Guide
How much does it cost to translate a Shopify store?
Ask what it costs to translate a store and the honest answer is: it depends on three numbers. How many words you have, how many languages you want, and how often your content changes.
Number one: your words
Count what a shopper can actually read. A typical product, with its title, description, options and SEO text, has somewhere between 100 and 300 words. Collections, pages and blog posts usually add a few thousand words, more if you blog. And then there’s the part people forget: theme texts, menus, policies and emails, often 5,000 to 15,000 words on their own. Your policies alone can be several thousand.
A quick example: 300 products of about 150 words, plus 15,000 words of everything else, comes to roughly 60,000 words.
Number two: your languages
Most apps count translated words, so every language counts separately. That same example store in three languages translates about 180,000 words the first time round.
Number three: how much you change
Here’s the reassuring part. After that first translation, only new and changed text needs translating. A store that adds a few products a week uses a small fraction of its first month’s words. When you compare apps, check whether they count words per month, as a one-off total, or charge per extra word, because that makes a big difference over a year.
What it costs with Unlost
| Unlost plan | Price | Languages | Products | Words a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 | 50 | 40,000 |
| Starter | $13.99 / month | 2 | 300 | 200,000 |
| Growth | $29.99 / month | 5 | 1,000 | 600,000 |
| Pro | $59.99 / month | 10 | 2,500 | 1,500,000 |
Paying yearly gives two months free. Words count once per language: 100 words translated into 3 languages count as 300. On every paid plan, new and changed content is translated automatically within a minute; on Free you translate new content with one click.
The example store, about 180,000 words into three languages, fits comfortably in the Growth plan at $29.99 a month, automatic updates within a minute included. You don’t have to guess, either: the Plans page in the app shows how many words your own store has before you choose.
The costs that don’t show on the pricing page
Whatever app you look at, ask three questions. Do I need my own API key for DeepL, Google or OpenAI, and pay for that separately? Is automatic translation of new content included, or only on the top plan? And are there limits on products, glossary rules or languages on top of the word count? The answers can easily double what a plan really costs you.
Questions
How many words does a Shopify store have?
A small store often has 20,000 to 60,000 words including theme texts, policies and emails; a store with a thousand products can have several hundred thousand.
Do I pay again when I change a product?
Only the changed text is translated again, so ongoing costs are much lower than the first translation.
Try Unlost on your store
Free for one language and up to 50 products. Paid plans keep every language up to date within a minute of a change.
Read next
- Shopify translation apps compared (2026)
Translate & Adapt, Weglot, T Lab, Transcy, LangShop and Unlost side by side: free plans, prices, automatic updates and what each is good at.
- How to keep Shopify translations up to date
Translations go out of date the moment you add a product or change a price note. Why it happens, how to spot it, and how to keep every language in sync.
- Weglot alternative for Shopify: Weglot vs Unlost
Weglot and Unlost compared for Shopify stores: plans, word limits, automatic updates and what each translates.