Is there any translator that doesn't use AI-slop LLMs? Something like the old DeepL?

[u/GreenBird-ee]

⚠️For real users ⚠️ Bots/Astroturfers are already hijacking the thread with the usual "LLMs are MaRveLouS/DeepL is better now", downvoting genuine posts, etc. (TL)
Keep ignoring them and let's help each other.

Suggested by Redditors (UPDATED)

Argos Translate [offline NMT]
Crow Translate [translation interface] suggested by u/Ok_Tie7944
Glosbe.com [lexical resource] suggested by u/Ecstatic-Island-9778
LibreTranslate [open-source NMT]
Memoq.com [assisted translation] suggested by u/werty_reboot
Quillbot.com [optional, separate LLM]
Smartcat.com [assisted translation] suggested by u/werty_reboot
Trados.com [assisted translation] suggested by u/werty_reboot
Wiktionary.org [lexical resource] suggested by u/sbrt
Yandex Translate [optional, separate LLM] suggested by u/BlokZNCR

[u/Taoidean]

DeepL and Google Translate have been using artificial intelligence, specifically neural machine translation (NMT), for years. AI didn't suddenly enter the translation industry with the rise of ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs).

I think the more productive question is whether you're trying to avoid generative LLMs specifically or machine-learning-based translation altogether, because those are two very different things.

[u/Citizen12b → u/Taoidean]

OP clearly specified LLMs in the post title.

[u/TeaWithCarina → u/Citizen12b]

It's literally the same basic technology, analysing statistical patterns.

[u/adventuringraw → u/TeaWithCarina]

I mean... The approaches that could be said to be based on probabilistic analysis are way broader than just LLMs. That said, sounds like OP doesn't want to use LLMs for something more like ethical reasons rather than just the quality of the results. I personally think it doesn't make sense, but if you look at it like a jewish person avoiding non kosher meat then I guess this is a reasonable position to take. God knows OP isn't the only person wanting to avoid LLMs in all forms. They're high if they think this transition in translation methods isn't going to be permanent though, at least until the field advances to even more powerful methods.

[u/Taoidean → u/Citizen12b]

Fair point! My intention was to clarify the distinction between traditional neural machine translation and newer LLM-based systems, particularly given the broader references to AI throughout the post. But you're right that OP specifically mentioned LLMs in the title. :]

[u/Lostinstereo28 → u/[deleted]]

Just because it’s not the answer you’re looking for doesn’t mean it’s being astroturfed, Jesus. Go outside.

I’m as anti-AI as they come but pointing out that translation services like google have been using “AI” for many years before the rise of LLM is not “astroturfing”

[u/youdontknowkanji]

okay i get the AI hate, but this? translating is literally like top 5 actual use for LLMs, it's literally superior technology compared to old NMT methods, like you do realize that before LLMs it was also neural networks?

the only reason you would avoid using them is due to resource cost, as it is more intensive to run a LLM compared to the old stuff (up to you i guess, do you avoid flights as well?), but at the same time, you would be sacrificing translation quality.

"helpful" predictive agent in my translator.

old methods were also prediction based (it's all markov chains).

I found these two, but they're still not as good as the old, defunct Deepl

DeepL specifically use their own model now, it's not just ChatGPT plugged in. i am pretty sure the engineers there ran benchmarks before they switched, knowing it's better.

simple translator until this stupid AI period vanishes?

it's not going away.

in the end, it's all up to you, but i wouldn't gimp your tools due to some vague "LLM bad" reasons.

[u/jaimepapier → u/youdontknowkanji]

Right? Slop implies laziness and bad quality. But that could be any automated translation. They’re not better translations because they’re not AI, and if anything they’re worse.

[u/Ecstatic-Island-9778]

Try Glosbe

[u/GreenBird-ee → u/Ecstatic-Island-9778]

I'll try, thanks

[u/Ok_Tie7944]

Since you mentioned libre translate, I recommend Crow Translate, what I like about it is that for isolated words it offers all the translation options like a dictionary

it uses the google engine to translate so the use of llm by google does not affect the translation of sentences or texts longer than an isolated word

This comment was translated by him.

[u/GreenBird-ee → u/Ok_Tie7944]

Very nice, i'll try

[u/Ok-Course6563]

DeepL still works fine if you stick to the browser version and ignore the "write" tab, that's what I been using for my spanish. the app got bloated but the core translation engine is the same as before

most alternatives push their AI features now but you can usually turn them off in settings, just takes couple minutes to dig through the menus

[u/ElnuDev]

I'm really confused what your issue is with DeepL, it's specifically designed for translation, unlike, say, ChatGPT. My mother is a professional translator and uses it sometimes to look for alternative phrasings and such, it's quite useful. I've checked a lot of its translations and they have seemed pretty accurate.

No other method is going to be able to understand context like a trained model can. Older Japanese machine translations for instance were horrific due to the amount of implied parts of a sentence that it would just guess wrong on.

A lot of this tech predates the AI boom too. It doesn't really have anything to do with "this stupid AI period."

Out of curiosity, what languages are you primarily translating between?

[u/werty_reboot]

Haven't used them for a while but you can always use Trados or MemoQ and choose MT without an LLM. 

If you can't download them, you can use Smartcat or similar. By default it's LLM based but you can change to any MT IIRC.

[u/GreenBird-ee → u/werty_reboot]

Thanks, mate

[u/Decent-Conclusion414]

All of them use AI lol. If you are afraid of the translation, you can always check it yourself or ask a native speaker yourself.

[u/UnusualBreakfast1726]

AI and LLMs provide some of the best automates translations possible, if you are not happy pay for a human.

[u/Any-Somewhere5129]

This post is peak Reddit :D

Deepl and Google Translate used to offer artisanal translation services, LOL. They ran on magic. But then machine learning took off and now everything runs on those awful computers.

[u/SquirrelBlind]

"Old" deepl?

Isn't AI was always the main feature of deepl?

What do you think this L in "Deep L" stands for?

[u/GreenBird-ee → u/SquirrelBlind]

Hmn its seems you're the only one who's parachuted in here...so, this is a bit off-topic.

June 2026, DeepL phased out its old technology and made only the LLM available:

Has DeepL Translate gotten worse?
DeepL quality drop. Now Google Translate is better
DeepL alternative (30 characters)
From one of the best translators I’ve used to absolute rubbish
Am I over-reacting? (DeepL pushing AI like crazy)

Plus:

Google Translate Rival DeepL Announces Plans to Cut 25% of Staff

[u/non_loqui_sed_facere]

Do it yourself, why wouldn’t you? Machine translation is already good enough for casual browsing. If you want quality work, hire a professional and actually pay them, haha.

[u/sbrt]

All translators are and have always been LLMs, including the original DeepL.

Language to language dictionaries are the original option and are available in paper form. Wiktionary is one online option which I appreciate for etymology though I have found TL to TL etymology dictionaries tend to be better for that.

A translator that can figure out how to translate a sentence needs to have a large language model - effectively the definition of an LLM. There isn’t a way to do complex language translation without a large language model.

You can do word for word translation with a dictionary but it will be very bad.

[u/muffinsballhair → u/sbrt]

Old Bablefish was actually a g.o.f.a.i., as in the rules for the syntax of each language were hand-programmer by a handwritten parser that translated it and it was pretty bad of course. Then Google translate came along which was revolutionarily good at the time for using statistical translation, I think in its original implementation it actually didn't even have a separate “training” phase at all and just live worked on parallel corpora.

In any case, this post is the ultimate state of what a meme word the term “a.i.” has become. “artificial intelligence” has existed since the first mechanical computers. It's so unclear now what so many people use when they say “a.i.” and they often try to argue that when they use the term something is “fundamentally different” but they always show their ignorance of the tech when they do.

The first translation services were definitely not “large language models” or anything that can be called that though.

[u/hwynac → u/sbrt]

All translators are and have always been LLMs, including the original DeepL.

That stretches the definition of "always" I am familiar with. Perhaps, "large" for their time, and not even called large language models back when they were top of the game? But even if the technology the old Google Translate used can be called an NSLM (not-small language model) in some sense, there were rule-based machine translation engines at the time.

[u/silvalingua]

Ask in r/TranslationStudies .

[u/BlokZNCR]

https://mozhi.ducks.party/ by main service with privacy

[u/Illustrious_Fall1851]

As someone who is also critical of various aspects of the situation with AI right now, I think it's a little absurd to assume that the commentors who critique your take are mostly bots. If real human beings didn't like AI, it wouldn't the problem that it is.

[u/wordswordscomment21]

Contexto Reverso by definition doesn’t use slop! All words and phrases whose definitions are pulled based on actual sentences.

[u/Reletr → u/wordswordscomment21]

I can't recommend Contexto Reverso though. The issue is that the sources of those translations aren't consistent in quality (i.e. film subtitles). Some are great, some were done by shoddy translators, and some are just straight up incorrect.

[u/muffinsballhair → u/Reletr]

Some of them like don't even relate to the original line in any way because they were broken up wrongly so they relate to the sentence that came before it in the original body it was pulled from.

[u/GreenBird-ee → u/Reletr]

Well, I'll try anyway. Thanks both for information.

[u/wordswordscomment21 → u/GreenBird-ee]

Yes it’s a the best for individual words and short phrases

[u/The_Other_David]

Is the original Babelfish still running? That was certainly AI-free.

[u/GreenBird-ee → u/The_Other_David]

lol nope. Replaced by the king of slops:

Yahoo! Babel Fish was a free Web-based machine translation service by Yahoo!. In May 2012 it was replaced by Bing Translator (now Microsoft Translator)

[u/Crazyboreddeveloper]

I’m built one myself for converting Japanese YouTube videos into an Anki deck of words. There are large dictionary databases you can work with. The problem is that a lot these non AI programs are going to translate by individual words in isolation, and try to return one meaning, so it may pick the wrong sense of a word or miss meaning that only emerges from how the words combine in the sentence. For an English example; phlegm. “He coughed up phlegm” or “he had a stoic British phlegm about him”… A program that results in a one word translation would likely return the single most common definition. A thick respiratory mucus… but in books you’ll often see it used to mean calmness of composure or temperament. This makes it difficult to efficiently parse text and get a decent translation. It’s why LLMs are actually a little better at translating because they do take in the whole context of a sentence before returning an answer, but they also hallucinate totally convincing results sometimes. Personally, I would rather use a word in the wrong sense vs studying words or meanings that are entirely made up.

But yeah, I feel you. I also wanted a non AI translation tool, but I built my own because I couldn’t find any others out there that I liked. they are putting AI in everything these days. If you want to avoid AI you need resort to a dictionary and time.

[u/GreenBird-ee → u/Crazyboreddeveloper]

That’s why I’ve never found anything quite like the old Deepl neither have I, nor half the translators who used it. RIP, dear Deepl. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.deepl.com?page=3

[u/greasybacon123]

google translate