Santali Machine Translation Engines, Tools (Android Apps) & Web application list

Last updated: 15.07.26

The Santali language, spoken by millions worldwide, faces a barrier in the digital age: a lack of good machine translation. While a handful of machine translation models offer some support for the Santali language, it remains vastly underserved in the digital world. This limited access creates a significant barrier for Santali speakers.

Imagine a Santali speaker wanting to read the news, access educational resources, or connect with others online. Without translation tools, these basic tasks become difficult or even impossible. Machine translation would bridge this gap, allowing Santali speakers to navigate the vast amount of information available in other languages.

Furthermore, machine translation would empower the preservation and revitalization of Santali. By making Santali content more accessible, it would encourage its use online and foster cultural exchange. This is especially important for younger generations who may be more comfortable with digital communication.

Developing machine translation for Santali is crucial for promoting digital inclusion, thanks to all the various platforms who tried to bring low resource languages to the digital world and preserving this rich indigenous language.

Here are a list of few machine translation engine/apps:

1. Glosbe Dictionary and Translate: This handy website combines translation with a built-in dictionary. Simply type in your Santali text or phrase, and Glosbe will whisk you away to the world of understanding. In future you may Integrate Glosbe Translator into your CAT tool to seamlessly translate Santali text. Configure settings, select text, and trigger translation. Review and edit the automatic translation, then save and export.
2. AI4Bharat: AI4Bharat, a research lab at IIT Madras, focuses on developing open-source resources for Indian languages, including datasets, tools, models, and applications in 22 Indic languages. AI4Bharat offers real-time translation across various Indian languages, including Santali. 
3. TexTra® - Japanese machine translation service, allows you to not only translate Santali text but also customize machine translations. They use ai4bharat model (IndicTrans2). You can even use the translation editor to create your own personalized translations. Minna no Jidō Honyaku @TexTra® is a free online machine translation service developed by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan. It uses advanced neural machine translation technology based on the latest research to provide accurate translations across multiple languages, including Santali (Ol Chiki).

   One of the platform's key advantages is its accessibility. Users can begin using the service without creating an account or providing personal information such as their name or email address. The website offers a simple interface for translating text and is particularly useful for researchers, students, and language enthusiasts who want to experiment with multilingual translation.

   As a research-driven platform, @TexTra® continues to improve its translation quality through ongoing advancements in machine translation technology, contributing to better digital support for low-resource languages like Santali. You can use this with CAT tools like OmegaT.

4. MinT - - Maybe you haven't yet heard about MinT, a groundbreaking machine translation system hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, leverages multiple Neural Machine Translation (NMT) models to bridge language barriers and provide accurate and fluent translations between a multitude of languages. Its strength lies in handling diverse language pairs and producing high-quality translations while capturing nuances and intricacies, preserving context and meaning. MinT's deployment of multiple NMT models offers a robust and flexible translation system optimized for specific language pairs, enhancing accuracy and authenticity. Integrated with the Wikimedia Foundation, MinT underscores the commitment to fostering open knowledge and cross-cultural understanding, aiming to break down language barriers and make information accessible globally.
5. Mymemory - MyMemory is an extensive Translation Memory resource, formed by gathering specialized multilingual TMs from top-notch domain-specific websites. It is managed by Translated, a professional translation service provider. If you require professional translation assistance, please visit their website. Free and anonymous use of MyMemory is limited to 5000 characters per day. However, by providing a valid email address, you can extend the daily character limit to 50000. This allows you to enjoy a more comprehensive translation experience. Note: It is not possible for now to search and contribute in mymemory.translated.net for Santali language, but you can call api in this format to get translation : https://api.mymemory.translated.net/get?q=Hello World!&langpair=en|sat for more details on api read their api page. Translation tools utilizing MyMemory: 
6. ModernMT: ModernMT which is managed by Translated, which offers professional translation services, inspired by the human brain's ability to adapt and learn. This translates to high-quality Santali translations that keep improving over time.
7. MachineTranslation.com  - Human-Level Translation which supports Santali language.
8. Devnagri Indic Machine-Translation Engine - It supports all the 22 Indian languages including Santali.
   
9. Apertium – An open-source, rule-based machine translation platform developed for low-resource languages. It supports Santali (still in beta) through community contributions and is widely used for research and language preservation. Try English-Santali pair, you can even use it offline in your system.
10. Simple Translate – A free, privacy-focused translation interface that can access multiple translation backends using Google Translate, DeepL, ICIBA, Reverso & LibreTranslate engines. It provides Santali translation only if you select Google Translate engine.
11. Mozhi – An open-source translation service that aggregates several translation providers (google, yandex, duckduckgo, libretranslate, mymemory and more) under one interface. It includes Santali (google & mymemory) among its supported languages, offering a lightweight and privacy-friendly alternative.
12. Google Translate – Santali has been supported since 2024 in Google's neural machine translation service, which supports Santali (Ol Chiki) & Santali (Latin - For those who are unable to understand Ol Chiki script), enabling translation between Santali and over 249 other languages. It is available on the web and mobile apps. It also supports voice output, although it still has a long way to go before offering full voice-to-voice translation. 
13. Kagi Translate – A privacy-oriented translation service by Kagi that supports Santali through modern AI translation models, providing high-quality translations without advertising.
14. Sarvam Translate – Developed by Sarvam AI, this multilingual AI translation platform supports official 22 Indian languages, including Santali. It focuses on accurate translation for regional languages and enterprise applications.
15. Anything Translate (Santali Translator) – A web-based AI translation tool dedicated to Santali (Ol Chiki). It allows users to translate text between Santali and multiple global languages through a simple browser interface.

  Here are a list of few machine translation Android apps:

1. TranslateYou is an Android app that seamlessly integrates the Glosbe Translate API, MinT and Mymemory to translate text in over 200 languages, including Santali. It offers machine translation using multiple engine (LibreTranslate, LingvaTranslate, DeepL translator®, MyMemory translator®, SimplyTranslate, Reverso®, Mozhi, MinT, Glosbe, Apertium, OneRingTranslator) at a time.
2. EverTranslator ScreenTranslate: EverTranslator ScreenTranslate is a versatile translation tool that enables ocr+translation without leaving the current application. It can translate any text, even uncopyable text, and offers the convenience of translating texts anytime, anywhere. These tools, powered by MyMemory and other translation engines, empower users with robust translation capabilities, making language barriers a thing of the past.

3. Instant Translate On Screen - It is an Android application that allows users to translate text displayed anywhere on their phone without leaving the current app. Using screen overlay and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, it can detect and translate text from websites, social media, messaging apps, PDFs, images, and games in real time.

   The app supports Santali (Ol Chiki) along with many other languages, making it useful for reading multilingual content directly on the screen. It also offers features such as floating translation, image translation, camera translation, and text copy-and-translate, providing a convenient experience for users who frequently work with different languages. Its ability to translate on-screen content instantly makes it a practical tool for students, travelers, researchers, and speakers of low-resource languages like Santali.

  Here are a list of few machine translation Web apps or chatbots/models:

1. Online Mymemory translator (github hosted): This self-made machine translation website utilizes the MyMemory API and is hosted on GitHub. It offers a convenient and accessible way to translate texts across various languages. 
2. AI4Bharat Arena - It is a multilingual AI platform developed by AI4Bharat (IIT Madras) for evaluating and comparing large language models (LLMs) across Indian languages. It enables users to interact with multiple AI models, compare their responses side by side, and vote for the best output, helping improve AI systems for India's linguistic diversity. The platform also includes speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS), and OCR evaluation arenas. For Santali, AI4Bharat Arena supports the Ol Chiki script through its IndicTrans2 translation models, making it one of the few open-source platforms that provide machine translation for all 22 scheduled Indian languages. Users can translate Santali text, compare outputs from different AI models, and contribute feedback to improve translation quality over time. As an open research initiative, AI4Bharat plays an important role in advancing language technology for low-resource languages such as Santali.

We are continuously exploring more machine translation engines/app, and their numbers are growing. We will update this post regularly to provide you with the latest information on Santali translation tools. Stay tuned for more updates!