DeepL vs ChatGPT for translation

Quality

DeepL has a stronger case in its own comparison, but that's not the same as an independent verdict. DeepL says it beat GPT-5.5 in 15 of 18 language pairs (83%) in its June 2026 blind tests. Keep the source attached to that result: DeepL ran the test.

The independent findings here cover ChatGPT in medical translation, rather than a direct comparison with DeepL. Kong et al. 2025, published in BMJ Quality & Safety, found that ChatGPT-4 got 97% of Spanish, 95% of Chinese and 89% of Russian medical sentences right.

Brewster et al. 2024, published in Pediatrics, found 33.3% serious errors for ChatGPT in Haitian Creole.

That's a different picture. Which language are you translating, and what kind of text? These findings don't give you a winner for every job, and the ChatGPT-4 results aren't results for GPT-5.5.

For your own comparison, use the text you need translated, not just a sample sentence. Include the words whose meaning depends on context.

Free limits

DeepL's free version gives you 50,000 characters a month, 1 file a month up to 5 MB, and 1 glossary.

ChatGPT's free version offers unlimited everyday text chats. That's the stated allowance for everyday chats, not a character allowance you can compare directly with DeepL's monthly limit.

If you're deciding whether to pay, start with your text: does it fit inside DeepL's allowance, and do you need to translate a file? The file limit matters separately from the character limit. A glossary is included too, though just 1.

Paid plans

As of November 2026, DeepL Individual costs €7.49 a month billed annually and includes 300,000 characters a month.

ChatGPT Plus costs $20 a month. Business costs $25 per user a month, or $20 billed annually.

These aren't matching translation packages. DeepL Individual has a stated monthly character allowance; the ChatGPT prices here are subscription prices, without a matching translation character allowance to put beside them.

And keep the billing terms in view: DeepL's €7.49 rate requires annual billing, while ChatGPT Business has different monthly and annually billed rates.

API costs

The API comparison is separate from choosing a chat subscription.

DeepL Developer gives you 1,000,000 characters once. Growth costs €23.80 a month billed annually, with 12 million characters a year, then €22 per million.

OpenAI gpt-6.1-sol costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens. One token is about 4 characters of English, but don't treat that as an exact conversion for every language. You're paying for input and output, rather than a single character count.

Already using DeepL in a store, site or app? Translinga, made by Bitgate, accepts DeepL API requests as they are, including the DeepL-Auth-Key header. DeepL's own Node and Python libraries work when pointed at https://api.translinga.com. Switching means changing the URL and key. It's in early access; you can request a key through the Get early access button on translinga.com.

Privacy and data use

DeepL's privacy policy says text sent to its paid Pro services isn't used to improve its services. Text sent through the free version can be used for training.

That distinction matters before you paste anything in. Don't read the paid Pro policy as a promise about the free version, or assume that every service bearing the DeepL name has the same terms.

For ChatGPT, check OpenAI's own data controls before you paste in anything sensitive.

Which to use when

For everyday text, try your actual material in both free versions and compare the wording. For medical text, keep the language-specific findings above in view rather than treating "ChatGPT" as a single quality score.

For an API project, DeepL handles HTML and XML tags and offers a formality setting. But handling tags doesn't settle every translation problem.

In an English-to-Dutch test on October 27, 2026, Translinga found that the DeepL API changed the Shopify filter | money to | geld, making Shopify print the raw amount in cents. It also translated "Save" in a combat menu as "Opslaan," meaning saving a file, even with context given, and "Charge" on a billing page as "Opladen," meaning charging a battery.

Translinga removes Liquid tags, HTML and placeholders before translation, checks replies tag by tag, and retries strings with missing tags. For store content, test both the wording and the code.