Papago

Papago is a translation service that NAVER describes as using its own AI technology to help people read, write, hear, and speak foreign languages. Its app offers text, image, voice, offline text, conversation, handwriting, website, and document translation, as well as Edu and a dictionary. The app listing names 14 supported languages: Korean, English, Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Spanish, French, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Russian, German, Italian, and Arabic. The standard web document translator accepts PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, and HWPX files up to 20 MB. Papago Plus supports PDF, HWPX, MS Office, and TXT documents while retaining complex formatting, with translated files available for editing. Plus also includes image translation for up to 100 images at once, real-time voice translation for lectures and recordings, glossaries, and team accounts of up to 100 members. Papago is available on Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, web, and as an extension. The free plan lists monthly limits of 30 images, 20 documents, 30 minutes of voice translation, and 10 glossary terms. Plus Basic costs $9.99 a month, and a 30-day trial is listed.

Papago covers multiple translation modes and platforms, with additional document, voice, and team options in Plus. Check the free plan’s monthly limits and the paid plan terms against the translation work you need to do.

Papago may suit people who translate text, documents, images, or speech across its listed languages. Its Plus team accounts may also suit groups that need shared glossaries.

Overview

Papago is NAVER’s AI translation service, built for people who need to translate text, speech, images, websites, and documents across several devices. It is best suited to travelers, language learners, and people handling mixed translation tasks, especially when Korean is among the languages they use.

Its range of input modes is a real advantage, while its 14-language selection is narrower than a general-purpose multilingual service may suit. The free plan covers regular use with monthly caps; Papago Plus is for readers who need larger document, image, or voice allowances, or shared team tools.

Key features

Papago covers text, image, voice, offline text, conversation, handwriting, website, and document translation. The app also includes Edu and a dictionary. That combination is useful when translation needs shift between a written passage, a spoken exchange, and text captured in an image. Its 14 supported languages are Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Spanish, French, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Russian, German, Italian, and Arabic.

The standard web document translator accepts PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, and HWPX files up to 20 MB. Plus adds TXT support and says it retains complex formatting in translated documents, which can save cleanup for people working with office files. Plus also supports editing translated documents and translating up to 100 images at once with direct image editing—useful for batch work, though monthly quotas still apply.

Plus offers real-time voice translation for lectures and recordings, with a history for revisiting translations. Custom and shared glossaries help keep preferred terms consistent, while team accounts support up to 100 members on Standard and Advanced. Papago Plus says it does not retain translation data by default; data kept at a customer’s request is encrypted. It also describes compliance with domestic and international data protection standards, verified by certification bodies.

Papago’s Help Center covers its main translation modes and offers an inquiry option. The Translation API is provided through Naver Cloud Platform, with text and image offerings linked from Papago Business; API access is not included as a Papago feature.

Pricing

Papago has a free plan and a 30-day trial. The free Papago plan allows 30 images, 20 documents, 30 minutes of voice translation, and 10 glossary terms per month. That is a useful starting point for occasional translation, but regular image or document work can reach the caps quickly.

Plus Basic costs $9.99 a month, billed monthly. It includes unlimited text translation, 60 minutes of voice translation, 30 documents, 100 images, and one glossary with up to 5,000 terms. It suits an individual who needs more room than the free plan but does not need team management.

Plus Standard costs $29.99 per member per month. It raises the allowances to 120 voice minutes, 70 documents, and 500 images monthly, and includes 10 glossaries of up to 10,000 terms each and team management for up to 100 members. It is the more practical choice for teams that share terminology and translation work, though the per-member billing makes seat count material.

Plus Advanced costs $55.99 per member per month. It provides 180 voice minutes, 150 documents, 1,000 images, and 1,000 glossaries of up to 10,000 terms each, alongside team management for up to 100 members. Those larger quotas fit heavier shared workloads; smaller teams should weigh the per-member charge against whether they will use them. Enterprise Pass has custom pricing and includes enterprise-scale pricing and multilingual deployment consultation.

Platforms

Papago is available on Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, web, and as a browser extension. The iOS app requires iOS 17 or later, while Android requires Android 9.0 or later. API is also listed as a platform, though Papago Translation API offerings are provided through Naver Cloud Platform.

Who it's for

Papago fits people who move between voice, image, document, website, and text translation, and want those modes across mobile, desktop, and web. The free plan is a reasonable fit for occasional use; Plus Basic makes more sense for individuals who regularly hit the free document, image, or voice limits. Standard and Advanced are aimed at teams that need shared glossaries and higher quotas. Readers who need languages outside Papago’s 14 should choose a service with broader coverage.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Multiple translation modes, including offline text, handwriting, conversation, and website translation, cover varied everyday tasks.
• Pros: Plus adds editable document translations, batch image translation, voice history, shared glossaries, and team accounts for up to 100 members.
• Pros: The free plan includes monthly document and image translation allowances, rather than limiting free use to text alone.
• Cons: Support for 14 languages may not cover readers working across a wider range of languages.
• Cons: Free quotas are capped, and voice, image, and document allowances remain limited on paid tiers.
• Cons: Standard and Advanced charge per member monthly, so team size directly affects the recurring cost.

Alternatives

Lara Translate is worth considering for a free monthly allowance of 60,000 characters, one user, and documents up to 10 MB. Google Translate is a straightforward alternative for free use, with document translation up to 10 MB and PDFs up to 300 pages. iTranslate offers a free text-translation plan and a PRO tier that includes a keyboard extension and custom phrase tools.

Yandex Translate is an option for free personal, noncommercial translation of text and web pages. PROMT may suit buyers looking for paid Lite plans organized around one language pair or multilingual use. Baidu Translate offers a Team plan with a five-user minimum and per-user Chinese-character allowances. Pairaphrase is another paid option, with a Bronze annual plan for one or two users. LibreTranslate offers a Pro plan with unlimited translations and bursts of up to 80 translations per minute.

Browse more options in AI Translation Tools and Translation Software.

Verdict

Papago is a strong fit for people who need several translation modes in one service, particularly when its supported languages include the ones they use. Its free monthly quotas make it practical to start, and Plus adds meaningful document, image, voice, and collaboration capacity. Look elsewhere if you need broader language coverage, larger allowances without per-member costs, or API access as part of the Papago plan.