Best Manga Translator in 2026: 8 Tools Compared

There is no single best manga translator: the right one depends on whether you read on websites or from files, whether you want the text lettered into the bubbles or laid over them, and whether you are willing to install anything. This comparison looks at eight manga translators on what a reader notices, and it is written by the team behind one of them, Serifu. Every fact about another tool comes from that tool's own website or repository, checked on 4 October 2026; where a page does not say something, neither do we.

What makes a manga translator good

• Context. A page translated on its own loses who is speaking and how names are spelled. A translator that reads the page, or the pages before it, keeps them.
• How the translation is shown. A box laid over the bubble is readable; the original text removed and the translation lettered inside the bubble reads like a translated volume.
• Text on the art. Bubbles sit on white and are easy. Titles, signs and captions drawn on the picture need the art redrawn behind them.
• Where your pages come from. Translating images on a website needs an extension. A downloaded volume (CBZ, ZIP, PDF) needs a tool that takes files.
• Price and privacy. Per image or per page, credits or subscriptions; and what happens to your pages.

At a glance

Tool	What it is	Pages from	Shown as	Price (as stated)
Serifu	Website and desktop app	Files: folder, CBZ, ZIP, PDF, images	Text removed, lettered in the bubble	1 credit a page; 100 pages $5.99 to 1,500 $59.99; 5 free pages
Torii	Extension, website, app	Any website; uploaded images; PDF	In place, editable	Credit packs from $5.99 for 2,500; "about 1 credit" an image
mangatranslate.com	Website, plugin, API	Images, PDF, ZIP, TAR	Erased and refilled, editable	5 free credits a day; plans from $8 a month
Scan Translator	Extension, website	Websites; images, folders, ZIP	Redrawn over the art	30 free credits; packs from €5.99; €12.99 a month unlimited
Ichigo Reader	Extension, apps, upload	Websites; PDF, ZIP, images	Not stated	Free trial; from $5.99 a month
Google Translate / Lens	Phone app, website	Camera, photos, an image	Over the image	Free
Koharu	Open-source desktop app	Images, CBZ, ZIP, RAR, PDF	Lettered, editable, PSD	Free; runs models on your computer
BallonsTranslator	Open-source desktop app	A folder of images	Lettered, rich-text editor	Free; runs models on your computer

The tools

Serifu

Serifu translates whole volumes from files, in the browser on serifu.net or in the app for macOS and Windows. Each page is read with the two pages before it, so names and speakers stay right, and the translation is lettered inside each bubble with the original text removed. In the browser you can change a line and see it lettered again. The app adds a glossary and character list sent with every page, the lettering of every line (font, size, spacing, colours), Retouch this page for text drawn on the art, one volume in several languages, and layered PSD export. No graphics card, no API keys.

• Better at: reading a downloaded volume as if it were translated; names kept the same; text on the art.
• Not for: translating images on a website as you browse (there is no extension), webtoon strips (not yet), or the lowest price per image: a page is 1 credit, 4 to 6 US cents depending on the pack.

Torii

Torii is a browser extension (Chromium browsers, Firefox and Android, Safari and iOS) and a website, with one account for "browser extension, desktop app, and our web tools". It translates images "directly on any website with a single click", or images you upload, and shows "in-place text translations" whose font, size, stroke and wording you can change; an AI inpainting tool removes text. You can select a span of images to share context between them. Credits never expire; packs start at 2,500 credits for $5.99, and an image "usually costs about 1 credit". It translates between 120+ languages.

• Better at: reading on websites; price per image; the number of languages.

mangatranslate.com

A website ("no signup") with a plugin and an API. You upload images, PDF, ZIP or TAR files (up to 15 MB a page, 100 images an upload); it says it erases and refills the text with adaptive size and line breaks, and an online editor lets you correct lines, move text and change fonts. Free: 5 credits a day; plans from $8 a month for 1,980 credits, about $0.004 a standard image.

• Better at: a quick upload without an account; price per image.

Scan Translator

A Chrome and Firefox extension and an upload page. It translates "while you read online", or images, folders and ZIP files you upload, including long vertical strips, and "redraws the translation cleanly over the original art". 30 free credits at sign-up, credit packs from €5.99 for 2,500, or €12.99 a month for 20,000 fast translations. Translated images are kept for up to 90 days.

• Better at: webtoon strips; reading online.

Ichigo Reader

An extension, phone apps and an upload page. It "works on every manga site" with its Unlocker or Panel Tool, takes PDF, ZIP and image uploads, and "uses full-context on PDFs and ZIPs". A free trial without registration; plans from $5.99 a month.

• Better at: reading on manga websites with full-volume context for uploads.

Google Translate and Lens

Free. Point the camera at a page, pick a photo, or upload an image on translate.google.com, and the translation appears over the image, with a toggle to show the original. Google notes that "small, unclear, or stylized text may result in lower accuracy", which describes a lot of manga lettering. Each image is translated on its own.

• Better at: a single page, right now, for nothing.

Koharu

An open-source desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux (MIT or Apache-2.0) that "runs its vision models and LLMs locally": text detection, OCR, inpainting, translation with a local or a hosted model, an editor, typesetting and layered PSD export. It opens images, CBZ, ZIP, RAR and PDF. It runs on NVIDIA (CUDA), AMD (ROCm), Apple silicon (Metal) or Vulkan; CPU inference is "substantially slower". Models download the first time you use them. Serifu is built on Koharu's open-source code; we are not affiliated with its authors. More in Koharu manga translator without a GPU.

• Better at: free, private, every model under your control, if your computer can run it.

BallonsTranslator

An open-source desktop app (GPL-3.0) for Windows, macOS and Linux: detection, OCR, text removal, translation with a choice of machine translators or an LLM, and a rich-text editor that typesets from the original's layout, with a glossary and context from earlier pages. It opens a folder of images and speeds up with an NVIDIA GPU or Apple silicon.

• Better at: free, and a full editor for people who typeset by hand.

Which one should you use?

• You read on websites: an extension: Torii, Scan Translator or Ichigo Reader.
• You have the volume as files and want to read it as a translated book: Serifu, in the browser, nothing to install.
• You want to fix the lettering, keep a series consistent or remove text drawn on the art: the Serifu app, Koharu or BallonsTranslator.
• You want it free and have a capable graphics card: Koharu or BallonsTranslator.
• One page, now: Google Lens.

FAQ

Which manga translator is the most accurate?

Accuracy depends mostly on two things: the translation model, and how much of the story it sees. A translator that reads the page with the pages before it gets speakers, names and numbers right far more often than one that translates each bubble alone. Try your own pages: most of these tools give some pages or credits free.

What is the best free manga translator?

For a page at a time, Google Lens. For whole volumes, Koharu and BallonsTranslator are free and open source, if your computer can run their models. Serifu gives 5 free pages when you sign up.

Is translating manga legal?

Translating a book you own for your own reading is different from sharing it; sharing translated copies without the publisher's permission infringes its copyright. This is not legal advice.