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← Own your AI · Mission 5 of 31

Translate letters and documents without uploading them

Translate your landlord's letter without sending it to Google. Your own translator on your laptop: messages, letters and whole Word or PDF files, offline, with nothing sent to a server.

28 minBeginnerTools: FreeStep 1 free
Tested 7 Oct 2026 · LibreTranslate 1.9.6 (Argos Translate engine), Python 3.12 via uv 0.11.9, Windows 11
A translation app in your browser that runs entirely on your own machine
English to and from Spanish, French and Polish (add more any time)
Whole .docx, .pdf and .txt files translated with their layout kept
  • A one-line command that translates from scripts and other tools, plus a 30-second check that catches the mistakes before you send
Before you start
  • About 1GB of free disk space (300MB for the app, around 700MB for three language pairs)
  • 8GB of RAM is plenty. It uses under 1GB.
  • An internet connection for the first setup only
01/06Install LibreTranslate0 done
STEP 01 of 06~5 min

Install LibreTranslate

LibreTranslate is a free translation app built on Argos Translate, an open-source engine that runs offline.

  1. Argos Translate does the actual translating. LibreTranslate puts a simple web page on top, so you can paste text or drop in a file. One install gets you both.

  2. Install it with uv, a tool that installs Python apps cleanly in their own box, with no admin rights needed. If you don't have uv yet, paste this into PowerShell (it's the official installer from astral.sh ↗):

    Windows
    powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"
    Mac / Linux
    curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

  3. Close the terminal, open a new one, then install LibreTranslate:

    Terminal
    uv tool install libretranslate --python 3.12
    Output
     + waitress==2.1.2
 + werkzeug==2.3.8
 + wrapt==2.5.0
Installed 2 executables: libretranslate, ltmanage

  4. The --python 3.12 part tells uv which Python to use. uv downloads it for you if you don't have it. The app takes up about 296MB.

✓
CheckpointYou see Installed 2 executables: libretranslate, ltmanage.
If it breaks'uv' or 'libretranslate' is not recognised
'uv' or 'libretranslate' is not recognised
Close every terminal and open a new one. If it still fails, run uv tool update-shell, then open a new terminal again.
Still stuck? Ask the community
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