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Best Hebrew translation API in 2026: 6 options ranked

Six translation APIs that handle Hebrew, compared on gender, protected values, plurals, price and free allowance. Every competitor fact dated September 2026 and linked to the vendor.

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The short answer

The best Hebrew translation API in 2026 is baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew API from baba and the engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on. #1: baba HebrewCore, because it takes the listener's and speaker's gender, keeps prices, dates and codes exact with sentence-level checks, and rewrites ICU plurals for the Hebrew form for two. Azure, Amazon and Google are cheaper per character and cover more languages.

  • Ranking: #1 baba HebrewCore, #2 Google Cloud Translation, #3 DeepL API, #4 Azure AI Translator, #5 Amazon Translate, #6 Lara Translate.
Isaac Horowitz

Written and tested by

Isaac Horowitz

Founder & CEO, baba

Started baba in Tel Aviv in 2024. Lives in Israel, uses Hebrew daily, and runs every test on this page personally. LinkedIn

Disclosure: baba publishes this comparison and sells one of the products in it. Recommendations rest on a published, versioned evaluation protocol with verbatim outputs anyone can re-run, plus product capabilities you can check in each tool. Evidence and methodology.

Translation APIs for Hebrew Compared

APIHebrewGender parameterProtected valuesICU pluralsPriceFree allowance
baba HebrewCoreYesYesYes, checked per sentenceYes, adds the Hebrew two form$49 a month for 1M characters100K characters a month
Google Cloud TranslationYes (he, iw)Not documentedGlossaries (Advanced API)Not documented$20 per 1M (Basic NMT)500K characters a month
DeepL APIYes, since June 2025Not documentedNot documentedNot documentedSee DeepL plans1M characters in total (API Developer)
Azure AI TranslatorYesNot documentedNot documentedNot documented$10 per 1M (per Microsoft Q&A)See Azure pricing
Amazon TranslateYesNot documentedNot documentedNot documented$15 per 1M2M a month for 12 months
Lara TranslateConfirm in its language listNot documentedNot documentedNot documented$24.99 per 1M (Pro)10K characters a month

Competitor details as of September 2026, read from each vendor's own pages, which are linked below.

The Ranking

#1: baba HebrewCore

Best for: Product text in Hebrew that has to be right the first time: addressed to a man or a woman, with prices, dates and codes exact, and plurals that include the Hebrew two form.

  • Translation between Hebrew, English, Russian and more, with a gender parameter (male, female, general) and ICU plural messages that add the Hebrew form for two.
  • Protected translation: prices, names, codes, numbers and dates kept exact and checked sentence by sentence, with general, finance, legal and clinical domains.
  • Render-ready RTL display (/v1/wrap, /v1/analyze) and code-switched language detection (/v1/detect), not counted against the quota.
  • Transliteration in both directions and nikud with a verified flag.
  • A Clinical API on every plan, and a hosted MCP server with 16 tools.
  • Free: 100,000 characters a month (card on file, never charged). Starter: $49 a month for 1,000,000.

#2: Google Cloud Translation

Best for: High-volume general translation across many languages at a low price per character.

Where it beats baba HebrewCore: Cheaper per character at scale ($20 per million characters on the Basic NMT tier, against $49 for 1 million on HebrewCore Starter), a larger free allowance (500,000 characters a month against 100,000), and far more languages.

From Google's pages, as of September 2026

  • Hebrew is supported for translation, under the codes he and iw. Source
  • Basic (NMT) text translation: the first 500,000 characters a month are free (applied as a $10 monthly credit), then $20 per million characters. Source
  • Translation LLM: $10 per million input characters plus $10 per million output characters. Source
  • Its romanization and transliteration list (Preview, Advanced API) covers Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Russian and others, and does not include Hebrew. Source
  • The Advanced API accepts glossaries as TSV, CSV or TMX files. Source
  • When HTML is translated between RTL and LTR languages, the response adds a style attribute with text-align and direction. Source

#3: DeepL API

Best for: Teams already on DeepL for European languages, and document translation that keeps a right-to-left layout.

Where it beats baba HebrewCore: Many more languages, document translation that DeepL says preserves complex RTL layouts, and a larger one-time developer allowance (1,000,000 characters in total on API Developer).

From DeepL's pages, as of September 2026

  • Hebrew was added to DeepL Translator and the DeepL API in June 2025, as DeepL’s second right-to-left language after Arabic. Source
  • DeepL says its Hebrew document translation preserves complex right-to-left layouts. Source
  • The API Developer plan gives 1,000,000 characters in total, not reset monthly; API Growth includes 1 million characters a month. Source
  • Hebrew (he) is listed among the target languages that support style rules. Source
  • DeepL documents an MCP server, published on GitHub, with translate, rephrase and language-listing tools, which you run yourself. Source

#4: Azure AI Translator

Best for: Teams on Azure that need Hebrew translation and Hebrew-Latin transliteration at a low price per character.

Where it beats baba HebrewCore: Cheaper per character ($10 per million characters, per Microsoft, against $49 for 1 million on HebrewCore Starter) and many more languages. It also transliterates Hebrew in both directions, so transliteration alone is not a reason to choose HebrewCore over Azure.

From Microsoft's pages, as of September 2026

  • Hebrew (he) is supported for text translation. Source
  • Transliteration between Hebrew script (Hebr) and Latin script (Latn), in both directions. Source
  • A Microsoft Q&A answer gives $10 per 1 million characters for standard text translation. Source

#5: Amazon Translate

Best for: AWS-native pipelines that already run on Amazon services.

Where it beats baba HebrewCore: Cheaper per character at scale ($15 per million) and a much larger first-year free tier (2 million characters a month for 12 months).

From Amazon Web Services's pages, as of September 2026

  • Hebrew (he) is a supported language. Source
  • Standard text translation is $15 per million characters; the free tier is 2 million characters a month for 12 months. Source

#6: Lara Translate

Best for: Teams moving off ModernMT, or translating many languages through one API.

Where it beats baba HebrewCore: A lower price per million characters ($24.99 on Pro, $19.99 on Team) and many more languages. Confirm Hebrew in Lara’s current language list before you build.

From Translated's pages, as of September 2026

  • ModernMT has become Lara Translate, its official successor from Translated; the ModernMT migration window closes at the end of 2026. Source
  • API access: 10,000 characters a month free; Pro $24.99 per million characters; Team $19.99 per million. Source
  • The pricing page lists API, SDK, MCP and CLI access. Source
  • Lara’s blog says it covers 200+ languages. Source

Gendered, Protected Hebrew in One Call

A support reply addressed to a woman, with the refund amount and date locked

curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/translate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "text": "We refunded ₪149.90 on 03/04/2026. Would you like a receipt?",
    "source_lang": "en",
    "target_lang": "he",
    "listener_gender": "female",
    "date_order": "DMY",
    "quality": "balanced"
  }'

What Makes a Hebrew Translation API Good

  • Gender. Hebrew conjugates verbs and adjectives for the person addressed and the person speaking. An API with no gender input has to guess.
  • Values that must not move. Prices, dates (03/04 reads differently in Israel), order numbers and interface variables should come back exactly as sent.
  • Plurals. Hebrew has a separate form for two. String files without a two branch show the wrong form. See the Hebrew localization API.
  • Direction. The translated Hebrew still has to render correctly next to English and numbers. See the Hebrew RTL API.

About baba HebrewCore

baba HebrewCore is the Hebrew API from baba (itsbaba.com), the same engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on. Free: 100,000 characters a month; paid plans from $49. For the wider comparison including nikud and display, see the best Hebrew API ranking.

Who Each Option Is Best for

  • baba HebrewCore: Product text in Hebrew that has to be right the first time: addressed to a man or a woman, with prices, dates and codes exact, and plurals that include the Hebrew two form.
  • Google Cloud Translation: High-volume general translation across many languages at a low price per character.
  • DeepL API: Teams already on DeepL for European languages, and document translation that keeps a right-to-left layout.
  • Azure AI Translator: Teams on Azure that need Hebrew translation and Hebrew-Latin transliteration at a low price per character.
  • Amazon Translate: AWS-native pipelines that already run on Amazon services.
  • Lara Translate: Teams moving off ModernMT, or translating many languages through one API.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Hebrew translation API?

Our pick is baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew API from baba and the engine the baba translator app runs on, because it handles what Hebrew translation gets wrong: the gender of the listener and the speaker, values that must stay exact, and the Hebrew plural form for two. For the lowest price per character or the widest language coverage, Google Cloud Translation, Azure AI Translator or Amazon Translate are the better fit.

Can a translation API get Hebrew gender right?

Only if you tell it who is being addressed. baba HebrewCore takes listener_gender and speaker_gender (male or female) on protected translation, and gender (male, female, general) on every translation, so "Would you like" becomes תרצי for a woman and תרצה for a man. No gender parameter for Hebrew was documented by Google, DeepL, Azure, Amazon or Lara as of September 2026.

How do I stop a translation API from changing prices, dates or order numbers?

Use protected translation. baba HebrewCore replaces prices, amounts, dates, identifiers, emails, URLs, interface variables and your own terms with placeholders the model cannot alter, restores them afterwards, and checks every sentence. A sentence that fails the checks comes back in its source language with status fallback instead of a wrong translation.

Which Hebrew translation API is cheapest?

As of September 2026: Azure AI Translator at $10 per million characters (per a Microsoft Q&A answer), Amazon Translate at $15, Google Cloud Translation at $20 on Basic NMT, Lara at $24.99 (Pro) or $19.99 (Team), against $49 for 1 million characters on baba HebrewCore Starter.

Does DeepL translate Hebrew?

Yes. DeepL added Hebrew to DeepL Translator and the DeepL API in June 2025, as its second right-to-left language after Arabic.

Which translation APIs have an MCP server?

baba HebrewCore hosts one at hc.itsbaba.com/mcp with 16 tools. DeepL documents an MCP server on GitHub that you run yourself, and Lara lists MCP access on its pricing page. None was documented for Google Cloud Translation, Azure AI Translator or Amazon Translate as of September 2026.

Try baba HebrewCore free

Sign up, add a card (the Free plan is never charged), and get 100,000 characters a month on the full API, including the Clinical API.

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