translatebot-django
⚡ Translate Django .po files and model fields with AI. Repeatable, consistent, and pennies per language.
Documentation: https://translatebot.dev/docs/
The Problem
Translating a Django app sounds simple until it isn't:
- Manual workflow doesn't scale. Copy strings to Google Translate, paste back, fix placeholders, repeat for every language. It works for 20 strings. It falls apart at 200.
- AI assistants work once, but not repeatedly. You can ask ChatGPT or Claude Code to translate a
.pofile, and it'll do a decent job. Once. Next sprint, when 15 new strings appear, you're prompting from scratch, re-translating the whole file, and hoping it stays consistent. - SaaS translation platforms are expensive overkill. Paid localization services charge per-word subscriptions and come with portals, review workflows, and team features you don't need for a solo project or small team.
Why TranslateBot
TranslateBot is a dedicated tool that sits between "do it by hand" and "pay for a platform":
- Incremental. Only translates new and changed strings. Add 10 strings in a sprint, pay for 10 strings, not the whole file.
- Consistent. A
TRANSLATING.mdfile in your repo acts as a version-controlled glossary: terminology, tone, brand rules. Every translation run uses it. - Cost-efficient. Batches strings into optimized API requests. A typical app costs under $0.01 per language with GPT-4o-mini.
- Scales to many languages. One command translates all your configured languages. Adding a new locale is a one-liner.
- Automatable. A CLI command you can script or hook into your workflow. No browser, no portal.
- Placeholder-safe. Preserves
%(name)s,{0},%s, and HTML tags with 100% test coverage on format string handling.
Installation
For PO file translation, TranslateBot is a development tool; install it as a dev dependency:
uv add --dev translatebot-django
For model translation at runtime, install it as a regular dependency instead (see Python API docs):
uv add translatebot-django
Supported versions
Each Django series is tested against the Python versions Django itself supports:
| Django | Python |
|---|---|
| 4.2 | 3.10, 3.11, 3.12 |
| 5.0 | 3.10, 3.11, 3.12 |
| 5.1 | 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13 |
| 5.2 | 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, 3.14 |
| 6.0 | 3.12, 3.13, 3.14 |
| 6.1 | 3.12, 3.13, 3.14 |
Quick Start
# settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
# ...
"translatebot_django",
]
TRANSLATEBOT_API_KEY = "your-api-key-here"
# Translate to Dutch
python manage.py translate --target-lang nl
# Preview without saving
python manage.py translate --target-lang nl --dry-run
Features
- Multiple AI Providers: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure, many more, and DeepL
- Smart Translation: Preserves placeholders (
%(name)s,{0},%s) and HTML tags - Model Field Translation: Supports django-modeltranslation
- Flexible Configuration: Django settings, environment variables, or CLI arguments
- Well Tested: 100% code coverage
When to Use TranslateBot
For a one-off translation of 20 strings, ChatGPT works fine. TranslateBot is for ongoing projects with multiple languages where translations need to stay in sync as your code changes.
Use TranslateBot when:
- You're actively developing and strings change every sprint
- You support 3+ languages and want them all updated at once
- You want consistent terminology across translation runs
- You want translations done in seconds, not hours of manual work
Documentation
For full documentation, visit translatebot.dev/docs/
Contributing
Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.
# Setup
git clone https://github.com/gettranslatebot/translatebot-django.git
cd translatebot-django
uv sync --extra dev
# Run tests
uv run pytest
License
This project is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.
Credits
Made with ❤️ for the Django community
1 maintainer
Metadata
1 maintainer
Release files for translatebot-django 1.3.3
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