OpenAI Group PBC today launched ChatGPT Translate, a free translation service hosted on a standalone web page.

The rollout wasn’t accompanied by an announcement, which hints that the service may be a prototype. In July 2024, OpenAI launched a search engine called SearchGPT with the goal of collecting user feedback about its information retrieval features. The company folded the tool into ChatGPT a few months later.

Several interface elements appear to reaffirm that ChatGPT Translate is a prototype. A piece of marketing copy states that the service supports more than 50 languages, but it currently understands only 25. The text also alludes to a feature for translating uploaded files that doesn’t yet appear to be broadly available. OpenAI’s plan might be to relaunch ChatGPT Translate with a more complete feature set sometime in the future.

In its current form, the service features a simple interface with several similarities to Google Translate. It’s built around two rounded rectangles placed next to one another. One of the rectangles functions as an input field into which users can enter the text they wish to translate. The other panel shows the translation.

ChatGPT Translate doesn’t require an account to use, but users who log in can access additional features. There are several shortcuts that make it possible to quickly change the writing style of the automatically-generated translation. After a user selects a new style, the revised text is carried over into the main ChatGPT interface.

The marketing copy on the ChatGPT Translate page states that one of its target use cases is helping students learn new languages. It might be part of OpenAI’s efforts to make its chatbot more competitive in the education sector. Last July, the company updated ChatGPT with a study mode that doesn’t simply answer questions but also generates hints and quizzes.

The ChatGPT Translate page indicates that future versions of the service will also be useful for translating business documents. According to OpenAI, the underlying artificial intelligence can carry over the style of the original file to the new language. Travelers, in turn, will have access to features aimed at easing tasks such as reading street signs.

Since the start of 2025, OpenAI has significantly expanded the range of consumer use cases that ChatGPT supports. In addition to the study mode that debuted in July, it introduced features that can help consumers shop online and made the chatbot available through a delicate browser. Last week, ChatGPT received a tool that can answer users’ health questions.

Image: OpenAI