Translate for Excel
Unlimited free translation for 20 languages to and from English.
Overview
TRANSLATE is a function similar to GOOGLETRANSLATE for Excel. It translates 20 languages to or from English using machine learning models running locally on your CPU. Your data never leaves Excel, and usage is unlimited and free.
Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| 🌐 Languages | Translates 20 languages to or from English |
| 🆓 Free | Unlimited free use |
| 💻 Local | Processed on your computer |
| 🔒 Private | No data is shared outside Excel |
| 💽 Resources | Uses ~500MB RAM, ~100MB browser cache |
Function
=BOARDFLARE.TRANSLATE(text, source_lang, target_lang)
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
text | Text to translate (must be less than 1000 characters) |
source_lang | Source language code (e.g., "fr" for French) |
target_lang | Target language code (e.g., "en" for English) |
Example:
=BOARDFLARE.TRANSLATE(A1, "fr", "en")
Translates cell A1 from French to English.
Languages
Either the source or target language must be English (en). The other language can be any of the following:
| Language | Code | Language | Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | af | Indonesian | id |
| Arabic | ar | Italian | it |
| Chinese | zh | Russian | ru |
| Czech | cs | Spanish | es |
| Danish | da | Swedish | sv |
| Dutch | nl | Ukrainian | uk |
| Finnish | fi | Vietnamese | vi |
| French | fr | Xhosa | xh |
| German | de | ||
| Hindi | hi | ||
| Hungarian | hu |
Note: Japanese (
jap) has been removed due to low translation quality. We plan to add it back when a better model is available.
Applications
Use for any translation task in Excel with relatively short text cells:
| Use Case | Description |
|---|---|
| Shipping manifests | Translate product descriptions to your local language |
| Catalogs | Translate vendor catalogs |
| Customer reviews | Translate reviews for analysis |
| E-commerce | Localize product descriptions for your site |
Alternatives
Excel now has a native TRANSLATE function with similar functionality but broader language coverage. You should use that instead for a small number of cells. However, if you need to translate many cells, this add-in may be a better option as there is no limit to the number of cells you can translate.