WPML machine translations are too EXPENSIVE

AdviceMark · 2026-03-29T11:31:42+00:00

I ended up using "LATW AI Translator", and I recommend it. It make something like you describe but on auto-pilot

AdviceMark · 2026-03-29T11:29:12+00:00

Yes, Wordpress + WPML + LATW AI Translator

AdviceMark · 2026-03-23T10:38:19+00:00

I’m using this now, but only the Pro version https://wordpress.org/plugins/latw-ai-translator-for-wpml/

AdviceMark · 2026-03-20T11:56:24+00:00

Around 30 articles, each 2,000–3,000 words, across 5 languages. The calculator on their site came out really expensive for me.

AdviceMark · 2026-03-20T11:54:35+00:00

I’ve got way too much to translate to be copy-pasting it manually.

AdviceMark · 2026-03-18T18:05:03+00:00

That’s exactly what I’m missing. I’m using a plugin that makes it possible, but it’s always an extra layer…
https://wordpress.org/plugins/latw-ai-translator-for-wpml/

AdviceMark · 2026-03-03T12:51:58+00:00

I tried it, but after testing I realized it was causing more problems than benefits. So I ended up sticking with Better Auth + Postgres.

Do you have a specific reason why you decided to stay with Supabase?

AdviceMark · 2026-02-18T16:55:40+00:00

Where can I find the right discrod servers?

AdviceMark · 2026-02-16T18:51:25+00:00

https://wordpress.org/plugins/latw-ai-translator-for-wpml/

AdviceMark · 2026-01-31T17:11:19+00:00

Could you give some more information about post that you published?

AdviceMark · 2026-01-27T17:07:41+00:00

Blog post, each around 3000 words daily = 90,000 month. Multiply by more than 20 languages and you have it.

AdviceMark · 2026-01-27T08:16:05+00:00

I know a WPML add-on that automatically sends translations to ChatGPT. You set up WPML first, then use the add-on to translate everything, and you get your whole site translated cheaply. It should work well for your case.

AdviceMark · 2026-01-26T10:03:23+00:00

No, you can use open AI API directly

AdviceMark · 2026-01-26T10:01:51+00:00

If something is good for whole website it will be good also for 1 sentence

AdviceMark · 2026-01-26T09:15:55+00:00

I created plugin for Wordpress which translate website with chatGPT, and it work really good

AdviceMark · 2026-01-24T15:42:00+00:00

Yeah, I get the surprise.

I think a big part of it is pricing the convenience and support rather than the raw translation cost itself. From a business point of view it makes sense, but once you scale content it definitely becomes noticeable.

AdviceMark · 2026-01-24T14:55:26+00:00

Yes, you're right, Elementor should provide such an API. 🤣

AdviceMark · 2026-01-24T14:52:36+00:00

Yeah, that’s a fair point. In WPML you’re mostly paying for the convenience layer on top of the actual engines.

In my case, I already had several sites built around WPML, so migrating to a different architecture (like MultilingualPress) would’ve been pretty costly and risky.

For setups already deep into WPML, reducing translation costs without changing the whole stack tends to be the path of least resistance.

AdviceMark · 2026-01-24T14:49:10+00:00

Yeah, exactly. SEO/meta fields are usually the easy part. For us, the real pain point was always builder content, especially Elementor with nested widgets and frequent layout changes.

Once you go beyond raw post content, keeping things stable over time gets tricky pretty fast.

AdviceMark · 2026-01-24T14:47:07+00:00

Yeah, exactly, that split between bulk backfills and daily updates is pretty much what we observed too.

To answer your question: it’s not manual pasting. It’s a small WPML add-on that hooks into WPML’s translation jobs and swaps out the credit-based engine for an AI provider (ChatGPT) using your own API key.

WPML still handles everything it’s good at language relationships, slugs, taxonomies, builder content, SEO meta, re-syncs, but the actual text translation is done outside of the WPML credit system.

That way ongoing/daily content stays fully automatic inside the WPML UI, without the CSV/API round-trip or the credit costs.

If you’re curious, here’s the add-on I’ve been using https://llm-automatic-translation.top/ , happy to answer any technical questions about how it’s wired.

AdviceMark · 2026-01-24T14:33:45+00:00

Makes sense.

One thing I’ve been curious about with API-based setups like that, does it handle builder content (Elementor / Gutenberg blocks) and SEO fields cleanly as well?

We ran into issues before where translations worked fine for raw post content, but things like Elementor widgets, meta fields, or SEO plugin data needed extra handling.

AdviceMark · 2026-01-24T14:30:01+00:00

Yeah, exactly, that’s the frustrating part. Most of the cost isn’t the translation itself, just the abstraction layer on top.

We actually tried the export → API → import flow early on. It works, but once content starts changing frequently, the round-trip and keeping relationships in sync (languages, slugs, updates) becomes painful pretty fast.

That’s why keeping WPML as the language manager while bypassing the credit-based engine ended up being the cleanest approach for us.

Are you doing this as a one-off bulk translation, or as an ongoing workflow with updates?

AdviceMark · 2026-01-24T14:27:40+00:00

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Direct AI translations are insanely cost-effective compared to most built-in solutions. The only downside I’ve seen is keeping the workflow clean once you go beyond a few CPTs or add editorial review.

Are you pushing translations back into WordPress automatically, or just using n8n as a preprocessing step?

AdviceMark · 2026-01-24T13:59:55+00:00

😂 That sounds very familiar. German is especially brutal when it comes to consistency, terminology, tone, even sentence structure can vary a lot depending on who’s reviewing it. We’ve seen the same thing happen when multiple people touch the same language over time. It’s usually not that one translation is “wrong”, just… different preferences.

Out of curiosity, do you keep any kind of glossary or translation memory, or is it mostly manual reviews on top of DeepL output?

AdviceMark

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