detect and translate to English (default)
        result = await translator.translate("안녕하세요.")
        print(result.text)  # "Hello."
        print(result.src)   # "ko"

        # Translate to Japanese
        result = await translator.translate("안녕하세요.", dest="ja")
        print(result.text)  # "こんにちは。"

        # Specify source language
        result = await translator.translate("veritas lux mea", src="la", dest="en")
        print(result.text)  # "truth is my light"

asyncio.run(main())

Synchronous Usage (SyncTranslator)

For synchronous scripts, command-line utilities, or legacy codebases that do not use async/await:

from googletrans import SyncTranslator

with SyncTranslator() as translator:
    result = translator.translate("안녕하세요.", dest="en")
    print(result.text)  # "Hello."

    detected = translator.detect("Bonjour tout le monde")
    print(detected.lang)  # "fr"

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Transport Configuration

By default, Translator() automatically uses curl-cffi with Chrome impersonation. You can customize the transport and browser fingerprint as needed:

from googletrans import Translator

# Default: automatic browser impersonation via curl-cffi
translator = Translator()

# Explicit curl transport with Safari impersonation
translator = Translator(
    transport="curl",
    impersonate="safari",
)

# Standard httpx transport
translator = Translator(
    transport="httpx",
)

Available impersonation presets for curl-cffi include: "chrome", "chrome110", "chrome120", "safari", "safari15_3", "safari15_5", "edge99", "edge101", etc.

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Advanced Usage

Bulk Translation

Translate multiple strings in a single call:

import asyncio
from googletrans import Translator

async def main():
    async with Translator() as translator:
        phrases = ["The quick brown fox", "jumps over", "the lazy dog"]
        translations = await translator.translate(phrases, dest="ko")
        for item in translations:
            print(f"{item.origin} -> {item.text}")

asyncio.run(main())

Language Detection

Detect the language of text with confidence scores:

import asyncio
from googletrans import Translator

async def main():
    async with Translator() as translator:
        detection = await translator.detect("이 문장은 한글로 쓰여졌습니다.")
        print(detection.lang)        # "ko"
        print(detection.confidence)  # 0.27...

asyncio.run(main())

Custom Service URLs

Use alternate Google Translate service endpoints:

# Rotate across multiple domains
translator = Translator(service_urls=[
    "translate.google.com",
    "translate.google.co.kr",
])

# Direct client API (no token acquirer needed)
translator = Translator(service_urls=[
    "translate.googleapis.com",
])

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Command-Line Tool

googletrans-curl includes the translate CLI command:

# Translate text to English (default)
translate "veritas lux mea" -s la -d en

# Translate text to Korean
translate "Hello world" -d ko

# Detect language
translate -c "안녕하세요."

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Unofficial API Disclaimer

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. Upstream copyright (c) 2015 SuHun Han. Modifications copyright (c) 2026 Matthias Kreier and contributors.