Open any page on your site, click “Translate this page” in the admin bar, choose a target language, and either auto-translate every visible string (via a free machine-translation service) or edit translations by hand while seeing the page update live. Saved translations are rendered server-side into
PricingFree downloadThe WordPress.org download is free. Pro versions, add-ons or external services may cost extra.
CompatibilityRequires WordPress 5.8 and PHP 7.4.
SourceWordPress plugins · Oct 27, 2026
01 / Source details
Aboutthistool.
Open any page on your site, click “Translate this page” in the admin bar, choose a target language, and either auto-translate every visible string (via a free machine-translation service) or edit translations by hand while seeing the page update live.
Saved translations are rendered server-side into the HTML response (SEO-friendly: no flash of untranslated text, and hreflang alternates in the head), and visitors switch languages via a link-based switcher (bottom-right).
Developed by Ricardo Sawir for Sawir Studio LLC.
Website: https://sawirstudio.com
X: https://x.com/RicardoSawir
GitHub: https://github.com/sawirricardo
Email: ricardo@sawirstudio.com
URLs use a language path prefix, e.g. /es/about for Spanish, /about for the source language (which stays canonical, un-prefixed). Language is resolved in this order: /es/ path → ?lang=es → saved cookie → browser Accept-Language → source. Root and prefix-less URLs auto-detect the visitor’s browser language without redirecting (a Vary header is sent so shared caches behave).
01Settings → Live Translate: set your source language and tick the languages to offer.
02Visit a front-end page and click “🌐 Translate this page” in the admin bar.
03Pick a language, hit “Auto-translate empty” (or edit strings), then “Save”.
04Visitors use the switcher (bottom-right); each language has its own /xx/ URL.
Note: language path prefixes assume a root-domain install and no top-level page whose slug is a two-letter language code.
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External services
This plugin’s optional “Auto-translate” feature (admin-only, triggered manually by clicking an Auto-translate/Translate button) sends the source text strings and the chosen language pair to the MyMemory translation API (https://mymemory.translated.net/) to fetch machine translations. The request is made from the administrator’s browser only when they click the button; no visitor data is ever sent, and nothing is sent automatically.
Service terms: https://mymemory.translated.net/doc/en/tos.php
On a translated request the plugin switches WordPress’s locale to the target language, so dates (month/day names) and any installed core, theme, and plugin translations render natively — the string map only covers the rest.
For this to have visible effect the language pack must be installed. The easiest way is Settings → General → Site Language: pick and save the language once (which downloads its pack), then switch back to your source language. Languages without an installed pack still work for content translation; only native dates/strings are skipped. Map codes to custom WP locales with the ‘sawir_lt_wp_locale’ filter.
Scan site for strings
Settings → Live Translate → “Scan site now” crawls your published pages, posts, and public archives to discover every translatable string up front (batched, with a progress indicator). Discovered strings then appear in the “Edit all site strings” section right below, where you can pick a language and translate, auto- translate, or bulk-import the whole site at once instead of page by page. Note: machine translation is still rate-limited by the free service, so for large sites use Bulk edit to export and translate elsewhere.
Multisite
Multisite-aware. Each subsite has its own settings and its own translations table, configured independently. Tables are created on network activation, when a new subsite is created, and lazily on first admin visit; uninstall cleans every site on the network.
Custom switcher
Turn off “Built-in switcher” in settings and render your own anywhere in your theme using sawir_lt_switcher_links(), which returns the language links for the current page:
Each item is [‘code’,’name’,’url’,’active’,’is_source’] (code is ” for the source language). sawir_lt_current_lang() returns the active language code.
Custom translation provider
Auto-translate uses the free MyMemory API by default. To use your own provider (DeepL, Google, a local model, …), reassign window.SawirLT.translate from a script enqueued after the ‘sawir-lt-walk’ handle. Signature: it receives the source text and the two language codes, and returns a Promise resolving to the translated string. Every auto-translate path (in-page editor and admin bulk translate) routes through it.
window.SawirLT.translate = function ( text, source, target ) { return fetch( 'https://example.com/translate', { method: 'POST', body: JSON.stringify( { text: text, from: source, to: target } ) } ).then( function ( r ) { return r.json(); } ) .then( function ( j ) { return j.translation; } ); };<h3>Translations</h3>
The plugin’s own admin/UI text is translation-ready (text domain “sawir-live-translate”). A .pot template ships in /languages — drop your .po/.mo there or under wp-content/languages/plugins/. (The in-page editor’s JavaScript labels are not yet localized.)
02 / Source details
Gettingstarted.
01Install and activate the plugin, then go to Settings → Live Translate.
02Set your Source language — the language your site is written in.
03Tick every Target language you want to offer visitors, adjust the switcher style if you like, and click Save.
Optional: for translated dates and built-in theme text to switch too, install the language pack once via Settings → General → Site Language (pick the language, save, then switch back). Content translation works without it.
Translate a page
04While logged in, visit any page on the front end and click 🌐 Translate this page in the admin bar.
05In the panel, pick the target language.
06Click Auto-translate empty — every visible string is machine-translated and the page updates live. You can also type or fix any translation by hand; click a source string in the panel to highlight it on the page.
07Click Save. Everything before saving is only a preview in your own browser. Wait for the status line to say “saved N translations ✓”.
08Verify under Settings → Live Translate → Saved translations: your language should be listed with a string count. If it isn’t, nothing was saved — go back and Save again.
Translate the whole site at once
09Settings → Live Translate → “Scan site now” crawls your published pages and collects every translatable string.
10In “Edit all site strings” below it, pick a language, click Load strings, then Auto-translate empty (or Bulk edit), and Save.
Auto-translate uses a free service with a daily limit. If it stops with a “limit reached” message your progress is kept — Save, and continue later. Or use Bulk edit to copy all strings as JSON, translate them anywhere (a paid service, AI, a human translator), paste back, Apply, and Save.
03 / Source details
Frequently asked questions.
How does it compare to alternatives?
Multilingual frameworks like WPML, Polylang, and TranslatePress treat translated content as first-class site structure, with per-language editing workflows, translation services, and deep page-builder and WooCommerce integration. Sawir Live Translate is deliberately lighter: open a page, translate what’s visible (automatically or by hand), and serve it from a language-prefixed URL with hreflang tags. If you are building a fully multilingual site with translated menus, products, and editorial workflows, use one of the frameworks. If you want existing pages readable in another language this afternoon, that is what this plugin does.
I switch languages but nothing changes
Almost always this means no translations are saved for that language yet. Check Settings → Live Translate → Saved translations — if the language isn’t listed (or shows 0 strings), open the page editor again, auto-translate, and click Save. The live preview in the editor is not saved until you do.
Some strings stay untranslated
The in-page editor only sees strings on the page you opened. Text that lives on other pages needs those pages translated too — or run the site-wide scan. Strings injected by sliders/scripts after page load may need a manual entry via “Edit all site strings”.
I edited my content and its translation disappeared
Translations are matched to the exact original text. If you rewrite a sentence, translate the new version once and save.
Does it work with caching plugins?
LiteSpeed Cache is supported out of the box (pages are varied per language cookie). For other page caches, exclude or vary on the sawir_lt_lang cookie, and purge the cache after saving translations.
Can I hide the floating switcher and use my own?
Yes — untick “Show the built-in language switcher” in settings and render your own with sawir_lt_switcher_links(); see “Custom switcher” below.
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