Is a translate app free? Mostly yes, with limits
Most translate apps are free for basic text, voice and photos. Here is where the limits start, what paid plans add, and how live chat translation is priced.
The short answer: yes, the big translate apps are free for everyday use. Google Translate is free. Apple's Translate app comes with the iPhone at no cost. Both handle typed text, spoken conversation and, in Google's case, photos of signs and menus. Where "free" ends is usually at the edges: offline downloads that take space, limits on long documents, ads, and translation built into a chat app, which is often a paid extra. I built a chat app with live translation, so I will be straight about where mine sits, too.
Here is how I would think about it, as someone who grew up with three languages in the house.
Why I care about this question
My family is Armenian-Iranian and I live in Los Angeles. Armenian, Farsi and English share the same dinner table, and someone is always translating for someone else.
When I started building Hashti, translation was the first thing I wanted. I had also paid for enough tools to know that "free" on a translate app's page does not always mean free in your hands. So here is what I have learned.
What is free, in plain terms
For the usual jobs, you will not pay anything.
Typed text: paste a sentence, get a sentence back. Free in the major apps.
Voice: speak, and the phone says it in another language. Free in the major apps.
Photos: point the camera at a menu or a sign. Free in Google Translate. Check the app you use, because camera features differ between apps.
Offline: you can usually download a language so it works without a connection. That is free, but each language takes storage on your phone.
Those four cover most travel, shopping and quick questions.
Where the free version starts to hurt
This is my opinion from using these tools, not a rule that applies to every app.
Tone. A translator gives you the words, not the feeling. A joke, a polite refusal or a warm greeting can come out flat or strange. If you are writing to a relative or a landlord, read the result and ask someone who speaks the language when it matters.
Dialects. A language with many regional forms is harder to translate than a language with one standard form. Persian, Armenian and Arabic all have this problem in everyday speech. Formal writing translates better than slang.
Context. A word can mean five things. Short messages with no context are where translators are weakest.
Chat. This is the big one. Copying a message into one app, then copying the answer into a chat, is slow. Do that thirty times in a conversation and you will stop chatting.
Free translation inside chat apps
Some messaging apps let you translate a single message with a tap. That is handy for an occasional message in another language, and in many cases it costs nothing.
What is different is translation that runs on the whole conversation as you talk, in both directions. That takes more work from the app, and it is usually where a paid plan appears. Not always, but often enough that you should check before you plan around it.
My advice: before you invite a friend or relative to a new app, find out whether the translation you need is free or paid. Look at the app's store page and its pricing screen, and read the part about what is included.
How Hashti handles it
Hashti is free to use. Rooms, private chats, calls and the walkie-talkie are all free. It is 18+ and out now on the App Store, and Android is in its closed test.
Live translation is the one thing that is not free. It covers 29 languages and it is part of Hashti Plus, which is $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Everything else is free.
I chose that because live translation costs real money to run. If I said it was free, I would be hiding the cost somewhere less honest, such as ads or selling your data. I would rather charge for the one feature that has a cost and keep the rest open.
You can see how it works on the translation page. If you are looking for people who speak your language, the public rooms are organized by name and topic, so you can find a room about something you care about.
Where Hashti is not the answer
The app's own interface is English today. A Farsi interface is being built, but it is not here yet. If you need menus in your language right now, you will have to wait or use something else.
If you only need to translate a few words while travelling, you do not need a chat app. Use the free translator already on your phone.
If you need legal, medical or official documents translated, do not trust any app. Use a human translator.
Is free translation safe to use?
For casual use, mostly yes. A few habits help.
Do not paste private details such as passwords, ID numbers or bank information into any translator. Treat what you type as leaving your phone.
Be careful with apps from unknown makers that promise to translate everything for free. If an app is free and has no clear way of paying for itself, ask how it makes money.
Check the age rating and the developer name before installing. If there is no company behind it and no support address, skip it.
A simple way to decide
If you translate a few sentences now and then, use the free translator on your phone. You do not need anything else.
If you chat with the same person across a language every week, set up a system. Try the free route first: a translator plus your favourite chat app. If the copying becomes annoying, then look at an app that translates inside the conversation, and decide whether a few dollars a month is worth it to you.
If you are looking for your own people, the person who speaks your language in a city across the world, find a place where that is the point. That is what I built Hashti for. You can look at the rooms and see whether anyone there is someone you would like to talk to.
The short version
Yes, translate apps are free for the everyday jobs: text, voice, photos, and offline languages. The cost shows up in chat, long documents, and anything that has to run live for a long time.
Check what is included before you commit, keep private details out of translators, and use a human for anything official. And if your goal is simply to be understood by someone who loves you and speaks a different language, a free translator and a little patience will take you further than you expect.
Hashti is free, and it is 18+. Hashti Plus — live translation, writing help and catch-ups — is $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year, and nothing else costs anything. How rooms work is on the rooms page, and how reports and the ID check work is on the safety page.