AI translation is one of the easiest side jobs to start. A client sends a product page, a contract or a batch of support emails, you run them through a machine translator, fix what it gets wrong, and send the result back. The free tools are good enough that most people never look past them.
The question nobody asks until a client does is what happens to the text. A client's document is usually not yours to share. If the tool keeps it, trains on it, or forbids that kind of content in its terms, then pasting it in breaks the promise you made when you took the job, even though the translation is good.
On October 28, 2026 I read the free-service terms and pricing page for DeepL, Google's Translate privacy page plus the Cloud Translation pricing and data-usage pages, and Microsoft's Translator API page. I have no affiliate deal with any of them. Terms change, so treat this as what each vendor's own page said on that date, and not as legal advice.
The short answer
- DeepL free is fine for business use, but not for client documents. Its free terms allow "both private and business use," then say "you may not use the Free Services for processing content containing confidential or personal data." DeepL may also use free-tier content "to train and improve our neural networks and algorithms."
- Google Translate (the website and app) doesn't say what happens to your text. Its privacy help page talks about account activity in general and gives no Translate-specific answer.
- The free tiers of the translation APIs are the private option. Google's Cloud Translation API says it "does not use the content you send to train and improve" its translation features, and it gives you 500,000 characters a month free. Microsoft's Translator API says submitted text is "not written to persistent storage," with up to 2 million characters a month free.
- Nobody claims your translation. DeepL says it "does not obtain or assume any copyrights to the translations," and Google says it "does not claim any ownership" of what you send its API. The rights question that matters is the source text, which belongs to whoever wrote it.
| Tool | Free allowance | Business use | Confidential text allowed? | Used for training? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepL Translator (free) | 50,000 characters and 1 file (up to 5 MB) per user per month | Yes. Reselling access isn't allowed | No. Only "within a DeepL Pro subscription" | Yes, "for a limited period" |
| DeepL Pro Individual | 300,000 characters, 3 files a month. €7.49/month on annual billing (German page, incl. VAT) | Yes | Yes | No: "never used to train DeepL's AI models" |
| Google Translate (web/app) | No published limit | Not addressed on the privacy page | Not addressed | Not addressed. Account activity can be used to "make improvements to our services" |
| Google Cloud Translation API (NMT) | 500,000 characters/month, as a $10 monthly credit. Then $20 per million | Yes (it's a business API) | Text is "held briefly in-memory" | No |
| Microsoft Translator API (Azure) | Up to 2 million characters/month | Yes | "Not written to persistent storage" | The page doesn't say |
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1. DeepL: allowed for business, off limits for client files
DeepL's free terms are clearer than most. They allow "both private and business use of the DeepL Translator (free) and DeepL Write (free)," so translating your own product listings, emails or blog posts is fine. The one commercial restriction is reselling access: "forwarding our Free Services to third parties for payment is strictly prohibited." Selling your translation work isn't the same as selling DeepL, but a "translation service" that is just DeepL output with your invoice attached sits closer to that line than I'd like.
The problem is the next clause. Under "Processing of the submitted Content," DeepL reserves the right to use what you paste in to train its systems for a limited period, and then says plainly: "you may not use the Free Services for processing content containing confidential or personal data. The provision of content containing confidential and/or personal data is only allowed within a DeepL Pro subscription."
Most client work fails that test. A contract, an HR letter, a customer support thread with names and order numbers, or an unreleased product page all count as confidential or personal data. That means the free tier is fine for practice and for your own material, but client documents need Pro.
Pro's pricing page states the opposite policy: DeepL stores content "only as technically needed," deletes it afterward, and says "it's never used to train DeepL's AI models." The page I saw (served in euros for Germany) listed Individual at €7.49 a month on annual billing, with 300,000 characters and 3 file translations a month. Team was €24.99 per user and Business €49.99 per user. If you're paid for even one document a month, the Individual plan covers itself.
The free terms are dated "Last update: November 2024." DeepL also reserves the right to "modify (e.g. reduce, restrict, or expand) its Free Services at all times," so the 50,000-character allowance isn't guaranteed.
2. Google Translate: the free website doesn't answer the question
I looked for a Translate-specific statement and couldn't find one. Google's Translate help page on privacy covers Google Account activity in general. It says saved activity is used to personalize and to "make improvements to our services," that you can set history to auto-delete after 3, 18 or 36 months, and that Google doesn't sell personal information. It doesn't say whether text you paste into translate.google.com is stored, reviewed or used to train the translation model.
For your own material, that silence doesn't matter much. For a client's document, it means you can't show them anything that says the text is handled safely, so I'd treat the free website the same way I treat DeepL free.
3. Google Cloud Translation API: free up to 500,000 characters, and it says no training
Google's business translation product gives a direct answer. The Cloud Translation data-usage page says Google "does not use the content you send to train and improve our Google Translation features," that text is "held briefly in-memory in order to perform the translation," and that Google "does not claim any ownership in any of the content."
The free allowance is generous for a side business: the first 500,000 characters a month, applied as a $10 monthly credit shared between the Basic and Advanced models. It doesn't roll over and doesn't cover formatted document translation. After that, it's $20 per million characters. Google's newer Translation LLM costs $10 per million input characters plus $10 per million output characters and has no free tier listed.
The catch is setup. It's an API, so you need a Google Cloud project and either a tool that connects to it or a short script. That's an afternoon of work for someone comfortable with code and a wall for everyone else. I didn't go through the signup this time, so I can't tell you exactly what it asks for.
4. Microsoft Translator API: 2 million characters free, nothing stored
Microsoft's Translator API page offers a free subscription "for volumes up to 2 million characters per month." On data, it says: "Customer data submitted for translation by Translator are not written to persistent storage. There will be no record of the submitted text in any Microsoft data center." It doesn't explicitly mention training, but text that is never stored is hard to train on later.
Like Google's, this is an API you sign up for through Azure, not a page you paste into. The page also mentions Microsoft's consumer Translator apps without saying anything about how they handle data, so the no-storage promise applies to the API only.
5. What about ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini?
Chatbots translate well, especially when tone matters, and their terms on who owns the output are covered in can you use free ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot commercially. The privacy side is the same problem as above: consumer chat apps generally have their own training settings, and Gemini's free API tells you outright not to submit confidential information (see which free AI tools train on your data). Check the training setting before you paste in a client file.
The rights question is the source text, not the tool
None of these tools claims the translation. The legal point people miss is upstream of the tool. US copyright law lists "translation" among derivative works (17 U.S.C. §101), so translating someone else's article or book to publish or sell needs the original owner's permission. When a client hires you to translate their own material, that permission comes with the job. When you translate a viral English blog post into Spanish to run on your own site, it doesn't, however good the machine translation is.
A setup that works for paid translation work
- Sort the text first. Your own content and public material can go anywhere. Anything a client gave you, anything with names, emails, order numbers or contract terms, needs a tool whose terms allow it.
- Pick one private route. DeepL Pro if you want a paste box and file upload, or the Google or Microsoft API free tier if you can wire up an API and your volume fits.
- Tell the client which tool you use. Some contracts ban machine translation outright. Asking up front costs one sentence and avoids a dispute over a deliverable.
- Edit everything. The client is paying for a translation they can rely on, not raw machine output. Numbers, names, legal terms and anything that could embarrass them in front of their customers should get a human read.
- Re-check the terms every few months. DeepL reserves the right to change its free service at any time, and the others can too.
For the rest of a free-tool stack, see free AI transcription tools and their real limits, free AI voice generators for commercial use and the free AI tools commercial-use dataset.
What I couldn't verify
- Monthly-billing and USD prices for DeepL Pro. The page I got showed annual euro prices only.
- DeepL API Free's monthly allowance and whether its data handling matches the free website or Pro. The plans page didn't load.
- How Google Translate's free website and Microsoft's consumer Translator apps handle submitted text. Neither page I read says.
- Exact signup requirements for the Google Cloud and Azure free tiers.
FAQ
Can I use DeepL free for business?
Yes. DeepL's free terms allow "both private and business use." They don't allow reselling access to the free service, and they don't allow confidential or personal data, which DeepL says is "only allowed within a DeepL Pro subscription."
Does DeepL train on my translations?
On the free service, DeepL reserves the right to use your texts to "train and improve our neural networks and algorithms" for a limited period. On Pro, DeepL says content is "never used to train DeepL's AI models."
Is Google Translate safe for confidential documents?
Google's Translate privacy page doesn't say how pasted text is handled, so you can't point a client to a written commitment. Google's paid-tier Cloud Translation API, which includes 500,000 free characters a month, says it doesn't train on your content and only holds it briefly in memory.
What's the cheapest private way to translate client work?
If you can use an API, the free tiers of Google Cloud Translation (500,000 characters a month) and Microsoft Translator (up to 2 million) cost nothing and say they don't keep your text. If you want a paste box, DeepL Pro Individual was €7.49 a month on annual billing when I checked.
Who owns an AI translation?
The tools don't claim it. DeepL says it takes no copyright in your translations and Google says it claims no ownership of content sent to its API. The original text still belongs to its author, so translating someone else's work to publish needs their permission.
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