Frequently Asked Questions

Universal Translator is a translation service designed specifically for Twitch streamers. It automatically detects and translates chat messages from any language to your preferred language in real-time, helping you connect with viewers from around the world.

Yes. Universal Translator is a hosted translation bot that connects to your channel and translates chat automatically. Unlike a browser extension, it runs on our servers — so there is no software to install and nothing to keep running yourself.

We also publish a Twitch Extension, which is a different thing entirely: panels inside Twitch that you switch on for your channel, not an add-on anybody installs in their browser. What that is

We automatically detect the language of each incoming chat message. If it differs from your preferred language, it gets translated in real-time by language models that read the whole message, not just word by word: slang is translated by its meaning, and emotes are kept as they are. You can view all translations in your dashboard.

Yes. Universal Translator runs right alongside your existing bot. It only handles translation, so your commands, timers, and moderation keep working exactly as they do now. There is nothing to remove or replace: connect your channel and translations start appearing in the same chat.

A browser extension only translates the chat on your own screen, so your mods and viewers still see the original. Universal Translator works for the whole channel: translations are posted in chat for everyone, and because slang is translated by its meaning and emotes are kept as they are, Twitch slang and gaming lingo come through the way they were meant rather than as a word-by-word guess. There is nothing for you or your viewers to install.

Our own Twitch Extension is not a browser extension either — it is an optional panel you switch on for your channel.

On paid plans, type !translate, a language code and your message in chat, for example !translate es See you tomorrow!. The bot posts your message, translated into that language, in the same chat.

Anyone in your chat can use the command, and the whole command can be up to 750 characters long.

It is an opt-in bit of fun. For 15 minutes after you switch it on, the bot picks up chat messages at random and answers them with a funnier version of themselves — and keeps the joke going if someone replies to it.

Only you can start it, with the !trollmode command in your own chat or the switch in our Twitch Extension (paid plans), and it stops by itself when the time is up. Mods and viewers cannot turn it on.

Troll mode is included in paid plans, and you can pick the personality the bot jokes in — from a pirate to a grumpy grandpa.

How troll mode works

No. Troll mode only answers messages that are already in your channel’s language — the ones that need no translation. Anyone writing in another language gets a normal translation, troll mode or not, and no translation is ever altered or replaced by a joke.

No. A troll reply is written by AI rather than repeating something a viewer said, so every one of them ends with a small label saying so. Article 50 of the EU AI Act is about this kind of transparency and we would rather err on the safe side — the label is always on, and there is no setting that removes it.

It is MrDestructoid by default, a Twitch global emote that renders whichever account posts for you. If the bot sends under your own account or a linked bot account, you can swap in an emote of your own — a swap, not an opt-out.

Messages in virtually any language are detected automatically. You choose one target language to translate everything into, from 28 options: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Czech, Romanian, Hungarian, Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Ukrainian.

You can view the complete list with language codes in your settings page.

Yes. The free plan includes 50 translations a month. It is a plan, not a trial: there is no end date and no credit card to enter.

Translations are posted by our bot account by default, on every plan, or under your own Twitch account if you prefer.

Getting started is easy:

1. Click "Login with Twitch" to connect your Twitch account
2. Authorize Universal Translator to access your channel
3. Open Settings and connect your Twitch channel
4. Set your preferred language in the settings
5. That's it! We'll start translating messages automatically

No installation required! Universal Translator is a web-based service. Simply log in with your Twitch account and you are ready to go. View your translations from any device with a web browser.

No. Because Universal Translator is a channel bot, translated messages appear in chat for everyone to see. Your viewers do not have to install an extension or configure anything — it works for the whole chat automatically.

Yes — and it is worth separating from the question above, because the word means two things. A browser extension is software a person installs in Chrome or Firefox, and you need none. A Twitch Extension is something you activate on your channel from the Twitch dashboard.

Ours gives you a live view of your translated, moderator and VIP messages in your Stream Manager, bot settings you can change without leaving Twitch, a switch for troll mode (paid plans), and a panel under your stream showing viewers which languages your chat speaks. Nobody installs anything, and translation works with or without it.

See what the extension does

Yes, you can change your preferred language at any time from your dashboard settings. All future translations will use your new preferred language. Your translation history will remain unchanged.

Yes! Depending on your subscription plan, you can connect multiple Twitch channels:

• Free: 1 channel
• Mini: 1 channel
• Starter: 1 channel
• Basic: 1 channel
• Pro: 1 channel

A translation is counted each time we translate a chat message from one language to another. If a message is already in your preferred language, it doesn't count against your quota. You can monitor your usage in real-time from your dashboard.

Your dashboard warns you when you reach 75% and 90% of your monthly translations. If you exceed your limit, translations will be paused until the next billing cycle or until you upgrade to a higher plan. Your chat will continue to function normally.

Yes, you can upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time. Plan changes are handled through Stripe's billing portal, which you reach from your account settings.

We recommend trying the free plan first to make sure everything works for your setup. If you upgrade to a paid plan and run into any problems, email us and we'll find a solution together. You can also cancel your subscription at any time — there are no long-term commitments.

Email support: Reveal Email

Yes. Every paid plan is also available as a one-time 30-day pass at the same price, with no automatic renewal. You can buy the same plan again once the pass runs out, and switching to a different plan while it is active credits the unused days.

You can cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings. Your service will remain active until the end of your current billing period. No further charges will be made after cancellation.

Our translation system is designed for real-time performance. Most translations complete in under 3 seconds. The exact delay may vary based on message length and current system load, but we optimize for speed to ensure you can respond to your viewers quickly.

Yes. Instead of translating word by word, it translates gaming slang and abbreviations by their meaning. Twitch, BTTV, and FFZ emotes like Kappa, PogChamp, and LUL are kept exactly as-is rather than mangled into nonsense. Each message is translated on its own, without the chat around it.

We use language models suited to conversational chat, so slang and casual language are translated by their meaning rather than word by word. No automated translation is perfect: each message is translated on its own, so a very short or ambiguous message can come out wrong.

Yes, we take security seriously. All data is encrypted in transit, and your Twitch access tokens are encrypted in our database. We only store the minimum necessary information to provide the service. We never sell your data. We only pass it to the service providers named in our privacy policy (hosting, AI translation, payments), and only to run the service. You can ask us to delete your account and all associated data at any time.

Yes, all translations are stored in your translation history, which you can access from your dashboard. You can view recent translations and filter by language on the Chat Translations page in your dashboard.

We offer multiple support channels:

• Email support: Reveal Email
• Step-by-step guides in our tutorials

We typically respond within 24 hours on business days.

If you encounter any issues or bugs, please contact our support team with as much detail as possible, including screenshots if applicable. We prioritize bug fixes and will work to resolve any issues quickly.