The best Slack translation apps in 2026, compared

*Kiara's English and Japanese pricing pages list different prices; these are from the English page. Scroll the table sideways on a phone.

• Automatic or on demand. Automatic apps translate every message as it is posted. On-demand features, like a slash command, a message shortcut or Slack's own Translate action, only help the person who asks, and only when they remember to.
• Who sees the translation. In a shared channel, translations posted for everyone keep the whole team on the same page. Private translations are fine for reading the odd message.
• How you are billed. Character and point allowances are hard to predict, because every message counts by its length. Team-size bands grow with your headcount. Kiki counts translations: a message translated into two other languages counts as two.
• Languages per channel. Translate's Plus plan and Vorbee work with two languages per channel. Kiki allows up to four on its paid plans, and Lingvanex up to ten.
• Your terminology. If your product names keep getting translated, you need a glossary, and only a few apps have one. See how translation glossaries work.

Kiki. Translates every message in a channel automatically and posts the translation in the thread for everyone, in 100+ languages, using the recent conversation as context. The Free plan covers one channel and two languages. Pro, at $19 per workspace a month, adds unlimited channels, up to four languages per channel and a glossary. Business, at $49, adds linked mirror channels and the Hey Kiki assistant. It works in Slack Connect channels, and it installs from its own website rather than the Slack Marketplace. This is our product.

Translate, by Mark Carey Consulting. Powered by Google Translate, in 104 languages. The free plan is manual only: 25,000 characters a month, with translations visible only to you. Pro, at $29 a month, adds automatic translation into a chosen language for 250,000 characters, and Plus, at $69, adds two-language automatic translation for 1,000,000. Every feature is free for 30 days.

Kiara, from Japan. Translates automatically in the channel or in threads, showing every configured language to everyone, in 100 languages. It is priced by team size: the English pricing page lists $45 a month for up to 60 users and $99 for up to 330, while the Japanese page lists different tiers. There is a 14-day trial, and its help center says it has no translation memory.

Lingvanex, from Cyprus. Uses its own machine translation, with an on-premise option, and can translate a channel into up to ten languages. It is free for 20,000 characters a month. Pro costs $49 a month for up to 50 users or $99 for up to 300, with unlimited translation.

Vorbee, formerly X-late. Built on DeepL, in 37 languages, with flag-emoji reactions for one-off translations. It translates into English by default, with an optional second language per channel. $9.99 a month covers 200,000 characters, then $4.99 for each extra 100,000.

RikaiAI, from Japan. Mixes machine translation with large language models and posts translations as thread replies, in 82 languages. Usage is billed in points, from $7.99 a month for 200,000. It isn't available in the EU or EEA, and it installs from its own website rather than the Slack Marketplace.

Translate Channels. Edits each user's message to add every target language, in 108 languages. Its homepage lists $5 per active user a month, with a one-week trial. Its most recent changelog entry is from December 2023.

Straker Translate, from Straker, which now trades as Arbitr. Goes beyond chat, with document translation and human translators on request, alongside automatic channel translation and a do-not-translate list. It runs on Azure OpenAI and keeps data for two years by default. Prices aren't published: you start free and buy AI tokens.

Smart Translate, from Japan. Shows each translation only to members whose language differs from the sender's, using Google Cloud Translation, in six languages. It is free for 15,000 characters a month, then $28 for 250,000 or $68 for 1,000,000.

Slack's built-in translation. Translates one message at a time when you ask, and only you see the result. It comes with the Business+ plan, $15 per user a month billed annually, and Enterprise+. It isn't in Free or Pro.

Every message translated for the whole channel, at a flat price. Kiki, free for one channel and $19 a month for unlimited channels, or Translate, $29 a month for 250,000 characters.

Many languages in one channel. Lingvanex handles up to ten per channel. Kiki handles four.

Two channels in different languages acting as one. Kiki Business mirrors channels. None of the other apps describes this.

Clients and partners in Slack Connect. Kiki documents how it works in shared channels, and only one company needs it. The other apps don't say. See how Slack Connect translation works.

Documents and human review. Straker Translate.

Reading the odd message. A free plan, or Slack's built-in translation if your company already pays for Business+.

Pricing models make this hard to compare, so here is one team on every app: 50 people posting about 200 translated messages each working day, or 4,400 a month, into one other language. At around 80 characters a message, that is roughly 350,000 characters a month.

*RikaiAI charges fewer points for each extra target language; this assumes one. Vendors count characters in different ways, so treat these as estimates and check each vendor's own pricing. Slack Business+ includes much more than translation, but its translation is per message and private. For the full picture of per seat and flat pricing, see what Slack translation costs.

Kiara charges by team size: $45 a month for up to 60 users on its English pricing page. These options cost less for the same job, translating the whole channel automatically:

• Kiki Pro, $19 a month per workspace for unlimited channels and about 20,000 translations, whatever the team size.
• Vorbee, from $9.99 a month for 200,000 characters, then billed by usage.
• RikaiAI, from $7.99 a month for 200,000 points, then billed by usage. Not available in the EU or EEA.
• Translate Pro, $29 a month for 250,000 characters.

Usage-based plans are cheapest for quiet channels and climb with volume, so estimate your monthly characters before you choose.

Related guides: Free Slack translation apps · What Slack translation costs · Kiki vs Slack's built-in translation