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Quick Answer

Click the translate icon at the right end of the address bar, choose your language under Translate to, and click Translate. The page reloads in your language and the icon stays highlighted while the translation is active.

How to Translate a Web Page in Your Browser ​

Applies to: Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome; Windows 11, Windows 10, macOS
Article Type: How-To
Last Updated: 2026-07-29

Summary ​

Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome both translate a whole web page in a couple of clicks, with no add-on and no copying text into a separate site. This article covers translating on demand, setting a language to translate automatically, translating a single passage, the display-language setting people confuse it with, and the two situations where a machine translation is the wrong tool.

Prerequisites ​

  • Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, kept up to date. If your version is old, see How to Update Your Web Browser (Chrome, Edge, Safari).
  • An internet connection — both browsers translate on a server, not on your device.
  • No admin rights required. On a managed work device, translation is occasionally switched off by policy; step 2 shows you how to confirm that.

Instructions ​

1. Translate a Page When the Prompt Appears ​

When a page is written in a language you do not read, the browser offers before you ask.

  1. Open the page. A panel drops down under the address bar within a second or two.
  2. In Microsoft Edge the panel is titled Translate page to English? and shows a Translate from dropdown and a Translate to dropdown.
  3. In Google Chrome the panel shows two buttons side by side — the detected source language on the left and your language on the right — with a three-dot menu (⋮) for more options.
  4. Change the target language if the browser guessed wrong. In Edge, open the Translate to dropdown and pick a language. In Chrome, open the three-dot menu (⋮) and select Choose another language.
  5. Click Translate, or in Chrome click the button showing your target language.
  6. The page reloads in place. Layout, images, and links stay put — only the text changes. The translate icon at the right end of the address bar stays highlighted while the translation is active.

Verification: Click the highlighted translate icon. The panel that opens shows Translated to English with a Show original link, which confirms the browser is serving you the translation rather than the original.

2. Translate a Page When No Prompt Appears ​

The prompt is skipped on pages the browser thinks you already read, on pages that mix languages, and on any site you previously told it to leave alone.

  1. Look at the right end of the address bar for the translate icon — in Edge it is a small page with two letters on it; in Chrome it is a square containing a Latin letter and a non-Latin character.
  2. Click the icon. The same translate panel opens. Pick your language and click Translate.
  3. If the icon is not there, right-click any empty area of the page — not a link or an image — and select Translate to English from the context menu.
  4. If neither route works, translation is switched off. In Edge, open the ⋯ (Settings and more) menu > Settings > Languages, and turn on Offer to translate pages that aren't in a language I read. In Chrome, open the ⋮ menu > Settings > Languages, and turn on Use Google Translate.
  5. Reload the page. The icon appears in the address bar.

Note: On a work device, both of those toggles can be greyed out or missing entirely. Type edge://policy or chrome://policy in the address bar, use the Filter policies by name box, and search for Translate. If TranslateEnabled is listed with a value of false, your company has switched translation off. Raise a ticket naming that policy and the business reason you need it, and ask them whether an exception is available for your account.

3. Translate One Language Automatically Every Time ​

If you work with the same overseas team every day, the prompt gets tiresome. Turn it into a standing rule.

  1. Open a page in that language so the translate panel appears, or click the translate icon to open it.
  2. In Microsoft Edge, tick Always translate pages from Spanish at the bottom of the panel, then click Translate. Replace Spanish with whichever source language the panel names.
  3. In Google Chrome, open the three-dot menu (⋮) inside the panel and select Always translate pages in Spanish.
  4. From now on, pages in that language translate the moment they load, with no prompt.
  5. To undo it later in Edge, go to Settings > Languages, find the language under Preferred languages, click the ⋯ beside it, and clear Offer to translate pages in this language. In Chrome, go to Settings > Languages and remove the language from the Automatically translate these languages list.

Tip: The opposite rule is available in the same place. Choosing Never translate this site from the panel's menu stops the prompt on one site while leaving the rule intact everywhere else — useful for a site that is mostly in your language but has a few foreign headings that keep triggering the offer.

4. Translate Only a Selected Passage ​

Translating a whole page reflows text and can break a form you are halfway through filling in. For one paragraph, translate the selection instead.

  1. Select the text you want translated by dragging across it.
  2. Right-click the highlighted text.
  3. Select Translate selection to English from the context menu. Both browsers offer this, and both name your own language rather than English if your language is set to something else.
  4. A small panel opens over the page showing the original above and the translation below. The rest of the page is untouched.
  5. Click anywhere outside the panel to close it.

Note: If the context menu has no translate entry, your browser version predates the feature or your selection spans an element the browser cannot read, such as text baked into an image. Copy the text and paste it into translate.microsoft.com or translate.google.com instead. Text inside an image is never translated by either browser — the translator reads the page's text, not its pictures.

5. Change the Browser's Display Language, Which Is a Different Setting ​

This is the setting people reach for when they meant the one above, and vice versa. Page translation changes the content you are reading. Display language changes the browser's own menus, buttons, and settings pages.

  1. In Microsoft Edge, open Settings > Languages. Under Preferred languages, click Add languages if your language is not listed.
  2. Click the ⋯ beside the language and select Display Microsoft Edge in this language.
  3. Click Restart when Edge offers. The menus, the settings pages, and the right-click menu reopen in the new language.
  4. In Google Chrome, open Settings > Languages. Under Preferred languages, click the three-dot menu (⋮) beside the language and select Display Google Chrome in this language.
  5. Click Relaunch. Chrome restarts with its interface in the new language.

Note: Changing the browser's display language changes nothing outside the browser. Windows keeps its own language setting under Settings > Time & language > Language & region, and the Microsoft 365 desktop apps keep another under File > Options > Language. Each one is separate, and each one needs setting on its own.

6. Check a Translation Before You Rely On It ​

Machine translation is fast and good enough to work from. It is not good enough to sign.

  1. Click the translate icon and select Show original whenever a sentence reads oddly. Comparing the two side by side catches most of the errors that matter.
  2. Get a second opinion on anything important by opening the same page in the other browser. Edge translates with Microsoft Translator and Chrome translates with Google Translate — two different engines that make different mistakes, so a passage both render the same way is far more likely to be right.
  3. Stop and get a human translation for contracts, terms of business, safety instructions, medical or legal text, HR or employment terms, and anything with a number attached to a promise. A machine translation of a liability clause is not a basis for a decision.
  4. Check what you are about to send before you translate it. The page text is uploaded to Microsoft's or Google's servers to be processed, which means an internal page — payroll figures, customer records, an unreleased product roadmap, a signed contract in a document viewer — leaves your company's control the moment you click Translate.
  5. Use the selection method in step 4 for a confidential page if you need one phrase translated. Sending one sentence is a far smaller exposure than sending the whole page.

Verification: With the translation active, scroll to the bottom of the page. If some text is still in the original language, it loaded after the translation ran — press F5 to reload, then translate again to catch it.

Troubleshooting ​

WARNING

Translation sends the page's text to Microsoft or Google to be processed. Treat a translation request the same way you would treat pasting the text into any outside website. Confidential internal pages, customer data, and anything covered by an NDA belong in a human translation request through your normal channels, not in a browser translation.

Symptom / ErrorPotential CauseSolution
The translate icon is missing from the address barTranslation switched off in settingsTurn on Offer to translate pages that aren't in a language I read (Edge) or Use Google Translate (Chrome), then reload the page. See step 2.
The prompt never appears on a site you visit dailyYou chose Never translate this siteClick the translate icon, open the panel's menu, and clear the never-translate setting for that site.
Only part of the page is translatedText loaded after the translation ranScroll to the bottom to load everything, press F5, then translate again.
Text inside images stays in the original languageThe translator reads text, not picturesRetype or copy the words into translate.microsoft.com or translate.google.com. Neither browser translates text baked into an image.
The pages translate but the menus stay in EnglishDisplay language is a separate settingFollow step 5 to change the browser's own display language.
Translate options are greyed out on a work laptopPolicy disables translationCheck edge://policy or chrome://policy for TranslateEnabled. Raise a ticket naming that policy and your business reason, and ask them whether an exception is available.
A form clears itself when the page translatesTranslation reloads the page contentTranslate before you start filling the form, or use the right-click selection method in step 4 for the labels you need.