Technical translation
Reach new markets and meet regulatory requirements with accurate, compliant translations delivered efficiently through automation.
What is technical translation?
Technical translation is the process of converting knowledge bases, support content, manuals, and product descriptions into different languages. Given the high volume and complexity of this content, AI and automation are essential to simplify workflows and maintain speed, accuracy, and consistency.

The challenge of translating technical content at scale
Translating technical content takes more than just fluency. It takes precision, consistency, and deep subject knowledge.
From safety instructions to product specs, there’s no room for ambiguity. But with high volumes, constant updates, and complex formatting, quality alone isn’t enough. Your technical content translation process also needs to be scalable, automated, and built to keep up with the pace of your documentation.
How Phrase supports technical authoring teams
Built-in term base, QA and translation memory
When you’re managing technical content, the wrong word can become a risk. Phrase gives you full control over domain-specific terminology with customizable term bases, usage rules, and automated enforcement to ensure consistency across products, versions, and markets.
And with built-in translation memory, teams can reuse approved segments across documents and versions, speeding up turnaround without sacrificing quality.

Built for expert review, not rework
Accurate technical content demands expert input. Phrase TMS lets you create project templates that route work to trusted, pre-approved translation providers with subject-matter expertise.
To make the most of their time, automated quality scoring flags only the segments that need attention. Experts focus where it counts, while high-confidence translations move forward without delay.

Automated workflows built for documentation platforms
Phrase integrates with tools like Tridion Docs, Paligo, Salesforce Knowledge, and Zendesk, detecting new or updated content and automatically sending it for translation. Translations return ready to publish, helping teams deliver accurate, multilingual documentation without copying, pasting, or chasing updates.


Translate high-volume content with confidence
Technical documentation often involves high word counts. Many customers choose machine translation (MT) combined with AI-powered optimization to achieve a sufficient translation quality level without requiring human review.
INTEGRATIONS
Integrations for technical content translation.
Stay in your authoring environment. Phrase connects to Tridion Docs, Paligo, Salesforce, and more to automate translation and return content ready to go live.

Tridion Docs
Translate technical documentation from your component content management system with AI-powered, automated workflows, ensuring accuracy and cost efficiency.

Paligo
Translate content as an integral part of the full authoring process. With automated workflows, your technical authoring teams can scale their processes for global users without ever leaving Paligo.

Salesforce Knowledge
Give your customers the most up-to-date assistance in their language. Phrase automatically sends new content for translation, reducing the number of times your customers need to contact support.
Zendesk Guide
Enjoy fully automated translation workflows.
New content is detected whenever you update your help center and sent to Phrase for translation. Customers will always have the most up-to-date assistance in their language.
Watch on demand:
Bridging the strategic gap between technical content and translation
Reliable and secure
The Phrase Localization Platform follows best practices in security, stability and performance. This means we comply with the Principles and Security Statements of ISO 27001, PCI DSS, AWS, CCPA and GDPR. Our infrastructure is one of the most resilient and robust available (zero downtime deployments and a 99.9% uptime), and we work hard to ensure it stays that way.
What technical authoring teams achieve with Phrase
20M+
words translated via the Zendesk integration
High-volume support and help documentation delivered automatically, accurately and ready to publish
19.2%
quality increase using the optimal MT engine
Phrase selects the best machine translation engine for your content type, improving outcomes for technical documentation
92%
of customers save time with Phrase TMS
Structured workflows and automation replace manual handoffs to speed up technical translation from authoring to delivery
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Here to field your questions on technical translation
How does Phrase ensure the quality of technical translations?
There are three key aspects: terminology management, linguist selection, and review processes.
Before launching technical translation projects, invest time in building your term base. Some linguists specialize in term base translation. Once your multilingual term base is ready, Phrase TMS ensures consistent term usage with automated QA checks and AI post-editing. These capabilities automatically replace incorrect terms with approved ones while preserving sentence fluency.
Selecting linguists with subject-matter expertise is equally important. In Phrase TMS, you can use automatic linguist selection, suggest linguists who worked on similar projects, or define vetted providers in your project templates. For critical content, such as patents, we recommend adding extra review steps or a language quality assessment (LQA). Both can be easily configured in Phrase TMS.
Should machine translation be used for technical translations?
For large-scale content like a help center with 100,000+ words or a 100-page product manual that needs to be translated into 30 languages for regulatory compliance, MT is often the only cost-effective option.
Phrase TMS offers advanced MT and AI features to ensure you achieve the highest possible quality from automated translations. MT Autoselect picks the best engine for each language pair and content type. AI post-editing ensures terminology from your term base is applied correctly and improves overall fluency and consistency. To monitor translation quality at scale, you can use Phrase’s Quality Performance Score (QPS), which grades each segment and enables tracking across languages and over time in Analytics dashboards.
How does Phrase handle the costs of technical translations?
Specialized linguists often charge more for technical translations, so it’s crucial to use their time efficiently, focusing on content that truly requires expert attention. You can set a QPS threshold and route only lower-scoring segments for human review.
Phrase TMS includes all the tools needed to automate quotes and cost management. You can set up net rate schemes per translator, and quotes will reflect the net word count only. Non-translatables, translation memory matches, and MT output with a 100% quality score can be excluded automatically.
With the Analytics feature, you get a clear view of costs by provider, language, or domain.
Can Phrase handle API docs and dev-facing markdown files?
Yes, Phrase supports localization of API documentation and .md (Markdown) files through Phrase TMS and the Phrase Language AI API. You can upload, translate, and download markdown files, with support for automated workflows, quality evaluation (QPS), and seamless integration into developer toolchains.
How does Phrase preserve technical formatting in translations?
Phrase preserves technical formatting by recognizing and protecting code syntax, placeholders, tags, and other structured elements during translation. It supports file types like Markdown, HTML, JSON, XML, and more, ensuring key technical elements remain untouched. Additionally, Phrase Language AI and Phrase NextMT use advanced tag handling and automated placement to maintain formatting accuracy throughout the localization process.
Can we review translations in-house before publishing?
Yes, Phrase allows your in-house team to review translations before they go live. With built-in review workflows in Phrase TMS and collaboration features in Phrase Strings, you can assign review tasks, add comments, and approve content before final delivery or release. This ensures quality control and alignment with your brand and technical standards.
How does Phrase handle terminology and technical terms?
Phrase offers advanced terminology management, allowing you to define required, preferred, or forbidden terms. Terms can be linked and categorized by product or domain. Our AI agents also check terminology compliance automatically so your translated content stays accurate and on-brand.
Is machine translation suitable for technical content?
Many customers use machine translation for high-volume technical documentation, especially when paired with Phrase’s automated quality scoring and AI optimization. You can combine MT with human review where needed, or rely on MT only for lower-priority content.



























