Your first API request

Make your first API requests to translate and improve text with the DeepL API.

Once you've created a DeepL API account and located your authentication key, you're ready to make your first requests.

Text translation

To translate text, you can use the /translate endpoint, which also supports translation of XML and HTML content.

We included text translation examples for our client libraries, too, just to give you an idea of what they look like.

cURL

The example below uses our API Pro endpoint https://api.deepl.com. If you're an API Free user, remember to update your requests to use https://api-free.deepl.com instead.

Example request

curl -X POST 'https://api.deepl.com/v2/translate' \
--header 'Authorization: DeepL-Auth-Key [yourAuthKey]' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
  "text": [
    "Hello, world!"
  ],
  "target_lang": "DE"
}'

Example response

{
  "translations": [
    {
      "detected_source_language": "EN",
      "text": "Hallo, Welt!"
    }
  ]
}

HTTP Request

The example below uses our API Pro endpoint https://api.deepl.com. If you're an API Free user, remember to update your requests to use https://api-free.deepl.com instead.

POST /v2/translate HTTP/2
Host: api.deepl.com
Authorization: DeepL-Auth-Key [yourAuthKey] 
User-Agent: YourApp/1.2.3
Content-Length: 45
Content-Type: application/json

{"text":["Hello, world!"],"target_lang":"DE"}

{
  "translations": [
    {
      "detected_source_language": "EN",
      "text": "Hallo, Welt!"
    }
  ]
}

Python

import deepl

auth_key = "f63c02c5-f056-..."  # Replace with your key
translator = deepl.Translator(auth_key)

result = translator.translate_text("Hello, world!", target_lang="FR")
print(result.text)  # "Bonjour, le monde !"

PHP

$authKey = "f63c02c5-f056-..."; // Replace with your key
$translator = new \DeepL\Translator($authKey);

$result = $translator->translateText('Hello, world!', null, 'fr');
echo $result->text; // Bonjour, le monde!

C#

var authKey = "f63c02c5-f056-..."; // Replace with your key
var translator = new Translator(authKey);

// Translate text into a target language, in this case, French:
var translatedText = await translator.TranslateTextAsync(
      "Hello, world!",
      LanguageCode.English,
      LanguageCode.French);
Console.WriteLine(translatedText); // "Bonjour, le monde !"
// Note: printing or converting the result to a string uses the output text.

Node.js

import * as deepl from 'deepl-node';

const authKey = "f63c02c5-f056-..."; // Replace with your key
const translator = new deepl.Translator(authKey);

(async () => {
    const result = await translator.translateText('Hello, world!', null, 'fr');
    console.log(result.text); // Bonjour, le monde !
})();

Java

import com.deepl.api.*;

class Example {
    Translator translator;

    public Example() throws Exception {
        String authKey = "f63c02c5-f056-...";  // Replace with your key
        translator = new Translator(authKey);
        TextResult result =
                translator.translateText("Hello, world!", null, "fr");
        System.out.println(result.getText()); // "Bonjour, le monde !"
    }
}

Text improvement

To improve text, you can use the /write/rephrase endpoint. We included an example below.

The text improvement endpoint (DeepL API for Write) is currently only available to Pro API subscribers via the v2 endpoint.

Write API example: cURL

Example cURL request

curl -X POST 'https://api.deepl.com/v2/write/rephrase' \
--header 'Authorization: DeepL-Auth-Key [yourAuthKey]' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
  "text": [
    "I could relly use sum help with edits on thiss text !"
  ],
  "target_lang": "en-US"
}'

Example response

{
  "improvements": [
    {
      "text": "I could really use some help with editing this text!",
      "target_language": "en-US",
      "detected_source_language": "en"
    }
  ]
}