Free and Open Source Machine Translation API, entirely self-hosted. Unlike other APIs, it doesn't rely on proprietary providers such as Google or Azure to perform translations. Instead, its translation engine is powered by the open source [Argos Translate](https://github.com/argosopentech/argos-translate) library.
If you want to run the Docker image in a complete offline environment, you need to add the `--build-arg with_models=true` parameter. Then the language models are downloaded during the build process of the image. Otherwise these models get downloaded on the first run of the image/container.
> Feel free to change the [`docker-compose.yml`](https://github.com/LibreTranslate/LibreTranslate/blob/main/docker-compose.yml) file to adapt it to your deployment needs, or use an extra `docker-compose.prod.yml` file for your deployment configuration.
> The models are stored inside the container under `/root/.local/share` and `/root/.local/cache`. Feel free to use volumes if you do not want to redownload the models when the container is destroyed. Be aware that this will prevent the models from being updated!
You can use hardware acceleration to speed up translations on a GPU machine with CUDA 11.2 and [nvidia-docker](https://docs.nvidia.com/datacenter/cloud-native/container-toolkit/install-guide.html) installed.
Run this version with:
```bash
docker-compose -f docker-compose.cuda.yml up -d --build
| --req-limit-storage | Storage URI to use for request limit data storage. See [Flask Limiter](https://flask-limiter.readthedocs.io/en/stable/configuration.html) | `memory://` | LT_REQ_LIMIT_STORAGE |
| --api-keys-db-path | Use a specific path inside the container for the local database. Can be absolute or relative | `api_keys.db` | LT_API_KEYS_DB_PATH |
| --api-keys-remote | Use this remote endpoint to query for valid API keys instead of using the local database | `Use local API key database` | LT_API_KEYS_REMOTE |
| --require-api-key-origin | Require use of an API key for programmatic access to the API, unless the request origin matches this domain | `No restrictions on domain origin` | LT_REQUIRE_API_KEY_ORIGIN |
| --load-only | Set available languages | `all from argostranslate` | LT_LOAD_ONLY |
Note that each argument has an equivalent environment variable that can be used instead. The env. variables overwrite the default values but have lower priority than the command arguments and are particularly useful if used with Docker. The environment variable names are the upper-snake-case of the equivalent command argument's name with a `LT` prefix.
See ["LibreTranslate: your own translation service on Kubernetes" by JM Robles](https://jmrobles.medium.com/libretranslate-your-own-translation-service-on-kubernetes-b46c3e1af630)
LibreTranslate supports per-user limit quotas, e.g. you can issue API keys to users so that they can enjoy higher requests limits per minute (if you also set `--req-limit`). By default all users are rate-limited based on `--req-limit`, but passing an optional `api_key` parameter to the REST endpoints allows a user to enjoy higher request limits.
To use API keys simply start LibreTranslate with the `--api-keys` option. If you modified the API keys database path with the option `--api-keys-db-path`, you must specify the path with the same argument flag when using the `ltmanage keys` command.
You can use this [discourse translator plugin](https://github.com/LibreTranslate/discourse-translator) to translate [Discourse](https://discourse.org) topics. To install it simply modify `/var/discourse/containers/app.yml`:
Then issue `./launcher rebuild app`. From the Discourse's admin panel then select "LibreTranslate" as a translation provider and set the relevant endpoint configurations.
- [LibreTranslater](https://gitlab.com/BeowuIf/libretranslater) is an Android app [available on the Play Store](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.beowulf.libretranslater) and [in the F-Droid store](https://f-droid.org/packages/de.beowulf.libretranslater/) that uses the LibreTranslate API.
- [LiTranslate](https://github.com/viktorkalyniuk/LiTranslate-iOS) is an iOS app [available on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/litranslate/id1644385339) that uses the LibreTranslate API.
- [minbrowser](https://minbrowser.org/) is a web browser with [integrated LibreTranslate support](https://github.com/argosopentech/argos-translate/discussions/158#discussioncomment-1141551).
To add new languages you first need to train an Argos Translate model. See [this video](https://odysee.com/@argosopentech:7/training-an-Argos-Translate-model-tutorial-2022:2?r=DMnK7NqdPNHRCfwhmKY9LPow3PqVUUgw) for details.
First you need to collect data, for example from [Opus](http://opus.nlpl.eu/), then you need to add the data to [data-index.json](https://github.com/argosopentech/argos-train/blob/master/data-index.json) in the [Argos Train](https://github.com/argosopentech/argos-train) repo.
In short, no. [You need to buy an API key](https://buy.stripe.com/3cs4j3a4u4c8d3i289). You can always run LibreTranslate for free on your own server of course.
Yes, here is an example Apache2 config that redirects a subdomain (with HTTPS certificate) to LibreTranslate running on a docker at localhost.
```
sudo docker run -ti --rm -p 127.0.0.1:5000:5000 libretranslate/libretranslate
```
You can remove `127.0.0.1` on the above command if you want to be able to access it from `domain.tld:5000`, in addition to `subdomain.domain.tld` (this can be helpful to determine if there is an issue with Apache2 or the docker container).
Add `--restart unless-stopped` if you want this docker to start on boot, unless manually stopped.
To get a HTTPS subdomain certificate, install `certbot` (snap), run `sudo certbot certonly --manual --preferred-challenges dns` and enter your information (with `subdomain.domain.tld` as the domain). Add a DNS TXT record with your domain registrar when asked. This will save your certificate and key to `/etc/letsencrypt/live/{subdomain.domain.tld}/`. Alternatively, comment the SSL lines out if you don't want to use HTTPS.
