DeepL has built a strong reputation for translation quality, especially for European languages. Their API is popular with developers who need high-quality automated translation. But the pricing structure has some layers that aren't immediately obvious from the marketing page.
Here's the complete breakdown of what DeepL's API actually costs, what the free tier gets you, and where the real expenses show up at scale.
DeepL API plans at a glance
DeepL offers three API tiers. Here's the quick overview:
| Plan | Monthly fee | Per 1M characters | Character limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| API Free | $0 | Free | 500K/month (hard cap) |
| API Pro | $5.49 | $25.00 | Unlimited (pay-as-you-go) |
| API Business | Custom | Negotiated | Unlimited |
Most developers start on API Free, hit the 500K cap, and upgrade to API Pro. Let's look at each plan in detail.
API Free: the 500K ceiling
DeepL's free API tier gives you 500,000 characters per month. That sounds reasonable until you start counting. 500K characters is roughly 80,000 words. A single product catalog, a mid-size documentation site, or a few days of user-generated content can burn through that.
What the free tier includes:
- 500K characters per month (hard limit, resets monthly)
- Document translation for Word, PowerPoint, PDF, HTML (10 MB max per file)
- Glossary support (very limited, roughly 1 glossary with ~10 entries)
- Uses a separate API endpoint:
api-free.deepl.com
What it doesn't include:
- No priority processing. Free tier requests are deprioritized when servers are busy.
- No access to DeepL's next-generation translation model.
- Data security caveat: DeepL may store your text to improve their service. If you're translating anything sensitive, this matters.
- No rollover. Unused characters expire at the end of each month.
The free tier works for prototyping and testing. For production use, you'll need to upgrade.
API Pro: $5.49/month + $25 per million characters
This is the plan most developers end up on. There's a fixed monthly fee of $5.49, then you pay $25 for every million characters translated.
The math at common volumes:
| Monthly volume | Usage cost | Total (incl. base fee) | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500K characters | $12.50 | $17.99 | $215.88 |
| 1M characters | $25.00 | $30.49 | $365.88 |
| 5M characters | $125.00 | $130.49 | $1,565.88 |
| 10M characters | $250.00 | $255.49 | $3,065.88 |
| 25M characters | $625.00 | $630.49 | $7,565.88 |
| 100M characters | $2,500.00 | $2,505.49 | $30,065.88 |
That $5.49 base fee is easy to overlook, but it adds up over time. At low volumes it's a significant percentage of your total cost. At 500K characters, the base fee is 30% of your total bill.
What API Pro includes
- Unlimited character usage (pay-per-use, no cap)
- Priority processing (faster response times during peak load)
- Access to DeepL's next-gen translation model
- Top-tier data security: text is not stored before or after translation, fully encrypted
- Up to 2,000 glossaries with up to 5,000 term pairs each
- Larger document uploads (30 MB per file)
- Uses the main API endpoint:
api.deepl.com
Language support: 33 base languages, 143 with variants
DeepL supports 135 source languages and 143 target languages when you count regional variants (like EN-GB vs EN-US, PT-BR vs PT-PT). The core language set is around 33 base languages.
That's significantly less than Google Translate's 130+ distinct languages. If you need translation for less common languages (Swahili, Khmer, Amharic, Urdu), DeepL likely doesn't cover them. Check their supported languages page before committing.
Where DeepL stands out is European language quality. German, French, Dutch, Polish, and other European languages tend to sound more natural than Google's output. For Asian languages or languages with limited training data, the gap narrows or disappears.
DeepL API Pro vs. alternatives: cost comparison
How does DeepL compare to other translation APIs at real-world volumes?
| Monthly volume | DeepL API Pro | Google Translate | Amazon Translate | Langbly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500K characters | $17.99 | Free | Free* | Free |
| 1M characters | $30.49 | $10 | $15 | Free |
| 5M characters | $130.49 | $90 | $75 | $19 |
| 25M characters | $630.49 | $490 | $375 | $69 |
| 100M characters | $2,505.49 | $1,990 | $1,500 | $199 |
* Amazon's free tier is 2M chars/month for the first 12 months only. Google's free tier is 500K chars/month (permanent).
DeepL is the most expensive option at every volume level. At 5M characters per month, you'd pay $130 with DeepL versus $19 with Langbly. That's an 85% difference. At 100M characters, it's $2,505 versus $199, a 92% savings.
For a full breakdown across all providers, see our translation API pricing comparison.
The hidden costs of DeepL API
Beyond the per-character rate, a few cost factors catch developers off guard:
The base fee is always there. Even months where you translate zero characters, you pay $5.49. It's small, but it's not $0.
No volume discounts on API Pro. You pay $25/1M whether you translate 1M or 500M characters. Google at least offers custom pricing above 1 billion characters. DeepL's only option for volume pricing is contacting sales for a Business/Enterprise deal.
Limited languages for the price. At $25/1M characters, DeepL costs 25% more than Google but supports fewer languages. If you need broad language coverage, you're paying a premium for less.
No built-in caching. Every repeated translation request gets billed again. If you translate the same UI strings every deployment, or the same product descriptions for returning visitors, you're paying for work already done. You'll need to build your own caching layer.
Glossary limits on the free tier. If you're testing with the free plan and relying on glossaries for terminology consistency, the limits are restrictive. Upgrading to Pro just for glossary access adds $5.49/month before you've translated a single character.
When DeepL makes sense
DeepL is a good fit in specific scenarios:
- You're translating primarily European languages where DeepL's quality edge is most noticeable.
- You need the data security guarantees of the Pro plan (no text storage, encryption).
- You're already locked into DeepL through a CAT tool integration that doesn't easily switch providers.
- Volume is low enough (under 1M chars/month) that the cost premium is acceptable for the quality.
If none of those apply, there are cheaper options that match or beat DeepL's quality. Context-aware translation APIs like Langbly produce natural-sounding output across all languages, with better handling of idioms, formal/informal register, and locale-specific formatting. For a direct comparison, see DeepL API vs Langbly.
Switching from DeepL: what changes
Unlike Google Translate (where Langbly offers a direct drop-in replacement), switching from DeepL requires minor code changes since DeepL uses a different API format. The actual migration is still straightforward:
- Install the Langbly SDK (Python or Node.js)
- Replace your DeepL API calls with Langbly's equivalent
- Map DeepL's language codes to standard ISO codes (most are identical)
The response format is different, but the core functionality is the same: send text and target language, get translations back. Most migrations take under an hour. Check our API documentation for code examples.
Frequently asked questions
How much does DeepL API cost per word?
At $25 per million characters, the per-word cost for English text (average ~6 characters including spaces) works out to roughly $0.15 per 1,000 words, or $150 per million words.
Is DeepL API free?
The API Free plan gives you 500,000 characters per month at no cost. It has limitations: lower priority processing, no next-gen model access, and text may be stored by DeepL. Beyond 500K characters, you need API Pro at $5.49/month + $25/1M characters.
Why is DeepL more expensive than Google Translate?
DeepL charges $25/1M characters versus Google's $20/1M. DeepL positions itself as a premium translation service with better quality for European languages. Whether the 25% premium is worth it depends on your language pairs and quality requirements.
Does DeepL offer volume discounts?
Not on the standard API Pro plan. The rate is a flat $25/1M characters regardless of volume. For custom pricing, you need to contact DeepL sales about their Business/Enterprise offerings.
What's the cheapest alternative to DeepL API?
Langbly offers plans from $1.99 to $3.80 per million characters, which is 85-92% cheaper than DeepL. Microsoft Translator at $10/1M is the cheapest pay-per-use alternative. See our DeepL API alternatives page for more options.
Does DeepL count spaces and HTML as characters?
Yes. DeepL counts all characters in your request, including spaces and HTML markup. If you're sending HTML content, strip the tags first when possible to reduce your character count.
Bottom line
DeepL API Pro is a solid translation API with genuinely good output quality for European languages. But at $25/1M characters plus a $5.49 monthly fee, it's the most expensive mainstream option. No volume discounts, no built-in caching, and a limited language set compared to Google or Langbly.
If you're translating more than a few million characters per month, the cost difference between DeepL and a modern alternative becomes significant. At 25M characters, you'd save over $560/month ($6,700/year) by switching to a plan-based API. Worth testing, especially since most alternatives offer free tiers to compare quality before committing.