For Agents
Translate text and documents between 130+ languages, detect source language, and run batch and adaptive custom translation models with glossary support.
Get started with Cloud Translation API in minutes using your preferred integration method.
# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
"jentic": {
"url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
"auth": "oauth"
}
}
# Then ask your agent:
"translate text from one language to another"
# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.What an agent can do with Cloud Translation API 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
GET STARTED
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.
Apply glossaries to enforce consistent terminology in translations
Train and run AutoML and adaptive custom translation models from parallel corpora
Patterns agents use Cloud Translation API 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.
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
/v3/{+name}/locations
List locations supporting Cloud Translation in a project
/v3/{+name}/operations
List long-running translation operations
/v3/{+name}:cancel
Cancel a long-running translation operation
/v3/{+dataset}:exportData
Export a translation dataset to Cloud Storage
/v3/{+dataset}:importData
Import parallel corpus data into a translation dataset
/v3/{+name}/locations
List locations supporting Cloud Translation in a project
/v3/{+name}/operations
List long-running translation operations
/v3/{+name}:cancel
Cancel a long-running translation operation
/v3/{+dataset}:exportData
Export a translation dataset to Cloud Storage
/v3/{+dataset}:importData
Import parallel corpus data into a translation dataset
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.
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
Cloud Text-to-Speech API
Synthesize the translated text into spoken audio in the target language
Translate first, then call Text-to-Speech with the translated string and matching languageCode for full text-to-spoken-translation pipelines.
Cloud Speech-to-Text API
Transcribe spoken audio before translating the resulting text
Pair Speech-to-Text + Translation for live captioning and meeting translation flows.
Google Cloud Storage API
Holds source documents and translated outputs for batch translation jobs
Always paired with batchTranslateText and translateDocument — input and output URIs reference Cloud Storage.
Specific to using Cloud Translation API 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.