EPICWP AI Translation for Polylang

Description

Translate a post, page or category into every language on your Polylang site in one click, with your own OpenAI key and no plugin limits.

EPICWP AI Translation for Polylang is a free WordPress plugin that translates posts, pages, custom post types and terms with AI on sites that use Polylang. It creates the Polylang translations from the edit screen and runs the work in the background on your server. It uses your own OpenAI API key with the GPT-5.4 Nano model, so there is no account with us, no subscription and no usage limit. Block and HTML structure stay intact, and a second run only sends the fields you changed. The post list and a dashboard show the status of every translation.

How it works

1. Install Polylang and add your languages. Then install and activate EPICWP AI Translation for Polylang.
2. Paste your OpenAI API key under Languages > AI Settings and click Test connection.
3. Open a published post, page or term, tick the target languages and click Start Translation.

The translations appear in Polylang moments later, linked to the original and ready for the language switcher. On a fresh site the first translated post is minutes away.

What it translates

• Content: posts, pages and every custom post type you enabled for translation in Polylang: title, content, excerpt and slug.
• Editors: the block editor (Gutenberg) and the classic editor. Block markup, HTML tags and links are preserved; only the text changes.
• Taxonomies: categories, tags and custom taxonomies: name, description and slug, from the term edit screen.
• Languages: every language configured in Polylang, from any source language, into several targets in one run.

What it does not do

• It does not translate the front end on the fly. It writes real Polylang translations that you can edit, and they stay if you remove the plugin.
• It does not replace Polylang: Polylang 3.7 or newer, free or Pro, provides the languages and the translation links.
• It does not include AI usage: you bring your own OpenAI key, and OpenAI bills you a fraction of a cent per language for a normal post.
• It does not create drafts. Only published content is translated and the translation is published right away; review it in the editor afterwards.
• The free edition does not send custom fields, page builder layouts, WooCommerce data, SEO meta or Polylang strings to the AI; Elementor and Bricks layouts are copied unchanged for you to translate in the builder. The Pro edition translates all of these.
• It does not translate navigation menus; Polylang manages menus per language.

Free vs Pro

The free edition is complete for translating content one item at a time. The Pro edition is for sites with a lot of content, page builders, WooCommerce or SEO plugins.

Free edition

• ✅ Post, page and term translation from the editor
• ✅ OpenAI with the GPT-5.4 Nano model
• ✅ Custom instructions per translation
• ✅ Change detection and per-field re-translation
• ✅ Status column and filter in the post list
• ✅ Dashboard with coverage and activity feed
• ✅ Preflight checks, error log and debug log
• ❌ Bulk translation of post types, taxonomies and the whole site
• ❌ Elementor, Bricks, ACF and WooCommerce translated in place
• ❌ Custom field management (translate, copy or ignore per field)
• ❌ SEO meta (eight SEO plugins, listed under Pro)
• ❌ Polylang string translations
• ❌ Internal links rewritten to the translated pages
• ❌ Claude, Gemini and OpenRouter with model choice
• ❌ Site-wide AI context and instructions
• ❌ Premium support and automatic updates

Pro edition

• ✅ Post, page and term translation from the editor
• ✅ OpenAI with the GPT-5.4 Nano model or any supported OpenAI model
• ✅ Custom instructions per translation
• ✅ Change detection and per-field re-translation
• ✅ Status column and filter in the post list
• ✅ Dashboard with coverage and activity feed
• ✅ Preflight checks, error log and debug log
• ✅ Bulk translation of post types, taxonomies and the whole site
• ✅ Elementor, Bricks, ACF and WooCommerce translated in place
• ✅ Custom field management (translate, copy or ignore per field)
• ✅ SEO meta for Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, SEOPress, Slim SEO, Squirrly SEO, The SEO Framework and SEO Engine Pro
• ✅ Polylang string translations
• ✅ Internal links rewritten to the translated pages
• ✅ Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini and OpenRouter with model choice
• ✅ Site-wide AI context and instructions
• ✅ Premium support and automatic updates

Upcoming in Pro: Auto-Translate 24/7, which translates new and edited content automatically.

Moving to Pro keeps your settings and translation records. The Pro edition is a separate plugin, sold on our website as Polylang AI Automatic Translation: see pricing and licenses or upgrade to Pro. In both editions the AI provider bills the AI usage, not us.

Translation providers and quality

The free edition uses the OpenAI API with GPT-5.4 Nano, chosen for its price and translation quality. The Pro edition adds Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini and OpenRouter, with a choice of model.

A language model translates the whole post in context, so tone and terminology stay consistent, and it follows instructions such as keeping brand names or using the formal address. The plugin checks every answer before writing it; a refusal or an incomplete answer is reported, not saved. To redo a result, change the instructions and tick Force re-translation for the fields you want.

Why people choose this plugin

• In production since 2023; the free and the Pro edition share one translation engine.
• Background jobs through Action Scheduler: a closed browser tab or a slow AI response does not lose your work; failed items are retried three times.
• Preflight checks explain a blocked setup (key, languages, WP-Cron, loopback) before a run starts, instead of failing silently.
• Change detection keeps your OpenAI bill low: a second run only sends what you changed.
• Anyone who can edit a post can translate it; no administrator role needed.
• The Pro edition is rated 4.5 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 13 reviews.

Compatibility and requirements

• WordPress 6.8 or newer, PHP 8.1 or newer.
• Polylang 3.7 or newer, the free plugin or Polylang Pro.
• An OpenAI account with an API key and billing enabled.
• Block editor and classic editor. Elementor and Bricks: copied for translation in the builder (free) or translated in place (Pro). Other page builders are not supported.
• WooCommerce products: Pro edition.
• Background jobs need WP-Cron or a server cron and loopback requests to your own site; the preflight check reports if either is blocked.

Privacy and third-party services

Your content goes to the OpenAI API only when you start a translation, and nothing goes to us: no telemetry, no account, no phoning home. The External services section below lists what is sent, when, and the OpenAI terms and privacy policy that apply. No visitor data is ever sent.

Not affiliated with Polylang

EPICWP AI Translation for Polylang is an independent plugin by EPIC WP. It is not developed by, endorsed by or affiliated with the makers of Polylang.

Support and documentation

• Support forum: https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/epicwp-ai-translation-for-polylang/
• The Support tab under Languages > AI Settings has the error log to quote in your post.
• Server cron setup guide for faster background processing.
• Pro customers get support through the support desk on our website.

Source code

The admin screens are React applications whose minified bundles live in dist/admin/ (translation-dashboard.js and single-translator.js); dist/admin/admin.css is built with Tailwind. The readable sources and the build configuration ship in this plugin next to the bundles:

• assets/scripts/admin/: the JSX and JavaScript sources of the two bundles.
• assets/styles/admin-input.css and tailwind.config.js: the source of dist/admin/admin.css.
• assets/images/: the SVG files copied into dist/images/.
• webpack.config.js, package.json and package-lock.json: the build configuration and the pinned toolchain (@wordpress/scripts).

To rebuild the bundles from the plugin folder with Node.js 20 and npm installed:

1. npm ci installs the pinned build dependencies.
2. npm run build:free writes the JavaScript bundles to dist-free/admin/ and the SVG files to dist-free/images/; compare them with dist/admin/ and dist/images/.
3. npm run build:css rebuilds dist/admin/admin.css from the Tailwind source.

The complete source of the free edition, including these files, is public at https://github.com/epicwp/ai-translation-for-polylang, one tagged commit per release. All PHP code is unminified. The bundled PHP libraries under vendor/ (Monolog, PHP-DI, x-wp/di, Action Scheduler, myclabs/php-enum) carry their own headers and license files.

External services

This plugin connects to the OpenAI API to translate your content. OpenAI is a third-party service with its own terms and billing: you need your own OpenAI account and API key, and OpenAI charges you for the requests the plugin makes.

OpenAI API (https://api.openai.com)

• What is sent: the text of the post, page or term being translated, the source and target language, the plugin’s translation prompt and any instructions you typed into the AI Translation box. Your API key is sent in the request header for authentication, and WordPress adds its standard User-Agent header (your WordPress version and site address). No user accounts, e-mail addresses or other site data are sent.
• When: only when you click Start Translation in the AI Translation box, and once, with a one-word test message, when you save your API key on the settings page, click Test connection or re-run a failed preflight check.
• Terms of use: https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use
• Privacy policy: https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy

Your own site (loopback request)

Before a translation starts, the preflight check sends one HTTP request to your own site address (your site URL with the query parameter pllat_loopback=1) to verify that background jobs can run. It goes to your own server and carries no content.

No other external requests are made. The plugin sends no usage data to the plugin author, and it does not contact WordPress.org or any other service itself. Links to our website inside the plugin are ordinary links, opened only when you click them.

Technical details