Quick start

Learn how to add a Discord translation bot, configure BabelBot, and validate automatic translation in under 10 minutes.

This tutorial walks you from zero to a working automatic translation. When you finish, you will have invited BabelBot, turned on the server, set at least one target language, and seen a translation appear in Discord.

Before you start

You need Manage Server on the target Discord server
BabelBot must be invited to that server (not only to your user account)
You can sign in at app.babelbot.xyz/login

Get your first translation

Invite BabelBot to the correct server

Use the invite link on babelbot.xyz or Invite on the dashboard server list. Confirm you selected the guild you manage, not a personal or test server.

Discord must grant BabelBot permission to read and send messages in the channels you will test.

Open the dashboard and select your server

Alternatively, run /dashboard in that server (requires Manage Server). It opens the same server page.

Turn on translation and add one target language

On Overview, set Translations to on.

Open Settings and under Target languages, add at least one language (for example English if your community posts mainly in Spanish).

Post a test message

In a channel where translation should run, send a short message in a language different from your target.

If setup is correct, BabelBot posts a translation as a reply or in a thread, depending on Reply preference in Settings.

If nothing appears

Check these before changing more settings:

Overview: translations are enabled for the server
Settings → Target languages: at least one language is listed
Settings → Channel rules: the test channel is not excluded (see the Dashboard Guide for how rules work)
The message has normal text (not only a URL, emoji, or non-linguistic tokens)

Still stuck? Continue with Troubleshooting.

Optional: keep channels clean from day one

Recommended for busy servers

Under Settings → Channel rules, add rules that turn translation off in admin, audit, and bot-command channels. Send a test message in each channel type to confirm behavior matches what you expect.

Verify on Overview

Open Overview for your server and confirm:

Translation is on
Plan & usage shows your tier and remaining AI capacity
Translation activity will populate after real traffic (not required for this tutorial)

Run /help in Discord for a short recap of commands that still work in chat.

First-week defaults

Reply preference: reply in channel
Target languages: start with one
Channel rules: disable translation in mod/log/bot channels

Reply preference: reply in threads from day one
Target languages: only languages your community actually reads
Billing & upgrades: check usage weekly