How to Translate Manga to English with AI (Step-by-Step)
Reading a new chapter before the official release usually means waiting for a scanlation team. With an AI manga translator, you can translate raw Japanese, Korean, or Chinese pages into English yourself in about a minute per page. This guide walks through the process and how to get clean results.
How AI manga translation works
An AI manga translator does three jobs that a human scanlation team splits between people:
- Text detection (OCR). The tool finds every speech bubble, caption, and piece of text on the page, including vertical Japanese text.
- Translation. The detected text is translated with a large language model, which keeps the context of the conversation instead of translating line by line.
- Typesetting. The original text is removed and the translation is written back into the same bubble, so the page keeps its layout and artwork.
Step 1: Get a clear page image
Start with the clearest image you can. Scans or high-resolution screenshots work best. Small, blurry, or heavily compressed images make text detection less accurate, especially for small sound effects and handwritten text.
Supported formats are JPG, PNG, WEBP, and AVIF, up to 3MB per image.
Step 2: Upload and choose English
Open the Manga Translator, sign in, and upload one page or a batch of pages. Choose English as the target language. Manga Translator supports 130+ target languages if you want to read in another language.
Step 3: Translate and download
Start the translation. Each page usually takes under a minute. When it finishes, click a page to view it full size, then download it. For batches, turn on Auto Download Translated Manga so each page is saved as soon as it is ready.
Tips for better results
- Translate whole chapters in order. Consistent context helps character names and recurring terms stay consistent.
- Check names and honorifics. AI translation is good at dialogue but can vary on names. Skim the first pages to catch this early.
- Clean pages first if you want to re-letter yourself. If you prefer to typeset your own translation, use Remove Text in Manga to erase the original text. You can keep the speech bubbles or remove them together with the text.
Limits to know about
AI translation is fast, but it is not a replacement for a professional translator. Wordplay, puns, and heavily stylized sound effects can lose meaning, and very dense pages may need a second look. For personal reading it is usually more than enough; for publishing, have a fluent reader review the result.
How much does it cost?
You need an account to translate. New accounts get 8 free images in the first 12 hours, then 2 free images every day. Paid plans add more translations and better models; see pricing.
Ready to try it? Translate your first manga page.