What is Microsoft Translator?
Microsoft Translator is part of Azure Cognitive Services and offers the most generous free tier of the three providers — 2 million characters per month at no cost. It supports 100+ languages and is the same engine powering translations in Microsoft Office, Teams, Edge, and Bing.
Quick Start
Setup requires an Azure account. If you don't have one, you can create it free at azure.microsoft.com — no credit card needed for the free tier resource.
Create an Azure account
Go to azure.microsoft.com/free and sign up. You can use your existing Microsoft/Outlook account.
Go to the Azure Portal
Open portal.azure.com. In the search bar at the top, type "Translator" and select it from the results.
Create a Translator resource
Click Create. Fill in the required fields:
- Subscription: Your Azure subscription (free tier is available)
- Resource group: Create new or use existing
- Region: Choose the nearest region to you
- Name: Any name, e.g. "newslyfe-translator"
- Pricing tier: Select F0 (Free) — this is the 2M chars/month tier
Click Review + Create, then Create.
Get your API key
After deployment finishes, go to your new Translator resource. In the left sidebar, click Keys and Endpoint. Copy either KEY 1 or KEY 2.
Note your Region
On the same Keys and Endpoint page, copy the Location/Region value (e.g. westeurope or eastus). You'll need this in NewsLyfe Settings.
Add to NewsLyfe
Open NewsLyfe Settings → Translation → Microsoft Translator. Enter your API key and your region, then save.
Pricing & Free Tier
Best free tier of all three providers. One F0 resource per Azure subscription.
Only needed if you exceed 2M chars/month or need multiple resources.
Troubleshooting
Unauthorized
The API key is wrong or the resource doesn't exist. Check your key in Azure Portal → Translator resource → Keys and Endpoint. Make sure you copied the key, not the endpoint URL.
Wrong Region
The region in NewsLyfe Settings doesn't match the region of your Azure resource. Check the region on the Keys and Endpoint page — it must match exactly (e.g. westeurope, not West Europe).
Too Many Requests / Quota Exceeded
You've exceeded the 2M character free tier limit, or you're hitting request-per-second limits. Check your usage in Azure Portal → Translator → Metrics.
Resource not found
The Translator resource may still be deploying (usually takes 1–2 minutes) or may have been deleted. Go to the Azure Portal and verify the resource status is Running.
API Key Security
Azure provides two keys (KEY 1 and KEY 2) so you can rotate them without downtime. When you regenerate one key, the other continues to work while you update NewsLyfe.