---
title: "Translating with autotranslate"
manual: "LLM Foundation"
version: "main"
permalink: "https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/netresearch/nr-llm:translating-with-autotranslate@main"
source: "Administration/Autotranslate.rst"
rendered: "2026-11-12T15:41:35+00:00"
---

# Translating with autotranslate {#translating-with-autotranslate}

## Page trees and records in the background {#administration-autotranslate}

The extension
[thieleundklose/autotranslate](https://extensions.typo3.org/extension/autotranslate)
translates page trees and records in the background, again when the source
changes, switched per table and field in the site configuration, with news and
file references along. It translates with DeepL. nr-llm can do the translating
instead, through DeepL or the language model, with nr-llm's usage tracking and
budgets ([ADR-289](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/netresearch/nr-llm:adr-289@main)). autotranslate keeps everything else: its
queue, its backend module, its context menu, its console command and its
settings.

## Setup {#administration-autotranslate-setup}

Name nr-llm's translator in autotranslate's setting `translatorClass`, for
example in [`config/system/additional.php`](https://docs.typo3.org/m/typo3/reference-coreapi/main/en-us/Configuration/Typo3ConfVars/Index.html#file-project-config-system-additional-php):

**Route autotranslate through nr-llm**

```php
$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['EXTENSIONS']['autotranslate']['translatorClass']
    = \Netresearch\NrLlm\Integration\Autotranslate\AutotranslateTranslator::class;
```

autotranslate 3.6 and earlier do not read this setting. Until a release
carries it, the installation needs the change of
[autotranslate pull request 175](https://github.com/thieleundklose/tk-typo3-autotranslate/pull/175) as a
patch.

Which nr-llm translator does the work is the setting
[autotranslate.translator](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/netresearch/nr-llm:confval-ext-nr-llm-autotranslate-translator@main) under
**Settings > Extension Configuration > nr_llm**: `deepl`, `llm` or
the identifier of another registered translator. Empty uses the language model. The DeepL translator of
nr-llm reads its key from nr-vault, not from autotranslate's configuration.

autotranslate caches each translation for a day (its setting `caching`, on
by default), keyed by the text and the languages but not by the translator. After
routing autotranslate through nr-llm, or after changing
[autotranslate.translator](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/netresearch/nr-llm:confval-ext-nr-llm-autotranslate-translator@main), flush
the cache `autotranslate_cache` (**Admin Tools > Maintenance > Flush
TYPO3 and PHP Cache**, or `vendor/bin/typo3 cache:flush`); until then a cached
text from the previous translator is stored without asking nr-llm, and nr-llm's
markers below are set on it. Turn `caching` off if the translator changes
often.

autotranslate's console command `autotranslate:batch:run` reads the provider
key on the command line. Set [worker.technicalBeUserUid](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/netresearch/nr-llm:confval-ext-nr-llm-worker-technical-be-user-uid@main) to a backend user with read access to
the key, as for nr-llm's own worker. Without it, nr-vault refuses the key
unless it allows command-line access.

## What nr-llm changes {#administration-autotranslate-behaviour}

-   Rich text is translated as HTML, so the markup stays.
-   autotranslate shows no DeepL quota; nr-llm counts the usage, for the editor
    who started the translation in the backend, or for `_cli_` on the command
    line.
-   A blank answer, an answer of markup without visible text for a text that
    has some, or one the model cut off at its output limit, fails the
    translation instead of being stored.
-   DeepL glossaries managed by autotranslate do not apply, and neither does
    nr-llm's site glossary: autotranslate does not tell the translator which page
    a text belongs to.
-   A page or content element that received machine-translated text gets
    nr-llm's AI-written marker ([Records an AI wrote](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/netresearch/nr-llm:administration-ai-written-records@main)), and,
    with b13/ai-label installed, AI Label's "AI-modified" origin with its review
    cleared, so AI Label's frontend notice shows. Both are stored with the
    translated text. A field autotranslate copies unchanged does not count.

autotranslate decides what is translated. A batch translates every configured
field again, also in an existing translation, and a change of the source
overwrites a hand correction in the changed field.