--- title: "How to translate PDF files with AI" description: "Translate a PDF and get a PDF back, with the same pages and layout. Compare the options, then follow the steps for a large report." date: 2026-10-04 language: en canonical: https://ai-glot.com/blog/how-to-translate-pdf-files-with-ai source: AI Glot blog --- **To translate a PDF, you want a PDF back: same pages, same images, same layout, with the text in the new language.** A chat assistant gives you text. A tool that works on the file gives you the file. If you only have a paragraph to translate, paste it into any chat and move on. This guide is for the other case: an annual report, a brochure for five markets, a manual with tables. ## Which option should you use? Here are the four ways people do it, and where each one runs out. | | Good for | Where it stops | |---|---|---| | **AI Glot** | Long or recurring PDFs, a glossary that must hold, several languages | Overkill for one short page | | **DeepL** | One file, quickly. [It takes PDF, Word and PowerPoint files up to 30 MB](https://developers.deepl.com/docs/best-practices/document-translations) | It translates the file as it is. You cannot say "skip the legal notice", there is no plan to read first, and its glossary swaps words without understanding why they are fixed | | **ChatGPT, Claude or another assistant** | A short extract | You write the prompt and carry your glossary into every chat. You get text, not a PDF, and a long report writes out word by word, slowly, and uses up your usage limit | | **An agency or a freelancer** | The brochure on your homepage, a contract | Slow, priced per word, and you still prepare the file yourself | **We would hire a person for the one page that carries your reputation.** For the other two hundred pages, an engine does the same job in minutes. ## Why AI Glot fits a PDF - **PDF in, PDF out.** The text is rewritten on the same page, in the same place. Images, graphics, backgrounds and page size are not touched. - **You say what to translate in one sentence.** For example: everything except the legal notice on the last page. - **You read a plan before anything is spent.** It shows the pages, the languages, the word count and the cost. - **A glossary keeps the same term on page 2 and page 200.** It is saved in your workspace and applies to the next report too. - **Big files are not a problem.** A long PDF is read in parallel, so the first plan appears in seconds. ## The path of one file *Illustration: The five steps of a PDF job. Everything before approval is free, so a plan that misread the report costs nothing to correct.* Nothing costs anything before step four, so a plan that misread your report costs nothing to fix. ## What changes on the page, and what does not *Illustration: What the translation rewrites on a PDF page, and what it leaves exactly where it was.* ## Four things to know before you upload **A scan will not work.** If you cannot select the text with your mouse, the PDF is a photo of a page. AI Glot does not do OCR, so the upload refuses it and says why. Run it through an OCR tool first, then come back. **Protected files are refused.** That means passwords, files that forbid editing, signed documents and XFA forms. A signature would be broken by any change, so we do not touch it. Export a fresh copy without the protection. **Translations are often longer.** German and French can run 20 to 30% longer than English. The line spacing tightens first, then the text shrinks a little in that block. Nothing is cut. Look at the densest pages, usually tables, before you send the file out. **Some languages need a font.** Arabic, Japanese or Hindi are written with a matching font so they display on any device. If a language cannot be written yet, the job stops before any charge and names the language. ## How to do it, step by step **1. Try one file for free.** The [PDF translator](/file-formats/pdf-translation) needs no account and takes files up to 2 MB and 5,000 words. It is the quickest way to see how your layout comes back. **2. Upload the PDF** in [the app](https://app.ai-glot.com/signup). AI Glot reads the text on every page and separates it from the images. **3. Describe the job in one sentence.** For example: ``` Translate the whole report into German. Keep the company name and product names in English. Leave the legal notice on the last page in English. ``` *Illustration: You describe the job in plain English. AI Glot turns it into a plan you can read and correct before anything runs.* The language and the legal notice are scope: they decide what gets translated, across the whole file. A rule about wording, such as "keep numbers and units exactly as written", goes into the second box at approval, because it is applied to each text block as it is written. **4. Add a glossary.** List the terms that must not drift: product names, your tagline, the word you always use for "customer". [Our guide to building a glossary](/blog/build-translation-glossary-brand) shows how. *Illustration: A glossary settles the terms that must not drift, and applies the same decision to every file.* **5. Read the plan.** It lists the pages, the languages and the exact cost. If something is wrong, tell it in a sentence and it plans again. **6. Choose a quality level for the file.** *Illustration: Two quality tiers, chosen per file. Lite covers about three times more words for the same credits.* **Lite** is for volume and for documents someone will read internally: about three times more words per credit, and faster. **Standard** is for what a customer reads or a lawyer signs. One credit is one word in Standard. Many teams run the bulk in Lite and put Standard, or a human reviewer, on the pages that matter. **7. Approve, wait, download.** You get the translated PDF. For another language, upload the file again. *Illustration: One file comes back, in the format it arrived in.* ## One report, several markets *Illustration: One PDF becomes one translated PDF per language, all following the same instruction and the same glossary.* The file names are an example. A document holds one language, so each target language is its own upload and its own translated PDF, and the same glossary applies to every one. ## Three ways to run it *Illustration: Three ways to run a PDF job. They all give you the same translated PDF.* **In the app** is the path above. It is the right one for a report now and then. **With your AI agent** suits people who already work inside an assistant. Connect AI Glot as an [MCP server](https://ai-glot.com/docs/mcp/overview), and the agent can upload the file, write the plan, read and edit your glossary, then download the result. You stay in one conversation. **With the API or the command line** is for anything automatic: translating every report your team publishes, or a pipeline that sends each new file to translation. See the [API documentation](https://ai-glot.com/docs/api/overview). ## Check the result Open the PDF and go straight to three places: a table, a page with a chart, and the longest paragraph you know of. If those three read well, the rest will. Keep the original file until someone who speaks the language has read the pages that matter. If you want to see what the plan says about your own PDF, the [free PDF translator](/file-formats/pdf-translation) will read it without an account, and a [free account](https://app.ai-glot.com/signup) comes with credits to run a real file. [Pricing](/pricing) lists what a larger volume costs. --- *The limits quoted here are the ones in force when this was written: 25 MB per PDF, and 2 MB and 5,000 words in the free tool. DeepL's limit comes from its own documentation. The file names and page counts in the diagrams are examples. Your plan always shows the real figures for your own file, and it is free to read.*