Most people reach for Google Translate first, and for getting the gist of a street sign or a social post it's hard to beat. The trouble starts when the translation has to go out under your name: a client email, a product description, a reply to an upset customer.
Lexibird is built for those moments. It lets you choose the AI model behind each translation, set a formal or informal tone, and apply your own terminology through glossaries. It also brings translation into your desktop and browser so you can use it without switching tabs all day.
At a glance
| Lexibird | Google Translate | |
|---|---|---|
| Translation engine | Your choice of Claude, GPT, or Gemini models, or Auto | Google's own systems, including Gemini, chosen for you |
| Custom glossaries | Your terms, shared with your team | No custom glossary |
| Documents | PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, batch upload, layout preserved | Document upload on the web |
| Screenshots | OCR, plus screen-region capture on desktop | Image and camera translation |
| Desktop app | macOS and Windows | Web and mobile |
| Team workspaces | Shared workspaces with admin and member roles | Not a core feature |
What is Lexibird?
Lexibird (formerly Translatium) is an AI translator for the text you can't afford to get roughly right. You pick the model and the tone, and the same app covers more than 200 languages for text, plus files, screenshots, and recordings, on the web, Mac, Windows, and in your browser.
What is Google Translate?
Google Translate is Google's translation service, available on the web, on mobile, and across Google's products. It increasingly uses Google's Gemini technology. Its mobile app is known for camera translation, offline language packs, and live conversation mode.
1. Translations that keep your tone
Google Translate picks the technology for you. Lexibird lets you choose from leading AI models in the Claude, GPT, and Gemini families, or leave it on Auto. Premium models are available on paid plans.
Picture a support agent replying to an upset customer in Japan. A literal translation of "Sorry about that, we'll fix it ASAP" can come out curt or overly casual. With Lexibird set to formal, the model writes a properly polite apology that still says the same thing. The same goes for idioms: "we're not out of the woods yet" becomes a natural equivalent in the target language rather than a sentence about trees. If you want a different phrasing, run it through another model and compare.
2. Your terminology, applied every time
Google Translate has no custom glossary, so there's no way to lock in how your product names and industry terms are translated. With Lexibird glossaries, you set a preferred translation once and every text translation on the web or desktop follows it.
A medical device company, for example, can make sure "lead" always means the wire, not the metal or the verb. The model sees the glossary while it writes, so the term lands in a fluent sentence rather than being pasted in afterward. Glossaries are shared across a team workspace, and if an agency once handed you a TMX file, it imports directly.
3. Documents built for work
Google Translate's document upload is handy for getting the gist of a file. Lexibird's document translation goes further for professional work. Upload a batch of PDFs, Word files, PowerPoint decks, or Excel sheets, up to 40 MB each, and get them back with the layout preserved. Uploaded files are deleted after 24 hours.
Recordings work too. Transcribe an interview in mp3 or m4a, translate the transcript, and keep everything in the same place as your documents.
4. Translation without switching tabs
With Google Translate, the routine is copy, open a tab, paste, and copy the result back. Lexibird cuts out the extra tab. Reading a Brazilian distributor's terms on their website? Highlight the paragraph, press Ctrl+Shift+E (Cmd+Shift+E on Mac), and the Lexibird browser extension shows the translation in a side panel next to the page, where you can also hear it read aloud.
Outside the browser, the desktop app for macOS and Windows opens from any program with a single shortcut. When the text is stuck inside an image or a dialog box you can't select, drag a box around it and Lexibird reads and translates it.
5. Ready for teams
Lexibird gives teams shared workspaces with invitations, admin and member roles, and shared glossaries. Businesses can add single sign-on with SAML or OIDC, plus zero data retention on the Business plan.
Which one should you choose?
Google Translate is the better fit for travel, with camera translation, offline packs, and live conversation on your phone.
Choose Lexibird if you want:
- Translations you can send without rewriting, in the tone you choose
- Product names and industry terms that come out the same every time
- Whole batches of documents back with their formatting intact
- Translation one shortcut away instead of one more browser tab
Try Lexibird on the next message where tone really matters.
