Google Cloud Translation vs Amazon Translate
Default scenario: At 50M characters / month, estimated bills are $9,000/yr for Amazon Translate and $11,880/yr for Google Cloud Translation. That’s a $2,880 difference before accounting for different features or operating costs.
The services may differ in features, performance, support and the work you need to do yourself. Read the notes and test what matters to your setup.
Your selected usage
50M characters / month
- Google Cloud Translation: $11,880/yr estimated
- Amazon Translate: $9,000/yr estimated
Estimated costs at different usage levels
| Usage | Google Cloud Translation | Amazon Translate |
|---|---|---|
| Website localization5M characters / month | $1,080/yr$20 per M chars | $900/yr$15 per M chars |
| Support / UGC50M characters / month | $11,880/yr$20 per M chars | $9,000/yr$15 per M chars |
| Marketplace listings500M characters / month | $119,880/yr$20 per M chars | $90,000/yr$15 per M chars |
LLM rows are computed from token prices (assumptions in notes). Glossaries, document formats and quality vary, so test on your own content. Try your own numbers against all machine translation providers.
Side by side
| Google Cloud Translation | Amazon Translate | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Google's Cloud Translation API (NMT) with batch and document translation, glossaries, custom AutoML models and an LLM-based Translation tier. | AWS neural machine translation API with real-time and batch document translation, custom terminology and Active Custom Translation. |
| Headquarters | 🇺🇸 United States | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Parent jurisdiction | 🇺🇸 United States (Alphabet) | 🇺🇸 United States (Amazon) |
| EU self-serve plan | Available; check eligible plans and regions | Available; check eligible plans and regions |
| GDPR DPA | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | payg | payg |
| Free tier | First 500,000 characters/month free (applied as a $10 monthly credit). | 2M characters/month free for up to 12 months (standard and batch translation). |
| Open source | No | No |
| Source last checked | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-06 |
| Pricing evidence | Published rates | Published rates |
Which should you choose?
Amazon Translate has the lower estimated bill at every usage level we tested, from 5M characters / month to 5B characters / month.
Choose Google Cloud Translation if…
Our data shows no advantage on price, residency, jurisdiction or licensing. Compare features in the notes below.
Choose Amazon Translate if…
- it has the lower estimated bill at Website localization, Support / UGC and Marketplace listings usage
Based on estimated list-price bills and the facts above. Features, performance and support aren’t scored.
Google Cloud Translation pricing
Calculated from the listed vendor rates; exclusions still apply.
| 1M additional characters |
|---|
| $20 |
NMT text translation (Basic and Advanced): first 500k characters/month free, then $20 per 1M characters up to 1B/month; above 1B contact sales. Committed-use savings plans lower this to $18 or $16. Translation LLM is billed $10 per 1M input characters plus $10 per 1M output characters (about the same as NMT for similar-length output). Adaptive translation (LLM with example sentences) is $25 + $25 per 1M input/output characters; AutoML custom models $80/M chars (falling to $30/M at 4B+). Document translation $0.08/page (NMT). Cloud Translation Advanced (v3) offers an EU regional endpoint (translate-eu.googleapis.com) to keep processing in the EU. Cloud Data Processing Addendum applies.
Google Cloud Translation plan limits, full rates and cheaper alternatives · official pricing page
Amazon Translate pricing
Calculated from the listed vendor rates; exclusions still apply.
| 1M additional characters |
|---|
| $15 |
Standard real-time text, batch document and real-time text/HTML document translation all $15 per 1M characters; real-time .docx $30/M; Active Custom Translation (parallel data) $60/M. Free tier (2M chars/month) only for the first 12 months, so it is not modelled. Volume discounts above 1B characters/month via AWS sales. Available in EU regions (e.g. Frankfurt, Ireland, Paris, Stockholm). AWS GDPR DPA is part of the service terms.
Amazon Translate plan limits, full rates and cheaper alternatives · official pricing page
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Cloud Translation cheaper than Amazon Translate?
Amazon Translate has the lower estimated bill at every usage level we tested, from 5M characters / month to 5B characters / month. At 50M characters / month, the estimates are $11,880/yr for Google Cloud Translation and $9,000/yr for Amazon Translate. Estimates use list prices and leave out features, support and operating costs.
Do Google Cloud Translation and Amazon Translate offer EU data residency?
Both offer EU data residency on a self-serve plan. Check which plans and regions qualify.
Do Google Cloud Translation and Amazon Translate have a free tier or trial?
Google Cloud Translation: First 500,000 characters/month free (applied as a $10 monthly credit). Amazon Translate: 2M characters/month free for up to 12 months (standard and batch translation).
Where are Google Cloud Translation and Amazon Translate based?
Google Cloud Translation is headquartered in the United States and owned by Alphabet (the United States). Amazon Translate is headquartered in the United States and owned by Amazon (the United States).