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Everything you need to install, configure and master Transxlate — from your first language to advanced SEO.

Installation

  1. Download the plugin zip from your account dashboard (Account → Downloads).
  2. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin and choose the zip.
  3. Click Install Now, then Activate. The setup wizard opens automatically.
Requirements: WordPress 6.0+, PHP 8.0+, and pretty permalinks enabled (Settings → Permalinks → anything except “Plain”).

Setup wizard

The wizard guides you through three steps:

  1. License — paste your key to unlock Pro features and automatic updates. Skip this to stay on the Free plan.
  2. Languages — choose the language your content is written in and the languages you want to offer.
  3. Automatic translation — pick Google Translate or DeepL, paste your API key and enable auto-translate.

You can change any of these later under Transxlate → Settings.

Getting a Google Translate API key

  1. Sign in to the Google Cloud Console and create (or select) a project.
  2. Enable the “Cloud Translation API” for the project (APIs & Services → Library).
  3. Create an API key under APIs & Services → Credentials → Create credentials → API key.
  4. Restrict the key to the Cloud Translation API (recommended), then paste it into Transxlate → Settings.

Google bills you directly at their public per-character rates and offers a free monthly tier. Transxlate adds no markup.

Getting a DeepL API key

  1. Create a DeepL API account (the free tier includes 500,000 characters/month).
  2. Copy your authentication key from the DeepL account page.
  3. In Transxlate → Settings choose DeepL, paste the key, and select Free or Pro to match your DeepL plan.
Note: DeepL supports around 30 languages. For full 100+ language coverage, choose Google Translate as your provider.

How automatic translation works

When a visitor opens a page in another language, Transxlate first looks every sentence up in your local translation table. Only strings that have never been translated are sent to your provider — in batches, with error and rate-limit handling. The results are saved to your database, so each sentence is translated (and paid for) exactly once.

  • Re-visits are served entirely from your database — fast and free.
  • New content is picked up automatically the first time it is viewed.
  • If the provider returns an error (e.g. an invalid key), the original text is shown and the error is logged in the admin.

Visual editor

Open any translated URL while logged in as an editor or administrator and append the edit flag:

https://example.com/fr/about/?trx-edit=1

Every translatable sentence gets a dashed outline. Click one, type the corrected translation in the side panel and hit Save. Human edits are stored with a “human” origin and are never overwritten by machine translation.

Language switcher

Three ways to add it:

  • Shortcode — place it in any page, widget or template:
[transxlate_switcher style="dropdown" show_flag="1" show_name="1"]
  • Floating widget — set the style to “Floating” in Settings and the switcher follows visitors in the corner of every page.
  • Styles — dropdown, inline flags, or floating; flags and language names can be toggled independently.

URLs & multilingual SEO

Each language is served under its own path prefix:

example.com/about/ → default language example.com/fr/about/ → French example.com/de/about/ → German
  • The html lang attribute always matches the displayed language; RTL languages get dir="rtl" automatically.
  • With the Pro SEO pack, every page outputs a full hreflang cluster (including x-default) so search engines index each language correctly.
  • Works alongside Yoast SEO and Rank Math sitemaps.

License & updates

Activate your key under Transxlate → License. An active Pro license unlocks unlimited languages, the SEO pack, image translation, translation blocks, translator accounts and priority support — plus one-click automatic updates served from transxlate.com.

When a license expires the plugin keeps working and all translations remain. You simply lose Pro features and updates until you renew. You can deactivate a site from the license page (or from your account dashboard) to free a slot.

Troubleshooting

Language URLs show a 404

Go to Settings → Permalinks and click “Save Changes” to flush rewrite rules. Make sure permalinks are not set to “Plain”.

Nothing gets translated automatically

Check that Auto-translate is enabled, your API key is valid, and the key has the Translation API enabled (Google) or matches the right plan host (DeepL Free vs Pro).

“Limit reached” when activating a license

Your plan covers a fixed number of sites. Deactivate an old site from your account dashboard (Account → Registered sites) and try again.

A specific sentence is translated wrong

Open the page with ?trx-edit=1 and fix it in place — your correction permanently overrides the machine output.

Still stuck? We are happy to help — contact support.