Translations

Auto-translate your content into multiple languages using GitBook’s AI Agent and keep it synced

Auto translations are currently in Beta. Let us know if you have any feedback or encounter any issues.

Only organization admins can create and access translations, as it’s a billable feature.

Auto translations make it easy to keep your documentation up-to-date in multiple languages, with minimal manual effort. You can create a space as a translation of another, and let GitBook Agent handle the rest.

How translations work

• Create a translation space: Set up a new space as a translation of an existing one. Choose your source space and target language.

• Continuous updates: Every time you make changes to the source content, the translation workflow only runs for the pages that have been changed.

• Automatic sync: After changes are merged, the translation workflow runs automatically and syncs with its source, so your translated space always reflects the latest updates.

Set up an auto translation

To translate a space to a new language, start by creating a new space in your organization. From the modal that appears, click Translation from the quick actions menu.

From the modal that appears, you’ll need to choose a:

• Source

• Source language

• Target language

These options will be used to translate your space into a duplicated, translated space in your organization. You’ll also see a quick overview on the cost of translating your space.

Advanced configuration

Custom AI instructions: Add advanced instructions to guide the AI on tone of voice, style, or other preferences. This helps ensure your translations match your brand or audience.

Adding custom instructions to your translation workflow can be helpful, but is limited in certain cases.

Custom instructions cannot be used to create new elements on a translated space, add extra text, or change the structure of the source content.

Glossary support: Define a glossary to control how specific terms are translated. This keeps terminology consistent across all supported languages.

Changing your glossary will trigger a full re-translation of your content. There is currently no workaround: we cannot reliably detect which pages might contain a glossary keyword, so the safest approach is to re-translate all pages. Updating the glossary may therefore be time- and cost-intensive.

Add a translation to a variant

After creating a translation, you’ll be able to add it to published docs site as a variant. This will allow users to toggle between languages in the upper right corner when viewing your main docs site.

To provide the best experience for your users, you’re able to set the default language of a variant when setting it in your settings.

It’s best practice to add the language of your translated space when setting up your variant.

Head to your site settings, under the structure tab to set up a new variant for any translations you have.

Pricing

Translations are a paid monthly add-on:

• $25 for up to 50,000 translated words

• $0.20 per additional 1,000 words

Each month includes 50,000 words of translation for $25. After that, every additional 1,000 words costs $0.20. Your 50,000-word allowance resets at the start of each month.

In your first translation, every word will count towards your bill. After that, only pages with new or updated words are charged. For example, if you edit your docs later, only the pages with new words will count towards your word limit — you won’t be re-billed for the entire document.

Be cautious when working on multiple translations with large pages, as translated word count includes all words within a page that contains a change — meaning if only a few words are changed in a large page, the entire page will be re-translated.

FAQ

Why use auto-translations?

• Effortless multilingual docs: Reach a global audience without manual translation work.

• Smart updates: Only changed pages are re-translated, saving time and resources.

• Full control: Customize translations with advanced instructions and glossary management.

Can I edit the translation?

You currently can't edit translations.

As translations are done as a pure transformation of the source content, we can't reconcile potential edits made on the translation result with a new translation.

To workaround it, we recommend the following flow:

• Use the glossary to define specific translations that you want the AI to use

• Use the custom instructions to iterate on the output

How many translations do I need to create?

You should only create one translation workflow per language of any given source content. Creating multiple workflows will accrue extra, duplicated costs in your organization.

What are some current limitations?

• Translations do not localize UI elements in your variant automatically. Head to your site’s customization settings to localize the interface for a specific variant.

  • This includes user-input customizations, such as announcement banners.

• Translations cannot add extra content to the page - like a hint or a banner noting that a page was translated by AI. Consider adding an extra page in the translated space to note this, or the announcement banner in your site variant.

• Changing the glossary triggers a full re-translation of all pages, which can increase processing time and cost. There is no partial re-translation based on glossary usage at this time.

If you need help getting started or want to learn more about configuring auto-translations, contact our support team.