Replace the Google Translate website widget

The dropdown is retired.
Your visitors still need it.

Google ended support for its Website Translator widget on 1 October 2026. That is the free “Select Language” dropdown added with a short JavaScript snippet. Google Translate and the paid Cloud Translation API carry on; only the widget is affected. Here is how to find it on your site, what to replace it with, and how to move to Builderify Translations in an afternoon.

Replace it free Check my site first
Website Translator widget Unsupported since today

By the Builderify team

01 Google’s dropdown, unsupported 02 One script tag instead 03 27 languages, right-to-left too
01 / What changed

What exactly did
Google end?

One product, and only one: the Website Translator widget, also called the Google Translate website widget. It is the snippet that loads translate_a/element.js, calls google.translate.TranslateElement and draws the language dropdown that translates your pages in the visitor’s browser.

Where things stand1 October 2026
  • Website Translator widget
    The free embed and its dropdown
    Unsupported
  • Google Translate
    translate.google.com and the apps
    Carries on
  • Cloud Translation API
    Google's paid developer API
    Carries on
Google’s notice
As reported by GTranslate, ConveyThis and WPHive

“Starting October 1, 2026, Google Translate’s Website Translator Widget will no longer be supported. Site owners requiring ongoing, automated translation can transition to the Google Cloud API.”

How it got here

  1. 2019
    New commercial installs stop

    Google closes the widget to new commercial sites.

  2. 2020
    Non-commercial use only

    Reopened for government, non-profit, academic and other non-commercial sites, per Google at the time.

  3. 1 Oct 2026
    Support ends

    The widget is no longer supported. Google points to the Cloud Translation API.

  4. From now
    Existing installs, on their own

    They may keep working for a while. Nothing gets fixed when they stop.

The 2019 and 2020 restrictions are from Google’s 2020 announcement.

02 / Still working?

Will the Google Translate widget
stop working today?

Not necessarily, and that is the trap. “No longer supported” is not the same as switched off at midnight. On many sites the dropdown will keep translating for a while. When it does break, through a change on Google’s side, a browser update or a clash with your theme, nobody fixes it and nobody tells you.

01

The dropdown disappears

The script stops loading and the spot where your language menu sat is simply empty. Visitors who needed it have no idea it was ever there.

02

Translation never finishes

The menu opens, a language is picked, and the page stays half in one language and half in another.

03

The page shifts

Google's banner pushes the layout down, or the CSS you wrote to hide it no longer matches, and your header lands somewhere new.

A language switcher that fails quietly is worse than none at all. Replacing it on your own schedule beats replacing it the week it stops.

03 / Check your site

How to tell if your site
still uses the widget.

Open any page, choose View page source, and search for translate_a/element.js. If it is there, so is the widget. Or paste the source into the checker and let it look for every piece at once.

Not in the source? Look where snippets hide

  • Your site builder's custom code or code injection settings, header and footer
  • Your theme's header or footer template, if you edit theme files
  • A WordPress plugin that adds a Google Translate dropdown for you
  • A tag manager container, if you load scripts through one
Google widget checker Runs in your browser
Nothing you paste leaves this page

The standard install, with the parts to remove marked

<!-- the dropdown's container -->
<div id="google_translate_element"></div>

<script>
  function googleTranslateElementInit() {
    new google.translate.TranslateElement({ pageLanguage: 'en' }, 'google_translate_element');
  }
</script>
<script src="//translate.google.com/translate_a/element.js?cb=googleTranslateElementInit"></script>

/* and any CSS written to hide Google's banner */
.goog-te-banner-frame { display: none !important; }
04 / Your options

Your options for replacing
the Google Translate widget.

Four realistic paths. Which one fits depends on whether you have a developer, how much the words need to be right, and whether you want another monthly bill.

Option 1

Leave it in

Wait and see
You get
Machine translation, for as long as it keeps working
You need
Nothing, until it breaks
Who checks the words
Nobody: visitors see raw machine output
You pay
Nothing, and nothing is supported
Option 2

Cloud Translation API

Build it yourself
You get
Google's machine translation as an API, with no dropdown included
You need
A developer to build the switcher, caching and page updates
Who checks the words
Whoever you build that step for
You pay
Per character, after a monthly free allowance
Option 3

A translation plugin

GTranslate, ConveyThis, Weglot, TranslatePress
You get
A ready-made switcher, usually machine translation you can edit
You need
A plugin install or a snippet
Who checks the words
You, where the vendor lets you edit
You pay
Varies; most add paid plans above a free tier
Recommended here

Builderify Translations

One script tag, any site
You get
A switcher in 27 languages, right-to-left included
You need
One script tag, on any site builder
Who checks the words
You: nothing reaches a visitor as a draft
You pay
250 free credits a month, no monthly fee
Start free

Plugin pricing changes often, so check each vendor’s current plans. Google publishes Cloud Translation pricing per character.

Google’s widget showed visitors

Raw machine output, the moment it came back. Product names, brand names and codes translated along with everything else, and no way to correct a line before it went out.

Builderify shows visitors

Only what you have approved. Every string is drafted and published in a workbench, anything you are unsure of can be flagged for review, and brand names and product codes can be marked to stay exactly as they are.

05 / The move

Moving from the Google widget
to Builderify, step by step.

An afternoon, most of it spent on the translations themselves rather than the setup.

  1. 01

    Take the Google widget out

    Delete the google_translate_element div, the googleTranslateElementInit function and the element.js script, plus any goog-te CSS that hid its banner. Two switchers on one page will fight each other.

  2. 02

    Add the Builderify script tag

    Create a free account and paste the one tag into your site’s <head>. It works on WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Framer and hand-written HTML, with step-by-step instructions for each in the dashboard.

  3. 03

    Switch Translations on, pick languages

    Set the language your site is written in, then choose from 27 locales. Keep admin and checkout paths out of the queue, and decide whether placeholders, titles and alt text are translated too.

  4. 04

    Turn training on

    As people browse, the snippet reports the text it finds back in small batches, each piece stored once with the page it came from. Opening your most important pages yourself puts them in the queue straight away.

  5. 05

    Translate and approve

    Work down the queue one language at a time. Save drafts, flag anything you are unsure of for review, mark brand names to be ignored, and publish when it reads right.

  6. 06

    Show the language switcher

    Turn the switcher on with your own label. Published translations are served from a cached dictionary on the visitor’s next page load, and Arabic and Hebrew flip the page to right-to-left by themselves.

Not sure which languages to start with? User Journey shows the country of every visitor, which beats guessing. Translations is one of 19 modules on the same script tag; see them all.

06 / The cost

What replacing the widget
with Builderify costs.

Every account gets 250 usage credits free each month. Translating one string into one language uses 0.1 credits, and every 1,000 page loads with the widget on them use 10. There is no subscription: if you outgrow the free credits, one-time packs start at $9 and never expire.

For example, 400 strings in 3 languages is 1,200 translation rows, or 120 credits. With 5,000 page loads that month, the total is 170 credits, inside the free 250. Each website holds up to 5,000 strings. The full rate card is on the pricing page.

Your first monthBuilderify
400
3
5,000
Translation rows (1,200 × 0.1)120
Page loads (5k × 10)50
Free this month−170
Credits to buy0
Covered by your free 250 credits.

No card, no subscription. You only top up if you outgrow it.

Start free and replace the widget
07 / SEO

What removing the Google Translate widget
means for SEO.

The worry

Removing the widget will hurt my rankings.

What actually happens

It will not. The widget translated pages inside each visitor's browser, so search engines only ever indexed your original language. Taking it out removes no translated pages from search, because there were none.

The worry

Any replacement will make my translations rank.

What actually happens

Only if it publishes a separate URL per language with hreflang tags. Builderify Translations, like the widget it replaces, swaps the text on the page for the visitor: it is built for the people already on your site. If other languages need to rank in their own right, plan translated pages, whichever tool you use.

Questions

The Google Translate widget, before you ask.

It may keep working on some sites for a while, but Google no longer supports it from 1 October 2026. When it breaks, through a change on Google's side, a browser update or a clash with your theme, nothing will be fixed and you will not be warned. Treat it as something to replace now rather than wait for it to stop.

Google points site owners who need ongoing automated translation to its Cloud Translation API. That is a developer API billed per character, not a ready-made dropdown, so someone has to build the language switcher, caching and page updates around it. Translation plugins and services, Builderify Translations among them, give you a ready-made switcher instead.

Builderify Translations is free to start. Every account gets 250 usage credits a month, and translating one string into one language uses 0.1 of them, so 1,000 translation rows fit in 100 credits. There is no monthly fee; if you need more, one-time packs start at $9 and purchased credits never expire.

No. The widget translated pages in each visitor's browser, so search engines only ever indexed your original language, and removing it takes no translated pages out of search. Builderify Translations also swaps the text for visitors rather than publishing a URL per language, so if you need other languages to rank in search, plan separate translated pages with hreflang tags.

Delete the google_translate_element div, the googleTranslateElementInit function and the script tag that loads translate_a/element.js, wherever your site keeps custom code. Remove any CSS you added to hide Google's banner too, usually rules mentioning goog-te. Then add your replacement, so visitors are never left without a switcher.

Sources

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