European machine translation providers
5 of the 13 machine translation services we track have a parent company in Europe: DeepL API, Lara Translate, Mistral Small 4 (via Mistral API), ModernMT and SYSTRAN Translate API. At 50M characters / month, the lowest European estimate is $140/yr for Mistral Small 4 (via Mistral API), against $111/yr for the cheapest US-owned option, GPT-6 Luna (via OpenAI API). 3 of them offer EU data residency on a self-serve plan.
The median estimate is $10,074/yr across European services and $6,000/yr across US-owned ones, at the same usage.
“European” means the ultimate parent company is in the EU/EEA, the UK or Switzerland. That describes ownership, not where your data is stored or every law that applies. How we define jurisdiction.
European machine translation services by estimated bill
| Service | Parent company in | EU residency (self-serve) | Est. yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mistral Small 4 (via Mistral API)Translation with Mistral's open-weight Small 4 model on Mistral's EU-hosted La Plateforme API, priced from token rates. | 🇫🇷 France | Yes | $140/yr$0.2325 per M charsModeled rates |
| ModernMTAdaptive neural MT API from Italy's Translated that learns from translation memories and corrections; being replaced by Lara, sunsets end of 2026. | 🇮🇹 ItalyTranslated | No / not documented | $9,000/yr$15 per M charsPublished rates |
| SYSTRAN Translate APINeural MT API from French veteran SYSTRAN (ChapsVision group), hosted in Europe, with specialised industry models and user dictionaries. | 🇫🇷 FranceChapsVision | Yes | $10,074/yr$16.79 per M charsPublished rates |
| Lara TranslateLLM-based translation API from Italy's Translated (successor to ModernMT) with context, style and translation-memory adaptation. | 🇮🇹 ItalyTranslated | No / not documented | $12,354/yrTeam · $19.99 per M charsPublished rates |
| DeepL APIGerman neural MT API with glossaries, formality control and document translation; EU-hosted, billed per character on top of a small base fee. | 🇩🇪 Germany | Yes | $14,851/yrAPI Pro · $24.64 per M charsPublished rates |
At 50M characters / month. LLM rows are computed from token prices (assumptions in notes). Glossaries, document formats and quality vary, so test on your own content. Sources last checked 2026-10-06. Change the usage to see bills for your workload.
European alternatives to US services
- Google Cloud Translation ($11,880/yr): Mistral Small 4 (via Mistral API) is estimated at $140/yr, $11,741/yr less.
- Amazon Translate ($9,000/yr): Mistral Small 4 (via Mistral API) is estimated at $140/yr, $8,861/yr less.
- Azure AI Translator ($6,000/yr): Mistral Small 4 (via Mistral API) is estimated at $140/yr, $5,861/yr less.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite (via Gemini API) ($323/yr): Mistral Small 4 (via Mistral API) is estimated at $140/yr, $183/yr less.
Bills leave out features, performance, support and migration work. Check the provider notes before you switch.
US-owned services with EU data residency
These offer EU data residency on a self-serve plan, but their parent company is in the US.
- Amazon Translate — AWS neural machine translation API with real-time and batch document translation, custom terminology and Active Custom Translation.
- Azure AI Translator — Microsoft's Translator API (part of Azure AI Foundry Tools) with custom models, document translation and monthly commitment tiers.
- Google Cloud Translation — Google's Cloud Translation API (NMT) with batch and document translation, glossaries, custom AutoML models and an LLM-based Translation tier.
- GPT-6 Luna (via OpenAI API) — Translation with OpenAI's small GPT-6 Luna model, priced from OpenAI API token rates rather than per character.