Google Cloud Translation API
Browse all Google APIs✓ Official Vendor SpecAI/MLLanguage Modelsoauth231 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Translate text and documents between 130+ languages, detect source language, and run batch and adaptive custom translation models with glossary support.
Use for: I need to translate text from English to Spanish, Translate a PDF document while preserving layout, Detect the language of an unknown string, Run a batch translation job over a folder in Cloud Storage
Not supported: Does not handle speech transcription, voice synthesis, or human translation review — use for machine translation of text and documents only.
Cloud Translation v3 (Advanced) translates text and documents between more than 130 languages using Google's neural machine translation models. Beyond basic string translation it supports glossaries (consistent terminology), AutoML and adaptive custom models, batch translation jobs that read source files from Cloud Storage and write results back, language detection, and document translation that preserves layout for DOCX, PDF, PPTX, and XLSX files. The v3 surface also exposes datasets and model resources for training custom translation models on parallel corpora.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Cloud Translation API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Cloud Translation API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Cloud Translation API.
Translate text between any pair of 130+ supported languages
Translate office documents preserving layout (DOCX, PDF, PPTX, XLSX)
Run batch translation jobs reading from and writing to Cloud Storage
Detect the source language of supplied text
Apply glossaries to enforce consistent terminology in translations
Train and run AutoML and adaptive custom translation models from parallel corpora
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Cloud Translation API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Localised Web Content at Publish Time
CMS publishing pipelines call Cloud Translation as part of the publish step, translating each new article into the site's supported languages and storing the output alongside the source. Glossaries pin brand and product names so 'Acme Cloud' is never localised to 'Acme Nube'. Results are cached so re-publish only translates changed paragraphs.
POST /v3/{parent}:translateText with contents=[article body], targetLanguageCode='es', and a glossaryConfig referencing the brand glossary.
Document Translation Preserving Format
Legal and HR teams translate contracts, policies, and benefits documents between languages while preserving the original DOCX or PDF layout. The translateDocument operation accepts the source document inline or via Cloud Storage, runs neural translation across the body text, and emits the translated document with formatting, tables, and images intact. This replaces a manual copy-paste-into-Word-then-reformat workflow.
POST /v3/{parent}:translateDocument with documentInputConfig pointing at the GCS PDF URI and outputConfig writing the translated PDF back to a target prefix.
Batch Translation of a Content Library
Publishers with thousands of source files (product descriptions, support articles) submit a batch translation job that reads source files from a Cloud Storage prefix and writes translations into target-language prefixes. The long-running job parallelises across files and supports multiple target languages per submission, completing what used to take days of synchronous calls in a single overnight run.
POST /v3/{parent}:batchTranslateText with inputConfigs pointing at gs://source-bucket/articles/, outputConfig at gs://target-bucket/, and targetLanguageCodes=['es','fr','de'].
Agent-Driven Localisation via Jentic
An AI agent receiving a help-desk ticket in any language detects the source language and translates the ticket body into the support agent's language. Through Jentic the agent calls detectLanguage and translateText as two tool calls; Jentic isolates the GCP credential and caches glossary lookups across requests.
Through Jentic, search 'detect language and translate text', call /v3/{parent}:detectLanguage on the inbound message, then /v3/{parent}:translateText with targetLanguageCode set to the agent's locale.
Key Endpoints
31 endpoints — cloud translation v3 (advanced) translates text and documents between more than 130 languages using google's neural machine translation models.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/v3/{+name}/locations
List locations supporting Cloud Translation in a project
GET
/v3/{+name}/operations
List long-running translation operations
POST
/v3/{+name}:cancel
Cancel a long-running translation operation
POST
/v3/{+dataset}:exportData
Export a translation dataset to Cloud Storage
POST
/v3/{+dataset}:importData
Import parallel corpus data into a translation dataset
GET
/v3/{+name}/locations
List locations supporting Cloud Translation in a project
GET
/v3/{+name}/operations
List long-running translation operations
POST
/v3/{+name}:cancel
Cancel a long-running translation operation
POST
/v3/{+dataset}:exportData
Export a translation dataset to Cloud Storage
POST
/v3/{+dataset}:importData
Import parallel corpus data into a translation dataset
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
Service-account JSON is stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents call translation operations through Jentic and never hold raw OAuth tokens or per-request signed URLs.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search 'translate text' or 'detect language' and Jentic returns the matching v3 operation with full input schema (contents, sourceLanguageCode, targetLanguageCode, glossaryConfig, model).
Time to first call
Direct Translation API integration: 1-3 days for service-account setup, glossary management, and batch wiring. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes for synchronous translate, under 1 hour for batch.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using Cloud Translation API through Jentic.
What authentication does the Cloud Translation API use?
OAuth 2.0 with the cloud-platform or cloud-translation scope. Service-account credentials with the cloudtranslate.user role are typical for production workloads. Through Jentic, the service-account JSON is held in the encrypted vault and short-lived tokens are minted per request.
Can I translate documents while preserving formatting with the Cloud Translation API?
Yes. The translateDocument operation accepts DOCX, PDF, PPTX, and XLSX inputs either inline or via a Cloud Storage URI and returns the translated document with original formatting, tables, and images intact. This is the standard path for translating contracts, decks, and spreadsheets without breaking layout.
What are the rate limits for the Cloud Translation API?
The synchronous translateText endpoint allows several thousand requests per minute per project with a per-character throughput cap that varies by region. Batch translation has separate concurrency limits — typically tens of concurrent long-running jobs. Quota increases are available through the Cloud Console.
How do I translate text through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'translate text', load POST /v3/{parent}:translateText, and execute it with parent=projects/PROJECT/locations/global, contents (an array of strings), sourceLanguageCode (optional — auto-detect if omitted), and targetLanguageCode. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.
Does the Cloud Translation API support custom models?
Yes. v3 (Advanced) supports AutoML Translation custom models trained from parallel corpora and adaptive translation models that fine-tune on a glossary. Reference a custom model by passing model='projects/{p}/locations/{l}/models/{m}' on translateText. Datasets and models are managed under the same v3 surface.
Is the Cloud Translation API free?
Pricing is per-character with a free monthly tier (typically 500,000 characters across the basic tier). Advanced features (translateDocument, glossaries, batch, AutoML) are billed at higher per-character rates. See cloud.google.com/translate/pricing for current rates.
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