How to translate text in a photo or image

To translate text in a photo, open the Google Translate app, tap Camera and point your phone at the text, or pick a picture you already have. On a computer, Google Translate’s Images tab translates an uploaded JPG or PNG and can save a translated copy of it. On an iPhone, iPad or Mac, Live Text translates text inside your photos, and Google Lens, Samsung’s Bixby Vision and Microsoft Translator do it too. Our translate image tool works in any browser and gives you the original text and the translation side by side, in 26 languages.

Translate an image: quick answer by device

Device and app	Where to find it	Notes
Google Translate app, Android	Camera > point at the text, or All Images	Works offline for downloaded languages
Google Translate app, iPhone	Camera > point at the text, or Gallery	Works offline for downloaded languages
Google Translate website	Images tab > Browse your computer	Copy the text or download a translated image
Google app, Android	Google Lens > Translate	Camera, screenshots or any image
Chrome on iPhone	Google Lens > highlight the text > Google Translate	Text on any web page
Circle to Search, Android	Touch and hold the Home button > Translate	Select phones, including Pixel 6 and later
iPhone and iPad, Photos	Live Text button > Translate	iPhone XS, XR or later with iOS 15 or later
iPhone, Translate app	Camera > point, or the Photo Library button	Can save a translated image
Mac, Preview, Photos or Safari	Select the text > Control-click > Translate	Not in every language or region
Samsung Galaxy, Camera	MORE > Bixby Vision > Translate	Needs a network connection
Microsoft Translator app	Camera icon > point, or the Photos thumbnail	Offline language packs work
Any browser	Our translate image tool	Original and translation as text, 10 free a day

For a sign or a menu in front of you, a camera app is quickest. For a photo or screenshot you already have, any of these works. When you want text you can edit and check word by word, use a tool that shows the original next to the translation.

How to translate a picture with the Google Translate app

Google says the Translate app can translate signs and handwritten notes with your phone’s camera (Google).

On Android:

1. Open the Translate app.
2. Choose the languages. For From, choose a language or tap Detect language. For To, choose the language you want, such as English.
3. On the app’s home screen, tap Camera.
4. To translate a photo you already took, tap All Images and choose it. To translate what is in front of you, point the camera at the text and tap the Shutter button (Google).

On iPhone and iPad:

1. Open the Google Translate app and choose the languages at the bottom, or tap Detect language.
2. Under the text box, tap Camera.
3. To translate a saved photo, tap Gallery. Otherwise point the camera at the text and watch the translation appear. Tap the Shutter button to pause the image (Google).

Select, copy or hear part of the text

After you take or choose the picture, open Translate options (the down arrow) and turn on Show original text to see the text as captured. Tap a word, then drag the selection anchors to pick the part you want. A carousel at the bottom offers Copy text, Listen, Send to Translate Home and Search (Google). If the text is too long for the card, drag the card up.

Use camera translation offline

In the app, tap Camera, tap the language picker and download the languages you need. Google says camera translations then work for those languages even when you are disconnected from the internet (Google). Do this before a trip, on Wi-Fi.

How to translate a JPG or screenshot on a computer

Google Translate on the web translates an image file you upload:

1. In your browser, go to Google Translate.
2. At the top, select the Images tab.
3. Choose the languages. For From, pick a language or Detect language. For To, pick the language you want.
4. Click Browse your computer and choose the image (Google).

Above the result, turn on Show original to see the original next to the translation, or turn it off to make the translated image larger. Copy text copies the translation, and Download translation saves a translated copy of the image. Click Clear to start again with another image. On a small screen you cannot see both side by side (Google).

For a picture on a web page, Chrome on a computer can open it in Google Lens: right-click the image and select Search with Google Lens, and the results appear in a side panel (Google). Google’s Chrome help for computers describes searching and asking about what you select but does not list a translate step, so for a translation, save the image and use the Images tab instead.

How to translate text with Google Lens

Google says Lens can translate text into every language Google Translate supports (Google).

In the Google app on Android:

1. Open the Google app and tap Google Lens in the search bar.
2. Under Search with your camera, tap Translate.
3. Point the camera at the words and take a photo, or choose a picture under Screenshots or All images and select the words.
4. Pick the languages in the language dropdown. The left side detects the language of the text, and on the right you choose the language you want (Google).

You can translate all the text or only part of it. Another way in: point Lens at any text, tap Select text, then choose Translate from the menu that appears (Google). For a photo already in Google Photos, open it, tap More, then Google Lens (Google).

In Chrome on iPhone: on a web page, tap Google Lens on the left of the address bar, highlight the text, then tap Google Translate (Google).

With Circle to Search on Android: on select phones, including Pixel 6 and later, touch and hold the Home button or navigation handle, then tap Translate next to the search bar to translate your whole screen. To keep translating as you scroll or switch apps, tap Translate, then Scroll and translate. Google says this works for most web pages, messages and social media, but not for videos and GIFs (Google).

How to translate text in a photo on iPhone and iPad

Live Text in Photos

1. Open a photo or video, or go to an image online. Pause a video first.
2. Tap the Live Text button in the lower-right corner.
3. Tap Translate. You may need to tap Continue, then choose a language, or tap Change Language (Apple).

Live Text needs an iPhone XS, iPhone XR or later with iOS 15 or later, or iPadOS 15.1 or later on a supported iPad. If the button is missing, go to Settings > General > Language & Region and turn on Live Text (Apple).

Live Text in the Camera app

Open Camera and frame the text. When a yellow frame appears around it, tap the Detect Text button, touch and hold the text, and tap Translate (Apple).

The Translate app’s camera

Apple’s own Translate app has a camera view made for menus and street signs:

1. Open the Translate app and tap Camera.
2. Hold the iPhone so the text is on the screen. The text is translated in real time as you move.
3. Tap the Take Picture button to freeze the image. Tap a language to switch it, zoom in on the overlaid translations, or tap one to copy, save or play it.

For a photo you already took, tap Camera, then the Photo Library button, and select the photo. From there you can switch languages, or tap the Share button to share or save the translated image (Apple). These steps are from Apple’s guide for iOS 27.

Which languages work on iPhone

The two features have different lists (Apple):

• Live Text reads Chinese, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. Hindi, Arabic and Hebrew are not on it.
• The Translate app lists 21 languages: Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese, with two kinds of English and of Mandarin.

So Live Text may not pick up a sign in Hindi or Arabic at all. Apple does not say whether its Translate app’s camera reads every language on its list, so if it fails too, try Google Translate or our tool.

How to translate text in an image on a Mac

Live Text on the Mac translates text in pictures in three apps:

• Preview: open the image, drag to select the text, Control-click the selection, choose Translate, then choose a language. If you cannot select the text, choose Tools > Text Selection (Apple).
• Photos: open the photo, hold the pointer over the text, Control-click and choose Translate, then a language (Apple).
• Safari: drag across the text in a picture on a web page, Control-click it and choose Translate (Apple).

The menu item shows the selected text after the word Translate. Apple notes that translation is not available in all languages and may not be available in some countries or regions (Apple).

Translate with a Samsung Galaxy or Microsoft Translator

Samsung Galaxy, Bixby Vision:

1. Open the Camera app, tap MORE, then the Bixby Vision icon, which looks like an eye.
2. Tap Translate at the bottom of the screen.
3. Tap the target language at the top right and choose the language you want.
4. Point the camera at the text. You can then tap Copy all, Select text or the Save image icon (Samsung).

Bixby Vision is in Gallery too: open a picture you already have and tap the Bixby Vision icon to have it analyzed. Samsung says a network connection is required and that the screens and options vary by device, carrier and software version (Samsung).

Microsoft Translator app (Android and iPhone): tap the camera icon and choose the from and to languages. Then choose the Photos thumbnail to pick a saved image, or point the camera at the text and tap the camera icon. Tap the copy icon at the bottom right to copy the translation (Microsoft). Microsoft says offline language packs work for camera translations, and that results are best when the camera is level and the text stands out from its background (Microsoft). Microsoft’s features page links the Android and iOS apps for camera translation (Microsoft). Neither page gives a date or app version, so the icons in your copy of the app may look different.

Translate an image online with our free tool

Our translate image tool works in any browser, on a phone or a computer:

1. Drop a photo or screenshot on the page, choose it, or paste it with Ctrl + V (Cmd + V on a Mac).
2. Pick the language you want under Translate into. English is selected to start with. You do not need to say what language the picture is in: the AI detects it and names it above the original.
3. Press Read the text. The translation usually comes back in a few seconds.
4. Check the translation against the original, then press Copy translation, Copy original or Download as text.

You get text, not a redrawn picture: the Original box holds the words exactly as written, and the translation sits beside it, so you can check any word you are unsure of. Names and numbers, including prices, are kept as they are.

Languages you can translate into (26): English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Urdu, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, Turkish, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese and Korean. The picture itself can be in many more languages and scripts.

Limits: 10 free translations a day without signing up, or 30 a day with a free Google sign-in, and the count resets at midnight UTC. Each image counts as one, and the free translations take one image at a time. It reads JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF and BMP files, plus HEIC and AVIF where your browser can open them.

For text you only want to copy in its own language, use image to text instead, or see our guide on how to copy text from an image. If the picture is a table, such as a price list or a timetable, our guide to turning a photo of a table into Excel shows how to keep the rows and columns.

Privacy: on-device or uploaded?

Some tools read and translate the picture on your phone. Others send it to a server. The help pages say this much:

Tool	Where the work happens
Apple Translate app	With On-Device Translation set to Always, translations are processed on your iPhone with downloaded languages. With Automatic, they may go to Apple servers when a language is not downloaded
Google Translate app camera	Works without internet for downloaded languages. Google advises a strong network connection for the best results
Google Translate website	You upload the image to Google
Google Lens in Chrome	A screenshot of the page and page data are sent to Google. Google says it keeps them only for temporary processing and does not use them for training
Samsung Bixby Vision	Needs a network connection
Microsoft Translator app	Offline language packs work for camera translations
Our translate image tool	Sent only when you press the button, as a smaller copy
Live Text on iPhone and Mac	Apple’s Live Text pages do not say

You set Apple’s option in Settings > Apps > Translate > On-Device Translation, and download languages under Languages on the same screen (Apple). The Chrome details are from Google’s Lens help (Google).

Our tool sends nothing until you press Read the text. Then your browser makes a smaller copy of the image, at most 1,600 pixels on its longest side and without its location or camera details, and sends it to our AI, which sends the text back. We keep neither the image nor the text.

Before you upload a photo of a letter, ID card, bank document or medical form to any website, crop it to the part you need. A crop you save in a normal photo editor usually removes the rest for good, but a few ways of sharing keep the full original, and our guide can someone uncrop a photo you sent lists them.

Translating handwritten text in a photo

Handwriting is the hardest case for every tool. Google’s help says the Translate app’s camera can translate handwritten notes (Google). Apple’s and Samsung’s pages do not mention handwriting.

Our translate image tool reads the handwriting first and then translates it. Neat writing in dark ink works best, and a word it cannot make out is marked [unclear] rather than guessed. On a form filled in by hand, photograph the handwritten answers close up rather than the whole sheet. To copy handwriting in its own language without translating it, use handwriting to text.

Tips for an accurate translation

• Check the languages. Google’s first tip is to make sure the from and to languages are right (Google). If you are not sure what the language is, choose Detect language.
• Use a clear picture. Google warns that small, unclear or stylized text may not translate accurately, and asks for clear images with commonly used fonts (Google).
• Hold the camera level. Microsoft says camera translation works best when the camera is level and the text contrasts with the background (Microsoft).
• Add light. In low light, Google suggests the camera flash in the Translate app (Google). On glossy menus, check the flash does not leave a glare patch over the words.
• Crop to what you need. A smaller area keeps the letters large. Our tool shrinks its copy to 1,600 pixels on the longest side, so for a dense page, crop to the part you need first.
• Check names and numbers. A name may have more than one correct spelling in another alphabet. Compare prices, dates and amounts with the original.
• Know the limits. Machine translation is fine for menus, signs, labels, instructions and messages. For legal, medical or immigration documents, use it to get the gist, then ask a qualified or certified translator for the version you rely on.

Troubleshooting

• Camera translation stops working abroad: you are offline and the languages are not downloaded. Download them in the Translate app’s language picker next time you have a connection.
• No Translate option in Live Text: the text may be in a language Live Text cannot read, such as Hindi or Arabic, or Live Text is turned off in Settings > General > Language & Region.
• Circle to Search does not translate a video: Google says scroll translation does not work for videos and GIFs. Pause on a clear frame and take a screenshot instead.
• Bixby Vision will not start: check your network connection, and accept the terms and permissions the first time you open it.
• The translation makes no sense: the source language may be wrong. Switch From to Detect language, or retake the photo closer and straight on.