TranslatePress sells automatic translation as a yearly licence with a fixed number of AI words (€99–€349/yr for 50K–500K words). When the quota runs out or the licence lapses, new AI translations stop. AI Translate BYOK calls the AI model with your own API key: no quota, no renewal, and the translations are ordinary WordPress posts you keep.
| AI Translate BYOK | TranslatePress | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free plugin; full version $27.99 once. AI cost paid to your provider | Yearly licence with AI words included (€99–€349/yr, 50K–500K words) |
| 30,000 words × 3 languages | ~$0.25 once (gpt-4o-mini) or ~$2 (Claude Haiku 4.5) | €199/yr (Business) |
| Word limit | None: only what your provider bills | Plan quota per year |
| Which AI | Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint: OpenAI, Claude, OpenRouter, local models | Their choice |
| Where your content goes | Straight from your site to the AI provider you chose | TranslatePress AI service |
| How translations are stored | Separate WordPress posts, drafts by default for review | Strings stored in its own tables, served at render time |
| If you stop paying | Nothing changes: the posts stay | Existing translations stay; no new AI words |
| Visual front-end editor, theme strings | No — posts and pages (plus SEO fields and categories in the full version) | Yes |
Point by point, with what TranslatePress does better: AI Translate BYOK vs TranslatePress.
100 posts of about 1,000 words into one language is ~100,000 words. With your own API key that is roughly $0.30 with gpt-4o-mini or $2.20 with Claude Haiku 4.5, paid once to the provider — then nothing until you translate more. Try your own numbers in the WordPress translation cost calculator.
If you want to translate every string of the theme and plugins in a visual editor, with the language switcher and URLs handled for you, TranslatePress does that out of the box. AI Translate BYOK translates your content — the part readers and search engines actually see — and in the full version links it to Polylang or WPML for routing.
Prices from the vendors' public pages checked 29–30 September 2026 (TranslatePress, OpenAI, Claude), before tax. API estimates assume 1.4 input and 2 output tokens per word per language, doubled for prompts and re-runs. Also compared: Weglot alternative. Trademarks belong to their owners; this page isn't affiliated with them.