What is Argos Translate used for?

Argos Translate is an open-source Python library for offline machine translation, usable from code, a command line or a graphical app. It is a good fit for translating sensitive text without cloud services and adding translation to Python applications.

Is Argos Translate open source?

Yes. Argos Translate is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at argosopentech/argos-translate and is written mainly in Python.

Is Argos Translate free?

Yes. Argos Translate is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

What is Argos Translate an alternative to?

Argos Translate is an open-source alternative to Google Translate, DeepL, Unbabel and Google Cloud Translation. Other open-source alternatives to Google Translate include LibreTranslate.

Is Argos Translate actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Argos Translate was on 8 August 2026, and the latest release is v1.4.0, published on 24 August 2021. The project has 6.5k stars on GitHub.

Argos Translate: open-source alternative to Google Translate

About Argos Translate

Argos Translate is an open-source offline translation library written in Python. It uses OpenNMT for translation and can be used as a Python library, from the command line or through a graphical application. Because models run locally, text can be translated without sending it to an online service. The code is licensed under MIT.

Translation relies on installable language packages, which are zip archives with the .argosmodel extension that contain the data for a language pair. A package index with pre-trained models is maintained in a separate repository. When no direct model exists, Argos Translate can pivot through an intermediate language: with Spanish to English and English to French installed, Spanish to French works too, at some cost in quality.

Supported languages include Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian, among others, and users can request more. The library is on PyPI and installs with pip. LibreTranslate, a separate web app and API, is built on top of Argos Translate, which is how many people encounter it.

Key features

Offline translation with local models
Python library, CLI and GUI
Installable language model packages
Automatic pivoting through intermediate languages
Package index of pre-trained models
Foundation for the LibreTranslate API

Good fit for

→Translating sensitive text without cloud services
→Adding translation to Python applications

Built with: Python
Tags: translation; machine-translation; offline; python; nlp; opennmt; libretranslate; language-models

Argos Translate: questions and answers

What is Argos Translate used for?: Argos Translate is an open-source Python library for offline machine translation, usable from code, a command line or a graphical app. It is a good fit for translating sensitive text without cloud services and adding translation to Python applications.
Is Argos Translate open source?: Yes. Argos Translate is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at argosopentech/argos-translate and is written mainly in Python.
Is Argos Translate free?: Yes. Argos Translate is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
What is Argos Translate an alternative to?: Argos Translate is an open-source alternative to Google Translate, DeepL, Unbabel and Google Cloud Translation. Other open-source alternatives to Google Translate include LibreTranslate.
Is Argos Translate actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Argos Translate was on 8 August 2026, and the latest release is v1.4.0, published on 24 August 2021. The project has 6.5k stars on GitHub.