Audio Translator

Real-time translation of any audio in your browser: live subtitles in 39 languages. Runs on your computer, no account needed.

Audio Translator is a Chrome extension that turns any audio playing in a browser tab into live subtitles, translated in real time. Watch a Spanish live stream, join a call with German colleagues, follow a French lecture or a Japanese vlog, and read along in English, or in any of 39 languages. Everything runs on your computer. Speech recognition runs locally on your processor or your graphics card, and translation uses Chrome's built-in on-device translator. No account, no cloud, no audio uploads. Because nothing travels to a server and back, subtitles appear less than a second after the words are spoken. Unlike upload-based transcription sites, it works on live streams and calls while they happen. Website: https://audio-translator.mbplanes.com/ HOW IT WORKS 1. Click the Audio Translator icon on the tab that plays the sound. It captures that tab's audio, and the side panel opens with the subtitles. 2. Pick the language you hear (or leave it on Auto) and the language you want to read. 3. Subtitles appear word by word, less than a second after the words are spoken. FEATURES • Real-time audio translation: speech is transcribed and translated while it plays, not after the video ends. • Any audio in the tab: videos, live streams, video calls, podcasts, online courses and webinars on any website. • Video call translation: Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams in a browser tab, translated live while people talk. • Low latency: recognition and translation run locally, so there is no round trip to a server. Words reach the screen in less than a second, even on a slow or unstable connection, or with no connection at all. • Side panel or overlay: read the subtitles in the side panel next to the page, or turn on the overlay to show them on top of the video, also in full screen. Drag it, resize it and pick the text size. • Autosave to a file: turn on Autosave and every session is written to a text file in your Downloads folder, a ready transcript of the call, lecture or video. • CPU or GPU: recognition runs on the processor by default, so no graphics card is needed. If you have a good one, switch Compute to GPU (WebGPU) in the settings. • 33 spoken languages, 39 subtitle languages, and any pair between them. • Auto-detect: leave the audio language on Auto and the extension works out what is being spoken. • Live transcription: choose the same language on both sides to get a real-time transcript (speech to text) instead of a translation. • Easy to read: large text, the current line grows word by word and finished lines move up. No scrolling, no jumping. • Private by design: audio never leaves your device. No sign-up, no API key, no subscription, no tracking. LANGUAGES Audio Translator recognizes speech in 33 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Hungarian, Greek, Lithuanian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk), Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese. Subtitles can be shown in all of them (Norwegian as a single language), and also in Bengali, Indonesian, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Traditional Chinese: 39 subtitle languages in total. Translate from any spoken language into any subtitle language. The most popular directions are Spanish to English, Japanese to English, Korean to English, Chinese to English, French to English, German to English, Russian to English, Hindi to English and Arabic to English, and the other way, English to Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Hindi or Japanese. Pairs without English work as well, for example French to Italian or German to Russian. WHERE IT WORKS Any audio that plays in a Chrome tab: • YouTube and other video sites, including videos that have no captions at all • Movies, series and short films in the browser • Live streams, premieres and live events • Video calls and meetings in the browser: Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams • Podcasts, interviews and radio in the browser • Online courses, university lectures and webinars • News, documentaries, tutorials and reviews in other languages Click the icon on the tab you are watching or listening to, and the subtitles follow that tab. Click it on another tab to switch. GREAT FOR • Work calls and meetings with colleagues who speak another language • Foreign-language movies, videos and live streams • Online lectures, courses and webinars, with a saved transcript • Podcasts and interviews • Language learners following native speakers at full speed • Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers who need captions where a site has none FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Is my audio sent anywhere? No. Audio is processed on your computer and never leaves it. The extension has no servers of its own, no analytics and no ads. Do I need an account, an API key or a subscription? No. Install it, click the icon, and the subtitles start. How fast are the subtitles? Words usually appear less than a second after they are spoken. Everything runs on your computer, so there is no upload and no waiting for a server, and you can follow live streams and calls as they happen. A slow connection does not delay the subtitles. Does it work without internet? Yes. Once Chrome has downloaded the translation pack for your language pair, recognition and translation run with no connection at all. Only the video or call itself needs the internet. Can it translate video calls? Yes, when the call runs in a Chrome tab: Google Meet, Zoom or Microsoft Teams in the browser. Click the icon on the call's tab and read what the others say in your language. Does it work with the Zoom or Teams desktop app? No, only with calls in a Chrome tab. Open the meeting link in Chrome and choose to join from the browser. Can it translate the whole system audio or several tabs at once? It listens to one tab at a time, and you can switch between tabs whenever you like: click the icon on another tab, and the listening and the side panel move there in one click. For a desktop app such as a call or a music player, open its web version in Chrome and click the icon on that tab. Can I show the subtitles on top of the video? Yes. Press Overlay at the bottom of the panel and the subtitles appear on the page, over the video. The overlay stays in full screen, and you can drag it, resize it and change the text size. Can it save a transcript? Yes. Turn on Autosave in the settings and each session is saved as a text file in Downloads/audio-translator. Audio itself is never recorded, only the subtitles. Can it transcribe without translating? Yes. Choose the same language for the audio and for the subtitles, and you get a live transcript (speech to text) in that language. Does it work on YouTube? Yes. It works on YouTube and on any other site that plays audio in a Chrome tab, including videos without any subtitles of their own. What do I need to run it? Desktop Chrome 138 or newer, for Chrome's on-device translator. No graphics card is needed: recognition runs on the processor. If your computer has a good graphics card, you can switch Compute to GPU in the settings. Why is the download about 450 MB? The speech recognition model is built into the extension, so your audio is recognized locally instead of on a server. The first start takes a moment while the model loads. Why does Chrome download something when I pick a new language pair? Translation uses Chrome's built-in on-device translator. The first time you use a language pair, Chrome downloads its translation pack once. The panel shows a button for it. What if I don't know which language is spoken? Leave the audio language on Auto. The extension works out the language from the speech and translates into the language you picked. Is there a time limit or a minute quota? No. Recognition and translation run on your computer, so there is nothing to meter. Use it for a five-minute clip or a three-hour stream. Will it slow down my computer? Recognition runs in the background and uses a small part of the processor, so videos and calls keep playing smoothly. On a slow computer you can move it to the graphics card with Compute: GPU. Can it recognize songs? Sung lyrics are often recognized too, but clear speech gives the best results. Loud music under the voice and several people talking at once make recognition harder. Why does Chrome ask for extra permissions? Site access only when you turn on the overlay: the extension needs it to show the subtitles on top of the page. For Autosave, Chrome asks to manage downloads, so the file can be written. The subtitles in the side panel need neither. Page content is not collected or sent anywhere. PRIVACY Audio Translator does not collect or send any data. Your settings stay in your browser, and saved transcripts stay in your Downloads folder. No analytics, no ads, no servers of its own. Speech recognition runs locally, and translation runs on your device through Chrome's built-in translator.