Frequently asked questions

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General

What is Glossarion?

A free, open-source app for translating books and media with AI: light novels and web novels (EPUB, TXT, PDF), manga and webtoons, subtitles and song lyrics, RPG Maker games, images and professional SDLXLIFF files. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

Is it really free? What's the catch?

There is no catch. Glossarion is AGPL-3.0 open source with no paid tier, no ads and no word limits. You only pay if you choose a paid AI provider, and then you pay that provider directly — Glossarion takes nothing.

Do I need an account?

No. There is no Glossarion account. Some AI providers need their own key or sign-in.

Which languages are supported?

Glossarion translates from any language a model understands into 64 built-in target languages — and you can add your own. Ready-made prompt profiles exist for Korean, Japanese and Chinese novels and manga, plus a universal profile.

Models & cost

Do I need an API key?

No. You can use a local model, an on-device model on your phone, a subscription login (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Grok) or a free tier. See Pick a model.

What's the cheapest way to translate a whole novel?

Free: a local model such as ollamapull/qwen3.5:9b, or a free Google AI Studio key with gemini-3.1-flash-lite (about 500 requests a day). Low-cost: an inexpensive API model such as DeepSeek, or a provider's batch API, which Glossarion supports at about half price.

Which model gives the best translations?

Large frontier models — Gemini Pro, Claude, GPT, DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM — give the most natural prose and follow the glossary best. Small local models are fine for reading along but make more mistakes. Try a few chapters with each and compare.

Can I use several API keys?

Yes. The Multi API Key Manager rotates keys, waits out rate limits and fails over on errors. You can give different keys different jobs and even run several books at once with instances.

Can it run without internet?

Yes, with a local model. On desktop use Ollama or LM Studio; on Android and iOS run a GGUF model on the device itself.

Translation quality

How do I keep character names consistent?

Turn on the glossary. Glossarion extracts names, places and terms (with gender) and sends the relevant entries with each chapter. The optional NER name check then catches misspelled names in the output.

A chapter came out wrong, cut off or repeated. Now what?

Run the QA scanner — it finds duplicate, truncated and untranslated chapters — then retranslate just those chapters from the Progress Manager. AI Hunter also catches duplicates during the run and retries them automatically.

What if a model refuses some content?

Glossarion adds no filters of its own; what a model accepts is up to its provider. Add keys to the fallback pool and refused passages are retried on another model. Local models have no provider policy.

Can I edit the prompts?

Yes. Every profile's prompt is editable, and you can create your own profiles for any language pair or style.

Platforms & install

Which desktop build should I pick?

The standard build for novels; NoCuda if you want manga translation or the NER name check; Lite or TurboLite for a smaller, faster-starting app with fewer extras. See Which download do I need?

Why isn't it on the App Store or Google Play?

Glossarion is a free community project and is distributed only through GitHub. On Android, install the APK; on iPhone and iPad, sideload the IPA with a tool like SideStore or AltStore.

Windows or macOS says the app is unsafe.

The builds aren't signed by a paid certificate, so the system warns about an unknown developer. On Windows choose More info → Run anyway; on macOS right-click the app and choose Open. You can also run Glossarion from source.

Does it update itself?

The desktop app checks GitHub for new releases, verifies the download and offers to update. On mobile, install the new APK or IPA over the old one; your data stays.

Can I move my settings from desktop to my phone?

Yes. The mobile app can import your desktop configuration and API keys.

Privacy

Where do my files and keys go?

Your files stay on your device. Text is sent only to the AI provider you select, and nowhere at all with a local model. Glossarion has no server, collects no analytics, and encrypts your API keys at rest.