How Translation Works

What's free, what needs a membership, and how it works.

New chapters translate automatically as they're added, so there's usually nothing to do yourself. If you just want to compare membership prices, skip straight to Pricing and limits.

What you get for free#

The first 50 chapters of every novel are AI-translated and free to read, with no account. Every chapter after that is free too, translated in your browser with Google Translate, and the novel's glossary is still applied so names and terms stay consistent with the AI-translated chapters.

Note Chapters 1-50 use the site's AI translation for everyone, whether or not you are signed in.

AI translation past chapter 50#

Past chapter 50, a chapter gets its AI translation one of two ways:

  • On demand: a $5 tier member (or higher) opens the chapter, and it translates live while they watch, streaming in as it goes, typically in 5-10 seconds.
  • In the background: a site-wide process is continuously working through every untranslated chapter on the site, whether or not anyone is reading them. There's no set schedule for when it reaches a specific chapter, and no way to ask for one to be prioritized.

Either path leads to the same result: once a chapter has an AI translation, it's there for every $5+ tier member who opens it afterward. The same background process also gradually re-translates older chapters that were done with a past AI model, so quality keeps improving over time even on chapters nobody has reopened recently.

Reading the AI translation past chapter 50 still requires a $5 tier membership or higher, whether that chapter was translated on demand or by the background process. Free readers and signed-out visitors read chapters 1-50 in AI translation like everyone else, but read every chapter past 50 through Google Translate, even on a chapter whose AI translation already exists: a free account doesn't unlock reading it.

To read with AI translation past chapter 50:

  1. Link your Patreon account (see Pricing and limits).
  2. Open any chapter past 50.

If it isn't translated yet, it starts translating automatically and streams onto the page; if it's already translated, it just loads.

Google Translate chapters#

Chapters that are not AI-translated (past 50, without a membership, or if the reader is set to that mode) are translated with Google Translate directly in your browser. Before translation, the novel's glossary terms are protected so Google cannot mistranslate or rename them, then restored after translation completes, so names, places, and terms stay consistent with the AI-translated chapters.

Note Google Translate runs in your browser, not on our servers. When you use it, your browser sends that chapter's text directly to Google, and Google's terms and privacy policy apply to that request. It's Google's machine translation, not ours: the novel's glossary is still applied so names stay consistent, but wording and pronouns come out rougher than the AI translation, and translation feedback votes don't apply to it. Google also sometimes limits how many requests a browser can make in a short time, which is what the Retry state means.

This is available to everyone, and does not require an account. If you are on a paid membership, you can still switch a chapter within the free range (1-50) to Google Translate from the reader, for that session only; the setting resets on refresh.

Preview novels#

A novel added with the Preview option only has its first 50 chapters fetched and translated. It is marked with a blue "P" badge wherever its title appears.

To get the rest of the novel:

  1. Open the novel's page.
  2. Open its menu and choose Get Full Novel.
  3. Confirm the request.

This requires being signed in and a Patreon membership of $12 a month or higher, and spends your monthly novel requests by the novel's size: half a request under 200 chapters, one up to 2,000, and more beyond that (see what a request costs). The conversion cannot be undone. If fetching the rest of the novel fails, it reverts to preview automatically, what you spent is refunded, and you are notified.

Note A short novel (50 chapters or fewer) requested as a preview is added as a full novel automatically. There is nothing left to convert.

How long translation takes#

Path Typical time
AI translation, on demand About 5-10 seconds, streaming in as it completes
Google Translate, in browser A few seconds per chapter

While a chapter is translating, the page shows a placeholder in place of the text and a status line that updates as translation progresses (for example, "Starting translation...", then "Translating content...", ending in "Translation complete!"). You do not need to refresh or wait on a blank page.

Once you finish a chapter that was AI-translated, the next two chapters begin translating in the background, so they are often ready by the time you get to them.

When a chapter still shows Chinese text#

If you open a chapter and it is not yet translated:

  • Not signed in, or on the free tier, past chapter 50: you see a note that the chapter is not translated yet, with a link to sign in or upgrade on Patreon.
  • On a $5 tier membership or higher: you see a Translate Chapter button to start the AI translation yourself.

Tip If a Google Translate attempt fails (for example, a connection drop), the reader shows a "Free translation failed" message with a retry option.