Translate a Shopify Store: Translate & Adapt, CSV or App

To translate a Shopify store, add a language under Settings > Languages, then fill in the translations with the Translate & Adapt app, a CSV file or a compatible translation app. Shopify installs Translate & Adapt automatically when you add a language, and it can translate products, collections, blog posts, policies and pages by hand or with AI translations from Shopify. After you publish a language, your checkout and email notifications appear in the customer’s language too.

Add a language

Shopify’s localization and translation pages, read on October 23, 2026, describe the order:

1. Check that your theme supports multiple languages; the requirements page lists what it needs.
2. Go to Settings > Languages and add the language. Shopify installs Translate & Adapt at this point.
3. Translate the content (next section) while the language is still unpublished.
4. Publish the language and choose which markets show it.

Each published language gets its own URLs. Where a translation is missing, shoppers see your default language instead, so a store published half-translated shows English product descriptions under French menus. Translate at least the products, collections, policies and navigation before you publish. The choice between languages on subfolders, country domains or subdomains is covered in Shopify international domains.

Translate content

Open Translate & Adapt, choose the language and the content you want to translate (products, collections, blog posts, policies, pages and more), add the translation next to the original and save. The Translate & Adapt help page and the languages page describe four ways to fill those fields between them:

1. Manual. In Translate & Adapt, you control the exact wording in each language and can customize content, images and logos for specific markets.
2. Automatic. AI translations from Shopify translate content for you. Shopify says automatic translation features depend on the country where your store is located, and that in some countries Auto-sync keeps automatic translations up to date each week.
3. CSV. Export, translate outside Shopify (or send it to a translator) and import the file back. This is also how you find resource types that app search does not cover.
4. A translation app. Translate & Adapt works with third-party translation apps that use the Translations API.

Check the limits before you commit: Shopify lists content that cannot be translated in the app, namely collection filters, forms made with the Shopify Forms app, manual payment method instructions, product images, tags, and third-party app content that is not a translatable resource type. Fourteen languages, including Latin, Cebuano and Scots Gaelic, cannot be translated with the app, according to its requirements page. URL handles can be translated, but not per market, and the word “products” in a URL cannot be translated. Translations are not deleted when you uninstall the app. Review automatic output for product names, sizes and any legal text before you publish.

Adapt each market’s content

Shopify’s manual mode lets you adapt content to a market as well as translate it. We publish this blog in eight languages and write the non-English articles from their own briefs rather than translating the English ones, because search queries, examples and even the words people use for Shopify features differ by country. Work through this list per market:

• Images and logos: text inside images stays in the original language, since product images are not translated; replace them for the market.
• Units and formats: inches or centimeters, date and currency formats, size charts.
• Spelling and wording: one English for the US and one for the UK if you sell in both; for other languages, write natively rather than translating word by word.
• Policies: shipping and return rules differ by country. Translate them, then check them against local law.
• Metafields, theme settings and app text: some resource types are missing from app search, such as metafields, email templates and shop policies, so check them in a CSV export.

Prices and currency are handled separately; see multi-currency selling. For search results in other languages, the Shopify SEO hub has the guides, and the rest of the setup is in the running a store hub.

When a translation app is worth it

Translate & Adapt is free, rated 4.4 from 1,395 reviews, and its listing says you can use translations by Shopify for up to 2 languages, or 8 in select countries (all listings read October 31, 2026). Stay with it if you translate into one or two languages and review the text yourself.

Look at a translation app when you need more languages, a glossary for brand terms, translated text inside images or a team review workflow:

Both listings name image translation, and Weglot’s names glossary rules. Word-based plans need an estimate first: a catalog of 300 products with 150-word descriptions is 45,000 words before titles, pages and the theme, which rules out Weglot’s Starter plan and leaves about 5,000 words on Business for everything else. Test any app on one collection before you buy, and translate the pages that earn traffic first.

Frequently asked questions

Is Translate & Adapt free? The app is free, and Shopify installs it automatically when you add a language. Its listing limits automatic translations by Shopify to 2 languages, or 8 in select countries.

Does Shopify translate checkout? After you publish a language, checkout and email notifications appear in the customer’s language, and you can edit and preview the email translations for each language.

Can I translate product images? Translate & Adapt cannot translate them: product images are on Shopify’s list of content that cannot be translated in the app. Manual mode lets you customize images and logos for specific markets, and Weglot and langify both list image translation.