Google Translate on the web lets you upload a PDF and download a translated document. It is a practical option for standard PDFs containing selectable text. Uploads must be 10 MB or smaller, and PDFs cannot exceed 300 pages. Text inside images and scanned pages is not translated. These steps and limits follow Google's official instructions, verified on November 10, 2026.
Upload and download on a computer
- Open Google Translate in a desktop browser and select Documents.
- Choose your source and target languages. Select Detect language if you are unsure of the source language.
- Select the browse button and choose your PDF file.
- Select Translate, wait for processing to finish, and download the translation.
Google provides separate interfaces for document uploads, pasted text, and website translation. If the Documents option is missing on your phone or mobile browser, switch to a computer. According to Google's instructions, document translation is unavailable on mobile devices and smaller screens.
After downloading, open a section you need to read and verify that the body text was translated, rather than just the cover or a few isolated text elements.
Why scanned pages can remain untranslated
A PDF can contain selectable text, full-page images, or a mix of both—such as digital body text followed by scanned attachments. Because the web tool does not process image-based text, a successfully generated file can still leave scanned pages untranslated.
To test your file, copy a paragraph from the original PDF and paste it into a text editor. If you can select only an image or cannot copy the words, OCR is usually needed first. If the copied text is garbled or merges multiple columns out of order, the underlying text layer may need to be recognized again. See how to distinguish scanned and text-based PDFs.
Compressing or renaming a PDF does not turn page images into translatable text. For scanned documents, use a workflow that includes both optical character recognition and translation.
What to do above 10 MB or 300 pages
File size and page count are separate limits. Compressing images may lower file size without changing the page count, while splitting a file into chapters reduces the pages per upload without making scanned content translatable.
If you only need a specific chapter, use a local PDF tool to extract that section before uploading. Keep complete sentences, related figures, and footnotes together. Translating separate sections may also require additional review afterward to maintain consistent terminology and names across chapters.
For an entire document, look for a service that supports its size and format. Review its upload requirements, cost, and output format before submitting the file. Avoid compressing scanned pages so heavily that text becomes illegible just to meet a size threshold; blurred source images make subsequent OCR more difficult.
The web tool and Google Cloud API are separate services
Google's help documentation directs larger document translation workloads to the Cloud Translation API, which requires a separate developer integration. Web upload limits and behaviors do not necessarily reflect the API, and API capabilities do not mean the web tool supports scanned documents.
If you need a quick, downloadable translation through the browser, use a file that fits the web tool's requirements. If you are building an automated pipeline, consult the Cloud Translation API documentation for supported formats, quotas, and pricing.
Translate a scanned PDF with PDF Craft
Open PDF Craft and upload your original PDF. Under Create a result, choose the output that suits your needs: Translated PDF for a translated document, EPUB for reading with adjustable text, or Markdown for further editing.
Select your target language. For EPUB or Markdown translation, turn on Translate the document; keep this option off if you only want to convert the file format while preserving the original language. If the document includes footnotes you want to capture, choose Refined extraction under Extraction method. Review your plan and current rates, start the task, and download the finished file once ready. The scanned PDF translation guide covers this workflow in detail.
Check PDF Craft's current upload interface for supported file specifications. Once processing finishes, compare headings, figures, and notes in the translated document against the original pages. See the PDF translation layout guide for guidance on those layout checks.