The cheapest and most efficient i18n for agentic coding
Keyless i18n your coding agent gets it right the first time: one file to edit, no locale JSON to load, no merge conflict, from £4 a month.
5-minute setup
Your entire i18n implementation in 5 minutes. Not joking.
No Keys System
Your brain shouldn't be involved in such meaningless tasks.
Global from day one
Ship to international markets without extra effort.
Set up i18n, keep your codebase clean and ship fast
There are multiple PITA with the current i18n solutions. The pains are so great that you delay i18n as much as possible.
It consumes time you should spend on the beach
Set up the keys' system: at least 1 hour of senior dev time
Back and forth for each new key: 1 minute per key, x500 keys, x2 languages = 17 hours
With i18n-keyless, you don’t need to worry about the i18n system at all. You can go to the beach and order a mojito.
Today most systems use keys to translate the text
This is painful to generate. This is painful to maintain.
When you see a text in the app, and you want to update it, you need to find the corresponding key.
With i18n-keyless, you don’t need to worry about the i18n system at all. Use your brain for something more interesting.
Leave translations to AI
With the key system, you need to manage the translations in the app.
Otherwise, your users will see someheader.welcome.title in their app.
With i18n-keyless, you don’t need to worry about the i18n system at all. Just write good headlines, focus on marketing, and get sales.
Codebases are beautiful... until i18n keys become infected
With the key system, when you read the code and the content, you have to read keys, not natural language.
Sometimes you should make a fix because a sentence is not grammatically correct. But you don't know that because you read keys.
With i18n-keyless, you don’t need to worry about the i18n system at all. The codebase remains beautiful.
MCP server to cover all your i18n needs
Plus six other reasons why the system is so optimised for agentic coding.
No name to invent
A key is a naming decision with no right answer. Two agents write login.submit and auth.button.send for the same button. Without keys there is no decision to make.
One file to edit, not twenty
A keyed change affects the component and every locale JSON file, and agents forget files. Here, a copy change is a single-file edit.
Zero merge conflicts in agent fleets
Five agents on five branches all edit en.json: a guaranteed conflict. There is no shared file, so worktrees and background agents never collide.
Cheap in tokens
To reuse a key, an agent must load the locale files into context on every edit. Keyless loads nothing: the text is right there in the component.
Readable diffs
The pull request shows real sentences. A human or a review agent can judge the copy without digging for what a key stands for.
One rule in your CLAUDE.md
Every i18n rule you write is a rule the agent can break. This one needs a single line — and the fallback is the real text, so a miss cannot show a.b.c on screen.
The only i18n rule your agent needs
# CLAUDE.md Write the UI copy in English and wrap it in <T>…</T> from i18n-keyless-react. That is the whole i18n setup.
Your agent can operate it, not just write it
Through the MCP server, the agent lists missing translations, reads one, overrides a bad one, or imports the copy you already have — with its own OAuth login, no key to paste.
Read the MCP guideLaunch globally from day one
Stop delaying i18n because of complexity. Implement it in 5 minutes, not days. Maintain your development velocity as if i18n wasn't implemented.
- 5-minute implementation. Not kidding.
One simple config object and you're done.
- Maintain development velocity
Code as if i18n wasn’t implemented at all.
- Ship to global markets
No refactoring needed as you scale to new languages.
- SSR & SEO ready
Works with Next.js, Remix, TanStack Start and Astro. Server-render any language for search engines — same 5-minute setup.
Traditional i18n
i18n-keyless
It's no brainer to set up
Just the simplest config object and you're ready to go global.
And even more, your agent will set it up for you.
1. Basic setup
import * as I18nKeyless from "i18n-keyless-react";
I18nKeyless.init({
API_KEY: "YOUR_API_KEY",
storage: window.localStorage,
languages: {
primary: "en",
supported: ["en", "fr"],
},
});2. Component Usage
import { I18nKeylessText } from "i18n-keyless-react";
// import { T } from "i18n-keyless-react"; // also works
// Just write in your primary language
<I18nKeylessText>
Welcome to our website
</I18nKeylessText>3. Server-side usage (e.g. Node.js)
import { awaitForTranslationOrFallbackToOriginal, type Lang } from 'i18n-keyless-node';
const title = await awaitForTranslationOrFallbackToOriginal('Come see my app!', user.lang as Lang);
const body = await awaitForTranslationOrFallbackToOriginal('So many new stuff!', user.lang as Lang);
await sendExpoPushNotification({ user, title, body });4. For text outside components
import { getTranslation } from "i18n-keyless-react";
export default function Navigation() {
return (
<HomeTabs.Navigator>
<HomeTabs.Screen
options={{ tabBarLabel: getTranslation("Welcome") }}
name="WELCOME"
/>
</HomeTabs.Navigator>
);
}How translations work
i18n-keyless is a library, combined with an API service, that allows you to translate your text without the need to use keys.
If the translation is not found, there will be an asynchronous fetch to I18nKeyless' API to retrieve the translation via an AI API call.
This operation is usually performed in dev mode, while you're coding. If you miss one, in production only the first user missing the translation will see a glitch, then it'll be available instantly to users all over the globe.
Your store listing in every language, on every release
Every update means new release notes, a description and keywords — for each language, on both stores. That is what stops you from adding languages. Not the app.
- Release notes for every language, in one call
Write the update once. awaitForTranslation returns it in each language you sell in, and your store config feeds it to EAS or fastlane.
- 48 languages, mapped to the App Store slots
pt-BR and pt-PT are two listings; en-GB, en-AU and en-CA are three. toAppStoreLocale puts each translation in the right one.
- Fix a bad translation without a release
In the app, one override in the dashboard is live at once — no hotfix build, no store review. In the listing, re-run the push.
- Not priced per word
A translator charges about £0.10 a word. 2,000 strings times 10 languages is a budget a solo developer does not have. Here words are not counted.
The whole recipe for an Expo app
// store.config.js — EAS Metadata awaits an async config
const { init, awaitForTranslation, toAppStoreLocale } = require("i18n-keyless-node");
const LANGS = ["en", "fr", "de", "ja", "pt-BR"];
const DESCRIPTION = "Bibi translates your app while you sleep…";
module.exports = async () => {
init({ API_KEY: process.env.I18N_KEYLESS_KEY, languages: { primary: "en", supported: LANGS } });
const info = {};
for (const lang of LANGS) {
info[toAppStoreLocale(lang)] = {
title: await awaitForTranslation("Bibi", lang, { context: "App Store app name, 30 characters max" }),
subtitle: await awaitForTranslation("Keyless i18n", lang, { context: "App Store subtitle, 30 characters max" }),
description: await awaitForTranslation(DESCRIPTION, lang, { context: "App Store description" }),
};
}
return { configVersion: 0, apple: { info } };
};The same call writes fastlane metadata files for Google Play. Caps are advisory: put the limit in the context and check the length before you push.
Interactive Sandbox
See how i18n-keyless works in real-time
Open a live, editable StackBlitz project to see translations resolve as you type.
Developers love the simplicity
See what others are saying about i18n-keyless
I was able to add i18n to our MVP in literally 5 minutes. We launched in 7 languages without any extra development time. Our codebase stayed clean and we could focus on building features instead of managing translation keys.
Jamie Smith
CTO at a Cool Startup
The mental overhead of managing translation keys was killing our productivity. With i18n-keyless, we just write natural language and everything works. It's as if i18n doesn't even exist in our workflow anymore.
Alex Lee
Lead Developer at Another Cool Startup
We were about to delay i18n for our product until after launch. With i18n-keyless, we implemented it in our MVP phase and launched globally from day one. The ROI has been incredible.
Maria Rodriguez
Founder at GlobalApp
Simple, predictable pricing
One flat price for your scale.
Every feature in every plan.
No per-word fees, no token maths.
Up to 1,000 monthly active users
For indie apps and new products
Up to 5,000 monthly active users
For apps finding their audience
Up to 50,000 monthly active users
For apps with real traction
Up to 500,000 monthly active users
For products at scale
Every plan includes:
All 48 languages. The whole world, from day one
Unlimited translations, AI included. New strings translate themselves in production
Live translation of user-generated content (UGC)
Upgrade, downgrade or cancel at any time
More than 500,000 monthly active users? Contact us
What the same app costs somewhere else
Move the two sliders. The bill is for your app in all 48 languages.
| Solution | Your monthly bill | You pay per | Translation | Languages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| i18n-keylesswe | €4/ month | Monthly active users Win win. | AI, unlimited, included | All 48, from day one |
| Crowdin | €88/ month1 | Hosted words: your words × 48 | Crowdin AI, inside a quota | You add each one |
| Intlayer | €27/ month2 | Seats and projects | AI generation, within a quota | You add each one |
| Lingo.dev | €91/ month3 | A base fee, then AI tokens | The AI bill goes straight to you | You add each one |
| Locize | €77/ month4 | Words × 48, and CDN downloads | You bring your own AI key | 10 on the largest published plan |
| Lokalise | €132/ month5 | Seats, then keys | Translators billed separately | You add each one |
| Phrase | €483/ month6 | Seats, then managed words | From $0.06 per word, billed separately | You add each one |
| Smartling | €552/ month7 | Every word, every language | AI translation from $0.06 a word | You add each one |
| Tolgee | €49/ month8 | Keys and seats | Machine translation credits | You fill each one |
| Weglot | €1,678/ month9 | Words × languages, on a web page | Machine, inside a quota | 20 on the largest published plan |
Public list prices, read in August 2026. Vendors change them, so please check. Each bill is our reading of the published ladder, and we always take the cheapest paid plan that holds your app. When a vendor bills the first translation once, we spread it over twelve months.
1 Crowdin publishes €44 a month for 60,000 hosted words on the Pro plan, billed annually. A hosted word is one word in one target language. We repeat that block price above 60,000.
2 Intlayer is open source. The $29 per month covers the CMS and the AI generation quota. Above the quota, you can use your own AI key, so we add the model bill at $10 for each million tokens, spread over twelve months.
3 Lingo.dev publishes $99 a month plus $2 for each million tokens of infrastructure, and it passes the model bill to you. We count 1.4 tokens for each word and $10 for each million tokens of model cost. The base fee is most of this number.
4 Locize publishes £7, £19 and £49 a month for 15,000, 30,000 and 60,000 words, with 1, 3 and 5 million CDN downloads. Above that it publishes $0.50 for each 1,000 extra words and $5 for each million extra downloads. We count thirty downloads for each user each month. No published plan supports 48 languages.
5 Lokalise publishes $144, $375 and $999 a month, and no key limit. We assume the three plans hold 5,000, 20,000 and 100,000 keys, and twelve words for each key. Human translation is billed separately.
6 The phrase publishes $525 a month for 1 million managed words on the software plan, and $1,245 for 3 million. We count one managed word for each word in each language, and we repeat the $1,245 block above for 3 million.
7 Smartling does not publish a platform price. We count only the AI translation, at the published $0.06 a word, spread over twelve months. Your real bill is higher.
8 Tolgee bills keys, not words, so we count twelve words for each key. It publishes £49 for 2,000 keys, £179 for 5,000 and £499 for 20,000, billed annually. Above that we repeat the £499 block. Machine translation credits are counted apart.
9 Weglot translates a web page, not an app. Its largest published plan is £699 a month for 20 languages, so we scale that price to 48 languages. Your words fit inside every one of these plans.
Every other line grows with your product. Ours is a flat price.
Watch the Demo
Watch this short video to see i18n-keyless in action
Get API Key for One App
Your entire i18n implementation in 5 minutes. iykyk.