Glossary
What is
Real-Time Translation?
Real-time translation converts speech to another language in under a second — making live streams accessible to global audiences instantly.
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Definition
Real-time translation (also called live translation or instant translation) is the process of automatically converting spoken or written content from one language to another with minimal latency — typically under 1 second.
In the context of live streaming, real-time translation converts a streamer's speech into subtitles in another language as they speak, without any post-processing delay.
How Real-Time Stream Translation Works
- Step 1 — Speech Capture: Your microphone audio is captured by the translation service
- Step 2 — ASR (Speech-to-Text): Automatic Speech Recognition converts audio to text in milliseconds
- Step 3 — Translation: The transcribed text is translated to the target language by an AI model
- Step 4 — Display: The translated text appears as subtitles on the stream overlay
- Total latency: under 500ms with StreamTranslate
Real-Time vs. Post-Processing Translation
Traditional subtitling involves post-processing — translating after a video is recorded. Real-time translation does this during the live broadcast, making it possible to subtitle live events, streams, and calls without any delay.
- Post-processing: cheaper but requires hours after recording
- Real-time: instant, enables live multilingual accessibility
- StreamTranslate achieves real-time translation at streaming-grade latency
Pricing
- Stream Pass — $9.99: One full stream session, all languages
- Starter — $14.99/mo: 25 hours/month, single language
- Pro — $34.99/mo: 40 hours/month, dual language
- Unlimited — $79.99/mo: Unlimited hours, dual language
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