Azure resources for Azure AI translation

2025-09-04

Azure AI Translator is a cloud-based neural machine translation (NMT) service that allows you to add multilingual capabilities to your applications and workflows. The service supports both instant translation and batch processing, making it suitable for a wide range of business needs.

If you already have an Azure AI Translator or multi-service resource—whether used on its own or through Language Studio—you can continue to use those existing Translator resources within the Azure AI Foundry portal for NMT deployment. For more information, see How to use Azure AI services in the Azure AI Foundry portal.

By default, Azure AI Translator utilizes neural Machine Translation (NMT) technology. With the newest preview release, you now can optionally select either the standard NMT translation or one of two Large Language Model (LLM) deployment types: GPT-4o-mini or GPT-4o. However, using an LLM model requires you to have an Azure AI Foundry resource.

The following table provides an overview of the resource solutions for Translator within the Azure AI ecosystem:

AI Service	Scope	Use cases
Azure AI Foundry resource	This resource type is the recommended resource for building, deploying, and managing generative AI applications and agents in Azure AI Foundry.	The Azure AI Foundry resource is suitable for scenarios requiring orchestration of multiple AI models, custom AI agent development, and advanced AI application lifecycle management.
Azure AI Services resource	This multi-service resource provides prebuilt, ready-to-use AI models accessible through APIs for tasks like translation, language understanding, speech recognition, and computer vision.	An Azure AI Services resource allows you to integrate advanced features such as text translation, speech transcription, and image recognition into your applications. You can also enhance models within the Azure AI Foundry portal using prebuilt AI capabilities.
Azure AI Translator services resource	The Azure AI Translator resource offers access to cloud-based neural machine translation capabilities and the ability to create customized translation models using Custom Translator.	Azure AI Translator is production-ready and can seamlessly scale up or down based on translation needs, accommodating both small and large volumes of text or documents across multiple languages.

An Azure AI Foundry resource is your main tool for creating, deploying, and managing generative AI applications and agents. With this resource, you can access agent services, use models hosted in a serverless environment, run evaluations, and connect to the Azure OpenAI service.
If you plan to use an LLM model for translation, you must use an Azure AI Foundry resource.
To learn how to create and manage an AI Foundry resource see Create your first AI Foundry resource

An Azure AI Translator resource is an instance of the service that you create. All API requests to Azure AI services can be accessed with an endpoint URL and a read-only key for authenticating access.

Prerequisites

To get started, you need an active Azure account.

Create your Azure AI Translator resource

With your Azure account, you can access the Translator service through two different resource types:

Single-service resource types enable access to a single service API key and endpoint.
Multi-service resource types enable access to multiple Azure AI services by using a single API key and endpoint.

Complete your project and instance details

After you decide which resource type you want use to access the Translator service, you can enter the details for your project and instance.

Subscription. Select one of your available Azure subscriptions.
Resource Group. You can create a new resource group or add your resource to a preexisting resource group that shares the same lifecycle, permissions, and policies.
Resource Region. Choose Global unless your business or application requires a specific region. If you're planning on using the Document translation feature with managed identity authorization, choose a geographic region such as East US.
Name. Enter a name for your resource. The name you choose must be unique within Azure.

Note

If you're using a Translator feature that needs a custom ___domain endpoint, such as Document translation, the input in the name field it the custom ___domain name parameter for the endpoint.

Make sure to enter the correct value in the name field to ensure proper functionality.

Pricing tier. Select a pricing tier that meets your needs:
- Each subscription has a free tier.
- The free tier has the same features and functionality as the paid plans and doesn't expire.
- Only one free tier resource is available per subscription.
- Document translation is supported in paid tiers. The Language Studio only supports the S1 or D3 instance tiers. If you just want to try Document translation, select the Standard S1 instance tier.
If you created a multi-service resource, the links at the bottom of the Basics tab provides technical documentation regarding the appropriate operation of the service.
Select Review + Create.
Review the service terms, and select Create to deploy your resource.
After your resource successfully deploys, select Go to resource.

Authentication keys and endpoint URL

The quickest method for authenticating your Azure AI services API requests is to include your endpoint URL and a read-only key in an authentication header. For more information, see Authentication and authorization

Authentication keys. Your key is a unique string that is passed on every request to the Translation service. You can pass your key through a query-string parameter or by specifying it in the HTTP request header.
Endpoint URL. Use the Global endpoint in your API request unless you need a specific Azure region or custom endpoint. For more information, see Base URLs. The Global endpoint URL is api.cognitive.microsofttranslator.com.

Get your authentication keys and endpoint

To authenticate your connection to your Translator resource, you need the key and endpoint for your resource.

After your new resource deploys, select Go to resource or go to your resource page.
In the left pane, under Resource Management, select Keys and Endpoint.
Copy and paste your keys and endpoint URL in a convenient ___location, such as Notepad.

Screenshot of the Azure portal showing the Keys and Endpoint page of a Translator resource. The keys and endpoints are highlighted.

Create a Text translation client

Text translation supports both global and regional endpoints. Once you have your authentication keys, you need to create an instance of the TextTranslationClient, using an AzureKeyCredential for authentication, to interact with the Text translation service:

To create a TextTranslationClient using a global resource endpoint, you need your resource API key:

  AzureKeyCredential credential = new('<apiKey>');
  TextTranslationClient client = new(credential);

To create a TextTranslationClient using a regional resource endpoint, you need your resource API key and the name of the region where your resource is located:
```
 AzureKeyCredential credential = new('<apiKey>');
 TextTranslationClient client = new(credential, '<region>');
```

Get started with Azure AI Translator REST APIs

In our quickstart, learn how to use the Translator service with REST APIs.

Get Started with Translator

Step 2: configure your resources for Azure AI Foundry

Completing this setup is essential for fully integrating your environment with Azure AI Foundry. You only need to perform this setup once—afterward, you have seamless access to advanced, AI-powered question answering capabilities.

In addition, we show you how to assign the correct roles and permissions within the Azure portal. These steps help you get started quickly and effectively with Azure AI Translator.

Prerequisites

Before you can set up your environment, you need:

An active Azure subscription. If you don't have one, you can create one for free.
Requisite permissions. Make sure the person establishing the account and project is assigned as the Azure AI Account Owner role at the subscription level. Alternatively, having either the Contributor or Cognitive Services Contributor role at the subscription scope also meets this requirement. For more information, see Role based access control (RBAC).
An Azure AI Foundry multi-service resource or an Azure AI Translator resource.

Note

We highly recommend that you use an Azure AI Foundry resource in the AI Foundry; however, you can also follow these instructions using an Azure AI Translator resource.

Azure AI Foundry offers a unified platform for building, managing, and deploying AI solutions with a wide array of models and tools. With this integration, you gain access to features to expand your training data with generative AI. New features are continually added, making Azure AI Foundry the recommended choice for scalable Translator solutions.

Navigate to the Azure portal.
Go to your Azure AI Foundry resource (select All resources to locate your Azure AI Foundry or Azure AI Translator resource).
Next, select Access Control (IAM) on the left panel, then select Add role assignment.
Search and select the Cognitive Services User role. Select Next.
Navigate to the Members tab and then select Managed Identity.
Select Select members, then in the right panel, search for and choose your Azure AI Foundry resource (the one you're using for this project), and choose Select.
Finally, select Review + assign to confirm your selection.
Your resources are now set up properly. Continue with setting up the fine-tuning task and continue customizing your Azure AI Translator projects.

Step 3 (optional): clean up resource

If you want to clean up and remove an Azure AI resource, you can delete the resource or resource group.

Warning

Deleting a resource group also deletes all resources contained in the group.

To delete the resource:

Search and select Resource groups in the Azure portal, and select your resource group.
Select the resources to be deleted by selecting the adjacent check box.
Select Delete from the top menu near the right edge.
Enter delete in the Delete Resources dialog box.
Select Delete.

To delete the resource group:

Go to your Resource Group in the Azure portal.
Select Delete resource group from the top menu bar.
Confirm the deletion request by entering the resource group name and selecting Delete.

Next Steps

Learn more about Azure AI Translator features:

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Azure resources for Azure AI translation

Step 1: create your resource

Step 2: configure your resources for Azure AI Foundry

Prerequisites

Step 3 (optional): clean up resource

Next Steps

Feedback

Additional resources