DeepL vs Google Translate

Quality: what the tests show

DeepL has a case for better translation quality, but the tests don't show that it wins on every kind of text. If you're choosing for a website, documents or an app, the language pair and the words you're translating still matter.

DeepL says it beat Google Translate in 18 of 18 language pairs in its June 2026 blind tests. That's DeepL's own testing, not an independent result. It's worth knowing about, but keep that distinction in mind when you compare the results below.

An independent 2026 study by Savostyanov et al., published in a Moscow State University journal, used an AI judge to score English to Russian translations on a 10-point scale. DeepL scored 8.57, Google 8.51 and Yandex 7.91.

That's a narrow gap. And in the study's medical texts, Google came out ahead: 8.80 against DeepL's 8.70. Does that make Google the better choice for all medical documents? This study doesn't establish that.

There are concrete mistakes to watch for, too. In an English to Dutch test on October 27, 2026, Translinga found that the DeepL API changed the Shopify filter | money into | geld. Shopify then prints the raw amount in cents.

In the same test, DeepL translated "Save" in a combat menu as "Opslaan," meaning saving a file, even with context provided. On a billing page, it translated "Charge" as "Opladen," meaning charging a battery.

Those are specific results, not a head-to-head win for Google. They're useful things to check in your own test: code inside text, short labels and words with more than one meaning.

Languages

Google Translate covers almost 250 languages. DeepL's pricing page lists 30+ languages for its translator, and DeepL added Traditional Chinese in July 2024.

Start here. Does each service support the languages you need?

If DeepL doesn't cover a language on your list, its quality results for other language pairs won't settle your decision, and Google's broader coverage gives you more languages to choose from before you get into testing individual translations.

If both cover your languages, move on to your own text rather than treating the size of the language list as a quality score.

Free use

DeepL's web translator allows 50,000 characters a month. Google Translate's website and app are free.

For text you're translating yourself, compare those options before looking at API plans. The free website and an API allowance aren't the same thing (keep those separate when you're budgeting).

If you're connecting translation to a website or app, use the API figures below. Google's monthly free API allowance and DeepL's one-time allowance have different terms, even though both let you start with free characters.

API prices

These prices are current as of November 2026.

Google Cloud Translation gives you 500,000 free characters a month, then charges $20 per million characters.

DeepL API Developer gives you 1,000,000 characters once. Its Growth plan costs €23.80 a month, billed annually, and includes 12 million characters a year. Extra usage costs €22 per million characters.

Watch the time periods. DeepL's Developer allowance doesn't renew monthly, and Growth's included characters are stated as an annual amount. Google's free allowance is monthly. The listed prices also use different currencies.

Google separately offers a Translation LLM at $10 per million input characters and $10 per million output characters. You need to account for both input and output, rather than compare the input price alone with the other rates. Google's glossaries are free; DeepL's API supports glossaries too.

For another API option, Translinga, made by Bitgate for Shopify stores, WordPress sites and apps, has Fast at $2.50 per million characters and Quality at $5.00 per million. Spaces count, and characters are counted once per target language. Credit is prepaid from $5 and never expires; the first $1 is free, about 400,000 characters on Fast.

It's in early access: use the Get early access button on translinga.com to request a key, with no card needed. It accepts DeepL requests, including the DeepL-Auth-Key header, and DeepL's Node and Python libraries work when pointed at https://api.translinga.com. Switching means changing the URL and key. Google Translate v2 requests work too, with the same language codes as the DeepL and Google Translate APIs.

Which one to pick

Pick Google if you need languages DeepL doesn't cover. For free use through a website or app, Google is also worth comparing against DeepL's monthly web limit.

If both support your languages, test both with your documents or website text. Include short interface labels and text containing code, not just paragraphs, and check the results before choosing an API around a quality claim.

DeepL's own tests favor DeepL. The independent English to Russian study shows a much closer result, with Google ahead on medical texts. Neither gives you a winner for every document.

For an API integration, compare your expected usage against the monthly and annual allowances, then the paid rates. Don't treat a one-time free allowance as a recurring saving.