Google Translation Hub shuts down on September 20, 2026. If your organization relies on its translation portal, document workflows, glossaries, or API integrations, you need to migrate before that date. This page compares verified alternatives, maps each Translation Hub asset to a concrete migration path, and gives you a dated timeline plus a downloadable checklist.
Google deprecated Translation Hub on June 30, 2025 and set the shutdown date in its official deprecation notice. Treat that page as the source of truth; older articles (including an earlier version of this one) incorrectly described a 2022 shutdown.
Who needs to migrate
Everyone with an active Translation Hub setup, but the work differs by role:
- Portal users: translators and reviewers who upload documents, apply glossaries and review output in the Translation Hub interface. They need a replacement portal and training on it.
- API and workflow integrators: teams that call Translation Hub from code, pipelines or TMS integrations. They need a compatible translation API and a tested cutover.
- Glossary owners: whoever maintains terminology, approved translations and language assets. Glossaries do not move by themselves; they must be exported and recreated.
If nobody owns the migration internally, appoint one owner now. The timeline below assumes work starts the week of July 27, 2026.
Migration path per asset
Documents and portal workflows
Inventory which file formats, volumes and language pairs flow through Translation Hub. Export anything you must keep: source files, translated output and review history are not guaranteed to remain accessible after shutdown. Then rebuild the upload-and-download workflow in your replacement. Langbly offers a document Translation Hub product that translates documents in 15+ formats while preserving layout; run your representative files through it before deciding.
Glossaries and terminology
Export every glossary from Google Cloud and record which projects and language pairs use it. Recreate the glossaries in your new provider and verify that key terms actually come out the other side; glossary application is exactly where providers differ. Langbly supports glossaries for API and document translation; test your highest-risk terminology in the parallel runs described below.
Users, roles and permissions
List who has access today, what each person does (upload, review, administer) and which projects they belong to. Map those roles to the replacement product's permission model. Do not assume a 1:1 match: Translation Hub's role and review structure is specific to Google, so expect to re-document responsibilities rather than copy settings.
API and workflow integrations
Catalog every system that calls Translation Hub: scripts, CI pipelines, TMS connectors, internal tools. For plain text translation, a Google Translate v2-compatible API is the smallest change; see the code example below. Document, portal and review integrations are a real migration, not an endpoint swap.
Quality checks: parallel runs and fluent review
Build a representative test set: difficult formatting, glossary-heavy text, your top language pairs. Run old and new workflows in parallel on that set and have fluent reviewers compare terminology, tone and layout preservation. Only cut over when the parallel runs pass review.
Honest limitations and differences
No provider, including Langbly, is a 1:1 replacement for everything Translation Hub does:
- Translation Hub's portal and review experience (its managed interface for uploading, assigning and reviewing translations) has no direct equivalent. You replace it with another product's workflow or your own tooling.
- Translation Hub's adaptive MT features have no 1:1 equivalent elsewhere. Glossaries and custom instructions cover part of the same ground, but behave differently.
- Langbly offers two relevant pieces: a document Translation Hub for file workflows, and a text API that is compatible with the Google Translate v2 format. Migrating a text API integration can be as small as an endpoint and key change. Migrating document, portal and review workflows cannot; plan those as a project.
Feature and cost comparison
Google's published price for Cloud Translation Basic is $20 per million characters after the first 500,000 characters each month (covered by a $10 monthly credit). Langbly includes the first 500,000 input characters each month and charges $5 per million additional input characters with no base fee, a 75% lower usage rate. Payment details are required to activate Langbly API access.
Google pricing verified July 27, 2026 against the Google Cloud Translation pricing page. Re-check before budgeting; document translation and Advanced features are priced separately.
| Google Cloud Translation Basic | Langbly | DeepL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Included monthly usage | First 500K chars ($10 credit) | First 500K input chars | Check live plan |
| Rate above included usage | $20 per 1M chars | $5 per 1M input chars (75% lower) | Check live plan |
| Document upload workflow | Build or partner solution | Built-in Translation Hub | Available |
| Glossaries | Advanced/API features | Available | Available |
| Google v2 text API format | Native | Compatible | No |
| EU data residency endpoint | Check Google terms | eu.langbly.com | Check live plan terms |
Migration timeline to September 20, 2026
Working back from the shutdown date, starting the week of July 27, 2026:
- By August 7: complete the inventory: users and roles, file formats, volumes, language pairs, glossaries, integrations and data-residency requirements. The migration checklist walks through every item.
- By August 14: shortlist providers, build the representative test set and start parallel runs of old and new workflows.
- Mid to late August: fluent review of parallel-run output, cost calculation on real volumes, security and data-residency sign-off.
- By September 4: cut over API integrations and document workflows, migrate glossaries and recreate user roles, train portal users on the replacement.
- September 5–19: buffer for issues, keep the rollback plan ready, confirm nothing still calls Translation Hub.
- September 20, 2026: hard deadline: Google Translation Hub shuts down.
Text API migration example
If a related workflow already uses the Google Translate v2 format, Langbly can often be tested by changing the base URL and API key while keeping the request and response format:
import requests
response = requests.post(
"https://api.langbly.com/language/translate/v2",
headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_LANGBLY_KEY"},
json={"q": "Hello world", "target": "nl"}
)
print(response.json())Scope caveat: this compatibility applies to the text API only. Translation Hub portal data, documents, glossaries, users and review history still require the planned migration described above.
Links and downloads
- Download the migration checklist (Markdown)
- Langbly Translation Hub, document translation product
- Langbly pricing
- Estimate your workload cost with the translation API cost calculator
- Switch from Google Translate (text API)
- Docs: migrate from Google Translate v2
- Google Translation Hub deprecation notice