BabelChat

The automatic chat translator for Spigot, Paper & Bukkit

Players from all over the world, one chat. Everyone reads it in their own language.

BabelChat is a free, lightweight
auto translate chat plugin for Minecraft servers. Every chat message is translated in real time into each player's preferred language. A Dutch player can write in Dutch on an English server: English players read it in English, Spanish players in Spanish, and Chinese players in Chinese. Players choose their language in a simple
language GUI.

━━ FEATURES ━━

• ⚡ Real-time chat translation - every message is translated per reader, into their own language.
• ✔ Language GUI - /language opens a menu where players pick their language in one click.
• ✔ 11 languages built in - the 10 most spoken languages in the world plus Dutch. Add more by copying one file.
• ✔ Automatic language detection - if someone writes in a different language, BabelChat still gets it right.
• ✔ Uses the game language - players who don't choose a language automatically get the language from their Minecraft settings.
• ✔ No lag - translations run in the background, so chat and the server never wait.
• ✔ Never loses a message - if a translation fails or takes too long, the original message is shown.
• ✔ Smart cache - common messages ("hi", "gg", "lol") are translated once and remembered.
• ✔ Free, no API key needed - works out of the box with Google Translate. Optional DeepL and LibreTranslate support.
• ✔ Fully translatable plugin messages - every menu and message lives in its own language file.
• ✔ Players stay in control - turn translation off at any time to see the original messages.
• ✔ One jar for Spigot, Paper & Bukkit - Minecraft 1.16.5 up to 1.21.x (Purpur works too).

━━ HOW IT WORKS ━━

• A player chooses a language with /language, or BabelChat uses the language from their Minecraft settings.
• Someone sends a chat message. Players who speak the same language see it right away.
• For everyone else, BabelChat translates the message once per language and sends it in the server's normal chat format, with a small [NL→EN] tag so readers know it was translated.

━━ LANGUAGES ━━

BabelChat comes with full translations for
English, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Urdu and
Dutch. Chat messages themselves can be translated between the
100+ languages that Google Translate supports.

Add your own language in 1 minute: copy
plugins/BabelChat/lang/en.yml to for example
de.yml, change the language code, translate the texts and run
/language reload. No coding needed.

━━ COMMANDS ━━

• /language - open the language menu (aliases: /lang, /babel, /chatlang, /taal)
• /language <code or name> - choose a language, e.g. /language nl or /language Español
• /language on / off - turn translation of incoming chat on or off
• /language auto - use the language from your Minecraft settings
• /language list - list all languages
• /language info - show your language and whether translation is on
• /language reload - reload the config and language files (admin)

━━ PERMISSIONS ━━

• babelchat.use - use /language and the menu (default: everyone)
• babelchat.admin - use /language reload (default: OP)

━━ CONFIGURATION ━━

Everything works out of the box. Want to change something? The config is short and every option is explained:

Spoiler: config.yml

Code (Text):

==========================================================

 BabelChat - configuration

 Works on Bukkit (CraftBukkit), Spigot and Paper 1.16.5+

==========================================================

Which translation service is used for chat messages:

  GOOGLE         - free Google Translate endpoint, no API key needed (default).

                   Good for small/medium servers; Google may rate-limit very busy servers.

  DEEPL          - DeepL API (free or pro). Needs an API key from deepl.com/pro-api

  LIBRETRANSLATE - LibreTranslate (self-hosted or a public instance).

provider: GOOGLE

deepl:

  # Keys ending in ":fx" automatically use the free DeepL endpoint.

  api-key: ""

libretranslate:

  url: "libretranslate.com";

  api-key: ""

Language code (a file in plugins/BabelChat/lang/) used for the console

and for players who have not chosen a language.

default-language: en

If a player has not chosen a language, use the language of their Minecraft client

(Options > Language) when it matches one of the language files.

use-client-locale: true

Open the language menu automatically the first time a player joins.

open-menu-on-first-join: true

first-join-delay-ticks: 40

Close the menu after a language is clicked (false = keep it open).

close-menu-on-select: true

chat:

  # Text placed in front of a translated chat line.

  # {source} = detected language of the original message, {target} = the reader's language.

  translated-prefix: "&7[&b{source}&7→&b{target}&7] &r"

  # How the translated text is shown inside the normal chat format.

  # {translated} = translated text, {original} = what the player actually typed.

  # Example to also show the original:  "{translated} &8&o({original})"

  translated-message: "{translated}"

  # Messages shorter than this (after removing colours) are never translated.

  min-message-length: 2

  # Don't translate when the reader has the same language as the writer.

  # Saves a lot of API calls; set to false if your players often write in other languages.

  skip-if-same-language: true

performance:

  # Worker threads used for translation requests (chat is never blocked while translating).

  threads: 4

  # Timeout for one translation request in milliseconds. On timeout the original message is shown.

  timeout-ms: 5000

  # How many translations are remembered so repeated messages ("hi", "gg", ...) cost no API call.

  cache-size: 2000

Log every translation to the console.

debug: false

━━ INSTALLATION ━━

• Download BabelChat.jar and put it in your server's plugins folder.
• Restart the server.
• Done! New players see the language menu automatically. Everyone else can type /language.

Requirements: Spigot, Paper or Bukkit 1.16.5 – 1.21.x, Java 8 or newer. No other plugins needed.

━━ FAQ ━━

Spoiler: Is BabelChat free? Do I need an API key?

Yes, it's free. With the default Google provider you don't need an API key. If you want higher quality or very high volume, you can switch to DeepL (API key) or a self-hosted LibreTranslate server in config.yml.

Spoiler: Will it lag my server?

No. Translations run on separate background threads, never on the main server thread. The chat thread is never blocked either. Repeated messages come from the cache, so they need no API call.

Spoiler: Does it work with my chat format / rank prefixes?

Translated lines use the server's chat format (the standard Bukkit chat event), so prefixes set through that format are kept. Chat plugins that draw their own fully custom chat on Paper still work, but translated lines use the standard format. Please test with your own chat plugin.

Spoiler: What happens if the translation service is down?

Players simply see the original message. BabelChat never removes a chat message.

Spoiler: Does it work on BungeeCord / Velocity networks?

Yes. Install BabelChat on each Spigot/Paper server in your network. Every server translates its own chat.

Spoiler: Does it support Folia?

Not yet.

Spoiler: Arabic / Urdu text looks strange in-game?

Minecraft draws right-to-left languages from left to right without joining the letters. This is a limitation of the Minecraft client itself, not of BabelChat.

Spoiler: Privacy

To translate a chat message, its text is sent to the translation service you choose (Google, DeepL or your own LibreTranslate server). Player names and UUIDs are not sent.

━━ SUPPORT ━━

Found a bug or have an idea? Please post in the
Discussion tab. That way I can help you much faster than through a review.

If BabelChat helps your server, a
★★★★★ review is greatly appreciated!

chat translator • auto translate chat • translation plugin • multilingual chat • language selector GUI • Google Translate • DeepL • Spigot • Paper • Bukkit • Minecraft 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21