Discourse Translator

[Discourse]

	Summary	Discourse Translator translates posts on Discourse using Microsoft, Google, or Yandex translation APIs.
	Repository Link	https://github.com/discourse/discourse-translator
	Install Guide	How to install plugins in Discourse

As this is an official plugin maintained by the Discourse team, Support, Contribute > Bug, Contribute > UX, and Contribute > Feature requests can be made in the respective categories here on Meta, and tagged with the appropriate plugin tag. Click on a link below to get one started.

 Support  Bug  UX  Feature

Features

• Each post is only translated once per locale which saves you
  • Note that language detection is also run once for every post. Be careful when enabling this on old and large forums.
• Access Token is cached server side for faster translations.
• Translations are rate limited to 3 per minute by default (admins can configure this value)

Translation Services Supported

• Microsoft Translator
• Google Translate
• AWS Translate
• Yandex Translate
• LibreTranslate (open source)

Configuration Steps

Microsoft

1. Follow the steps in Microsoft Translator API on Azure to obtain a subscription key. You may pick from any of the available subscription offers.

2. In your Discourse, under Admin > Settings > Plugins, enter the subscription key that you’ve obtained from the steps above.

3. In your Discourse, under Admin > Settings > Basic Setup, enable allow user locale.

Google Translator

1. Go to https://console.developers.google.com

2. Click on My Project

3. Click on the to create a new project

4. Enter your project name and click create

5. Select Enable API and search for Google Cloud Translator API. Look for the enable button and click it to enable the API. Note that there is no free tier for the Google Translator API so it may prompt you to enable billing.

6. Once you’re done, click on credentials in the left menu

7. Click create credentials and select API key. Copy the API Key and paste it into the translator google api key site setting in Discourse.

8. In Discourse, under Admin > Settings > Basic Setup, enable allow user locale.

Settings

Name	Description
translator enabled	Allow inline translation of posts.
translator	The provider of the translation service.
translator azure subscription key	Azure Subscription Key
translator azure region	Azure Region
translator azure custom subdomain	Required if using a Virtual Network or Firewall for Azure Cognitive Services. Note: Only enter the custom subdomain not the full custom endpoint.
translator aws region	AWS Region
translator aws key id	AWS Key ID
translator aws secret access	AWS secret access key
translator aws iam role	AWS IAM Role
translator google api key	Google API Key
translator yandex api key	Yandex API Key
translator libretranslate endpoint	LibreTranslate Endpoint
translator libretranslate api key	LibreTranslate API Key
max translations per minute	The number of translations per minute a regular user can perform.
restrict translation by group	Only allowlisted groups can translate
restrict translation by poster group	Only allow translation of posts made by allowlisted users

Known Issues

• Does not translate text within polls generated by discourse-poll plugin.
• Images are enlarged upon translating.

Hosted by us? This plugin is available on our Enterprise plan.

Last edited by @nat 2026-08-18T10:38:55Z

Check document

Perform check on document:

[packman (Chris McMahon)]

I’m using LibreTranslate self-hosted which has worked well in the past, but I’m now getting a lot of repeated “Job exception: The translator service is currently not available” errors. I’ve checked the URL which has been working OK in the past. If I access the URL then the LibreTranslate web page displays. There’s no API/token required because my LibreTranslate instance is private with no access from the Internet.

The backtrace shows:

Message (548 copies reported)

Job exception: The translator service is currently not available.

Backtrace

/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-translator/services/discourse_translator/libretranslate.rb:168:in `result'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-translator/services/discourse_translator/libretranslate.rb:85:in `detect'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-translator/plugin.rb:120:in `block in execute'
/var/www/discourse/lib/distributed_mutex.rb:53:in `block in synchronize'
/var/www/discourse/lib/distributed_mutex.rb:49:in `synchronize'
/var/www/discourse/lib/distributed_mutex.rb:49:in `synchronize'
/var/www/discourse/lib/distributed_mutex.rb:34:in `synchronize'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-translator/plugin.rb:119:in `execute'
/var/www/discourse/app/jobs/base.rb:305:in `block (2 levels) in perform'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/rails_multisite-6.0.0/lib/rails_multisite/connection_management/null_instance.rb:49:in `with_connection'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/rails_multisite-6.0.0/lib/rails_multisite/connection_management.rb:21:in `with_connection'
/var/www/discourse/app/jobs/base.rb:292:in `block in perform'
/var/www/discourse/app/jobs/base.rb:288:in `each'
/var/www/discourse/app/jobs/base.rb:288:in `perform'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:202:in `execute_job'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:170:in `block (2 levels) in process'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/middleware/chain.rb:177:in `block in invoke'
/var/www/discourse/lib/sidekiq/pausable.rb:132:in `call'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/middleware/chain.rb:179:in `block in invoke'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/middleware/chain.rb:182:in `invoke'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:169:in `block in process'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:136:in `block (6 levels) in dispatch'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/job_retry.rb:113:in `local'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:135:in `block (5 levels) in dispatch'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq.rb:44:in `block in <module:Sidekiq>'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:131:in `block (4 levels) in dispatch'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:263:in `stats'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:126:in `block (3 levels) in dispatch'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/job_logger.rb:13:in `call'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:125:in `block (2 levels) in dispatch'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/job_retry.rb:80:in `global'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:124:in `block in dispatch'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/job_logger.rb:39:in `prepare'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:123:in `dispatch'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:168:in `process'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:78:in `process_one'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:68:in `run'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/component.rb:8:in `watchdog'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/sidekiq-6.5.12/lib/sidekiq/component.rb:17:in `block in safe_thread'

Any thoughts on how I can fix this?

[Bathinda (Bathinda Helper)]

‘Hindi’ locale option isn’t available in ‘Discourse’ yet. But ‘Hindi’ translation is available by different services (I’m using ‘Microsoft Azure’).

Then how can we setup to translate all/any non-Hindi post into ‘Hindi’ even when discourse interface continues to be in English? Is this even possible?

[sunjam (james.network)]

@packman

I’m using LibreTranslate self-hosted

Trying cross-posting this question to their discourse forum as well.

LibreTranslate Community

[Maria]

I was thinking about adding this translator to our forum. However, I have two main concerns:

1. Is it possible to alter the translations?
I want to ensure that certain terms are translated in a specific way. For this, I need the ability to view the available translations and make changes if necessary.

2. When will a post be ‘re-translated’?
Some forum posts are edited quite frequently. How can I ensure that every corrected typo doesn’t lead to exorbitant translation costs? Additionally, how can I ensure that new changes are accurately updated in the translations?

[ludwikc (Ludwik C. Siadlak)]

@Maria

1. Is it possible to alter the translations?

I believe this may not be possible, as you’d have to modify at vendor’s (Microsoft/Google) level. Unless, translated content is subject to the word replacement feature, then you can use that.

Here’s a feature request though:

1. Autotranslate the first post to English in case it’s written in different language.
2. Have a button to translate the entire thread at once.
3. Have autotranslate feature enabled for entire forum on user-level. Meaning, if user selects in their profile that they only speak e.g. Romanian, then translate all content to Romanian. If they select they speak multiple languages, posts would be translated only if not in these languages.

[icaria36]

As the site administrator, I was surprised to read this:

Where is this hidden setting?

[Jagster (Jakke Flemming)]

./launcher enter app
rails c
SiteSetting.automatic_translation_backfill_rate = <wanted value>
exit
exit

But I think it isn’t there anymore, in more recent version anyway.

[icaria36]

How do you learn these things? Ok, thank you! I’ll wait for an answer from the team, to be sure.

[Jagster (Jakke Flemming)]

Two ways: using search and ask.discourse.com

[Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin)]

Using Hidden Site Settings

This is a how-to guide about Hidden Site Settings, how to enable them, and why you might want to adjust them. Required user level: Administrator Important: Console access is required for some steps. In Discourse, hidden site settings refer to configuration options that are not readily visible or accessible through the standard admin dashboard interface. These settings are part of the backend configuration that can control various advanced or potent…

[twofoursixeight]

Notifications of topic titled that got translated don’t appear to translate in the notification bar:

¿Cómo encuentro a una persona en Discourse?

Soy nuevo en Discourse y quiero buscar a usuarios. La lupa de arriba a la derecha no me deja buscar usuarios.

[twofoursixeight]

Also my post got translated to the incorrect language over a link?

Looking in the composer, this is what I actually wrote:

I noticed oneboxing did not work either when I translated.

[nat (Natalie T)]

The notification in your screenshot uses the original title of your post’s topic, so it is “correct” for now. We will be ensuring notifications (topic titles) will be translated in the future.

As for the post above, our machine translation was acting up and it got incorrectly detected as “Spanish (es)”, and also had a subsequent bad translation. That’s rectified. We’re iterating through with better prompts for translations.

[翔_贺]

I got this error when install discourse-translator plugin. my discourse version is 3.5.0.beta1.

I, [2025-04-24T01:33:20.510994 #1]  INFO -- : > cd /var/www/discourse && su discourse -c 'bundle exec rake db:migrate'
        82: from /usr/local/bin/bundle:25:in `<main>'
        81: from /usr/local/bin/bundle:25:in `load'
        80: from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.3.0/gems/bundler-2.5.18/exe/bundle:20:in `<top (required)>'
     ....
        10: from /var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:87:in `with_execution_control'
        9: from /var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.3.0/gems/activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:94:in `block in execute_hook'
        8: from /var/www/discourse/config/application.rb:249:in `block in <class:Application>'
        7: from /var/www/discourse/lib/plugin.rb:6:in `initialization_guard'
        6: from /var/www/discourse/config/application.rb:249:in `block (2 levels) in <class:Application>'
        5: from /var/www/discourse/config/application.rb:249:in `each'
        4: from /var/www/discourse/lib/plugin/instance.rb:629:in `notify_after_initialize'
        3: from /var/www/discourse/lib/plugin/instance.rb:629:in `each'
        2: from /var/www/discourse/lib/plugin/instance.rb:631:in `block in notify_after_initialize'
        1: from /var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-translator/plugin.rb:40:in `block in activate!'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-translator/lib/discourse_translator/inline_translation.rb:86:in `inject': protected method `register_topic_preloader_associations' called for an instance of Plugin::Instance (NoMethodError)

how can fix it ?

[nat (Natalie T)]

Hey there, the error can be mitigated by updating Discourse first prior to installing the plugin.

The method register_topic_preloader_associations has been promoted from protected to public.

[翔_贺]

thanks, i installed succes after upgrade Discourse to latest.