How to Translate PDF in Microsoft Edge Browser [2 Methods]

With the power of artificial intelligence (AI), translation has been made easier like never before. The Microsoft Edge browser is now more than a mediocre web browser, it’s now even a PDF reader with a PDF translation feature.

Learn from the step-by-step tutorials about 3 free and easy methods to translate PDF using Microsoft Edge and free alternatives.

👉Additionally, you are also highly recommended to try PDFgear, a free AI PDF reader that allows you to translate PDF content while reading.

How to Translate PDF in Edge Browser

Microsoft Edge, now with the Copilot integration, serves as a rather practical tool to translate PDFs while you read. Whenever you come across sentences and paragraphs you don’t recognize, you get to instantly translate the text using the AI assistant on the sidebar.

Note that Microsoft Edge works best with editable PDFs. So if you’re working with scanned PDF documents that are unselectable, you need to first find a way to extract text from it.

To get started, you need Microsoft Edge installed on your device. You can either get it from its official website or Microsoft Store.

Step 1. Drag and drop the PDF you need to translate into the Edge browser. Click the upper-right Copilot icon to open Copilot on the sidebar.

Step 2. Select the text you need to translate, and click Copy from the pop-up context menu to copy the text.

Step 3. Go to Copilot and input this text prompt: Translate the following text into [YOUR DESIRED LANGUAGE], followed by the copied text.

Step 4. Lastly, press Enter on the keyboard and Microsoft Edge will start translating for you. Whenever you come across any unknown paragraphs, repeat the steps above.

Moreover, there’s also an inbuilt translation feature in Microsoft Edge, when you copy the text in PDF, click the triple dots icon ⋯ , and then Translation selection, that’ll also translate the selected text in the sidebar.

How To Translate PDF Using AI for Free

If you’re running on Windows 10 or earlier, or simply don’t have the Edge browser on your computer, then PDFgear Chatbot is also a good choice here.

PDFgear is an AI-powered PDF reader for users to translate text while reading using AI. What PDFgear has to offer is the unique feature for you to chat and interact with PDF documents, and get accurate summarization in seconds.

Apart from PDF translation, PDFgear Chatbot also offers to rewrite content in PDF, which is extremely useful for content creators.

Step 1. Launch PDFgear on your device, and hit the Open File button to import the PDF file for translation.

Step 2. Hit the lower-right chatbot icon to open the PDFgear chatbot, where you can translate the PDF while you read.

Step 3. When you need to translate text in the PDF, select the text and hit Copy from the pop-up menu.

Step 4. Go to PDFgear chatbot and type in prompts like “translate the following into [YOUR DESIRED LANGUAGE]”, followed by pasting the copied PDF text.

Step 5. Click Send and PDFgear will start translating the content into your desired language.

Bonus: Translate PDF Using Windows Copilot

If you’re running a Windows computer and you have Windows Copilot available on your devices, then using it to translate your small-sized PDF files is also an excellent idea.

Windows Copilot is an AI assistant built into Windows 11, it functions just like the Copilot in Edge browser, but outside of the browser. It works with Bing Chat to help improve productivity, and it also helps translate local PDF files.

For this, you need to first convert PDF to JPG as Windows Copilot only works with image files as a file input.

Step 1. Click on the Copilot (PRE) button from the lower taskbar on your Windows computer.

Step 2. Click the camera icon under the chat box on the Copilot screen to the right. As you can see, Copilot also works with web images from URLs.

Step 3. Use the text prompt to ask Copilot to translate the text in the image for you, and Copilot will leverage OCR to extract text in the image and do the job for you.

FAQs

Does Microsoft Edge have a built-in PDF translator?

Yes, Microsoft Edge has a built-in PDF translator powered by Microsoft Translator. This feature allows you to translate PDF documents directly within the browser without needing to install any additional extensions or software.

How do I access the PDF translation feature in Microsoft Edge?

To access the PDF translation feature, open the PDF document in Microsoft Edge. Once the document is open, right-click on the document and select “Translate to [your preferred language]” from the context menu.

Which languages are supported by the PDF translation feature in Microsoft Edge?

Microsoft Edge supports translation to and from over 60 languages, including major languages like English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, and many more. You can find the full list of supported languages on the Microsoft Translator website.

Is the PDF translation feature in Microsoft Edge free to use?

Yes, the PDF translation feature in Microsoft Edge is free to use. There are no additional costs or subscription fees associated with using this feature.

Can I translate a scanned or image-based PDF in Microsoft Edge?

Yes. While Microsoft Edge’s PDF translation feature originally only worked with text-based PDFs, now with the AI-powered Copilot, it uses OCR to extract text in images for translation.