FAQ
Can I use your API server at libretranslate.com for my application in production?
Section titled “Can I use your API server at libretranslate.com for my application in production?”In short, yes, but only if you buy an API key. You can always run LibreTranslate for free on your own server of course.
Some translations on libretranslate.com are different than the self-hosted ones. Why?
Section titled “Some translations on libretranslate.com are different than the self-hosted ones. Why?”By default language models are loaded from the argos-index. Sometimes we deploy models on libretranslate.com that haven’t been added to the argos-index yet, such as those converted from OPUS (thread)
Where are the language models saved?
Section titled “Where are the language models saved?”In $HOME/.local/share/argos-translate/packages. On Windows that’s C:\Users\youruser\.local\share\argos-translate\packages.
Can I use LibreTranslate behind a reverse proxy, like Apache2 or Caddy?
Section titled “Can I use LibreTranslate behind a reverse proxy, like Apache2 or Caddy?”Yes, here are config examples for Apache2 and Caddy that redirect a subdomain (with HTTPS certificate) to LibreTranslate running on a docker at localhost.
sudo docker run -ti --rm -p 127.0.0.1:5000:5000 libretranslate/libretranslateYou can remove 127.0.0.1 on the above command if you want to be able to access it from domain.tld:5000, in addition to subdomain.domain.tld (this can be helpful to determine if there is an issue with Apache2 or the docker container).
Add --restart unless-stopped if you want this docker to start on boot, unless manually stopped.
Apache config
Replace [YOUR_DOMAIN] with your full domain; for example, translate.domain.tld or libretranslate.domain.tld.
Remove # on the ErrorLog and CustomLog lines to log requests.
#Libretranslate
#Redirect http to https<VirtualHost *:80> ServerName http://[YOUR_DOMAIN] Redirect / https://[YOUR_DOMAIN] # ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log # CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/tr-access.log combined </VirtualHost>
#https<VirtualHost *:443> ServerName https://[YOUR_DOMAIN]
ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:5000/ ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:5000/ ProxyPreserveHost On
SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/[YOUR_DOMAIN]/fullchain.pem SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/[YOUR_DOMAIN]/privkey.pem SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/[YOUR_DOMAIN]/fullchain.pem
# ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/tr-error.log # CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/tr-access.log combined</VirtualHost>Add this to an existing site config, or a new file in /etc/apache2/sites-available/new-site.conf and run sudo a2ensite new-site.conf.
To get a HTTPS subdomain certificate, install certbot (snap), run sudo certbot certonly --manual --preferred-challenges dns and enter your information (with subdomain.domain.tld as the domain). Add a DNS TXT record with your domain registrar when asked. This will save your certificate and key to /etc/letsencrypt/live/{subdomain.domain.tld}/. Alternatively, comment the SSL lines out if you don’t want to use HTTPS.
Caddy config
Replace [YOUR_DOMAIN] with your full domain; for example, translate.domain.tld or libretranslate.domain.tld.
#Libretranslate[YOUR_DOMAIN] { reverse_proxy localhost:5000}Add this to an existing Caddyfile or save it as Caddyfile in any directory and run sudo caddy reload in that same directory.
NGINX config
Replace [YOUR_DOMAIN] with your full domain; for example, translate.domain.tld or libretranslate.domain.tld.
Remove # on the access_log and error_log lines to disable logging.
server { listen 80; server_name [YOUR_DOMAIN]; return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;}
server { listen 443 http2 ssl; server_name [YOUR_DOMAIN];
#access_log off; #error_log off;
# SSL Section ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/[YOUR_DOMAIN]/fullchain.pem; ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/[YOUR_DOMAIN]/privkey.pem;
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
# Using the recommended cipher suite from: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Server_Side_TLS ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384';
ssl_session_timeout 10m; ssl_session_cache shared:MozSSL:10m; # about 40000 sessions ssl_session_tickets off;
# Specifies a curve for ECDHE ciphers. ssl_ecdh_curve prime256v1; # Server should determine the ciphers, not the client ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
# Header section add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload" always; add_header Referrer-Policy "strict-origin" always;
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always; add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always; add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always; add_header X-Download-Options "noopen" always; add_header X-Robots-Tag "none" always;
add_header Feature-Policy "microphone 'none'; camera 'none'; geolocation 'none';" always; # Newer header but not everywhere supported add_header Permissions-Policy "microphone=(), camera=(), geolocation=()" always;
# Remove X-Powered-By, which is an information leak fastcgi_hide_header X-Powered-By;
# Do not send nginx server header server_tokens off;
# GZIP Section gzip on; gzip_disable "msie6";
gzip_vary on; gzip_proxied any; gzip_comp_level 6; gzip_buffers 16 8k; gzip_http_version 1.1; gzip_min_length 256; gzip_types text/xml text/javascript font/ttf font/eot font/otf application/x-javascript application/atom+xml application/javascript application/json application/manifest+json application/rss+xml application/x-web-app-manifest+json application/xhtml+xml application/xml image/svg+xml image/x-icon text/css text/plain;
location / { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5000/; proxy_set_header Host $http_host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; client_max_body_size 0; }}Add this to an existing NGINX config or save it as libretranslate in the /etc/nginx/site-enabled directory and run sudo nginx -s reload.
Can I run it as a systemd (default pip/python installed one)?
Section titled “Can I run it as a systemd (default pip/python installed one)?”Yes, just create a service file in /etc/systemd/system and enable it to run at startup. The .env (environmant) file is optional based on your setup. Add the below to the file (change to your values as necessary) and name the file as “libretranslate.service)
[Unit]Description=LibreTranslateAfter=network.target[Service]User=rootType=idleRestart=alwaysEnvironment="PATH=/usr/local/lib/python3.11/dist-packages/libretranslate"ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/libretranslateEnvironmentFile=/usr/local/lib/python3.11/dist-packages/libretranslate/.envExecReload=/bin/kill -s HUP $MAINPIDKillMode=mixedTimeoutStopSec=1[Install]WantedBy=multi-user.targetOnce saved, reload the daemon & start the service:
systemctl daemon-reloadsystemctl start libretranslate.servicesystemctl enable libretranslate.serviceCan I do batch translations?
Section titled “Can I do batch translations?”Yes, pass an array of strings instead of a string to the q field:
const res = await fetch("https://libretranslate.com/translate", { method: "POST", body: JSON.stringify({ q: ["Hello", "world"], source: "en", target: "es", }), headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },});
console.log(await res.json());// {// "translatedText": [// "Hola",// "mundo"// ]// }