Machine Translation API FAQ

Error codes

Request character limit

For a single translation request, the source text must not exceed 5,000 characters. The service calculates the length using Java's String.length() <= 5000. For batch text translation, each text entry must not exceed 1,000 characters, and you can translate up to 50 entries per request. If you exceed the character limit, the request may time out and return an error.

If your text exceeds the limit, we recommend using Document Translation.

How are characters counted?

The character count is based on the length of the source text. The count includes punctuation, spaces, and HTML tags. Each Chinese character, English letter, and punctuation mark counts as one character. For example:

Other translation types

The service currently supports APIs for Text Translation, Image Translation (including general image and ID document translation), and Document Translation (for formats such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel). We also offer a SaaS product at alynx-saas.alifanyi.com for end users to directly translate text, documents, images, videos, and speech.

Custom translation services

If you require this capability, contact our customer support team at mt_support@list.alibaba-inc.com or join our DingTalk group: 23369411.

Java SDK: SDK.InvalidRegionId error

1. Verify that the versions of aliyun-java-sdk-core and aliyun-java-sdk-alimt are correct.

2. Try rewriting your client initialization code.

DefaultProfile profile = DefaultProfile.getProfile(
        "cn-hangzhou", // region ID
        EnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider credentialsProvider = CredentialsProviderFactory.newEnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider();// Read access credentials from an environment variable.  
IAcsClient client = new DefaultAcsClient(profile);
TranslateGeneralRequest generalRequest = new TranslateGeneralRequest();// Create an API request and set parameters.
generalRequest.setMethod(MethodType.POST); // Set the request method to POST.
generalRequest.setFormatType("text");  // Format of the source text.
generalRequest.setSourceLanguage("zh");  // Source language.
generalRequest.setSourceText(URLEncoder.encode("你好","UTF-8"));  // Source text.
generalRequest.setTargetLanguage("en");  // Target language.
System.out.println(JSON.toJSON(eCommerceResponse));                 

RAM user authorization errors

To grant permissions to a RAM user, create a permission policy in the Resource Access Management (RAM) console (https://ram.console.aliyun.com/policies).

Grant permissions to a RAM user

1. Log on to the Resource Access Management (RAM) console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Identities > Users.

On the Users page, find the target RAM user and click Add Permissions in the Actions column.

2. Select System Policy. In the search box, enter mt. The system automatically finds the relevant policies. Select the required permission policy, add it to the Selected list on the right, and click OK.

For Authorization Scope, select Entire Cloud Account. In the search results, select the AliyunMTFullAccess policy, which grants permissions to manage Machine Translation (alimt).

Defining non-translatable terms

Source text may contain words, acronyms, or code that you do not want to translate. Machine Translation provides a custom dictionary feature that allows you to specify these non-translatable elements. Uploading a bilingual dictionary ensures that specific terms or phrases in the translation output match the terms you have defined. See the following example:

Overdue payment and service suspension

On the China site, Machine Translation is billed hourly. If your account becomes overdue after a bill is generated, the service is suspended immediately. After 15 days of suspension, resources are released. To help ensure service continuity, we offer a non-shutdown privilege for overdue payments, which you must enable manually. For details, see Non-shutdown privilege for overdue payments.

On the International site, Machine Translation is billed daily and does not provide a non-shutdown privilege for overdue payments.