The translated words count is the core number Universally uses to measure how much translation work your site has used. It’s also the number that decides which plan you need.
The Formula
The math is simple:
Source words × Target languages = Translated words
Source words are the words on your original site, including visible content and SEO metadata (page titles, meta descriptions, image alt text). Target languages are the languages you’ve added to your project for translation.
Each target language counts as a fresh pass over your source content, so adding a new language multiplies the work.
A Simple Example
Say your site has 5,000 source words and you want to translate it into 2 languages (for example, French and Spanish):
5,000 × 2 = 10,000 translated words
If you later add a third language (say, German), the formula updates:
5,000 × 3 = 15,000 translated words
Each new language is essentially a full pass over your source content that needs to be translated.
Translated Words Reflect Live Content
This is the most important thing to understand: your translated words count is not a monthly meter. It does not reset on a billing cycle. Instead, it reflects the total volume of translated content currently live on your site.
Once a page has been translated, it stays translated. Universally caches the result, so visitors see the translated version instantly without using more of your quota. Returning visitors, repeat page views, and search engine crawls don’t add to your count.
What this means in practice:
- If you translate your site once and never change a word, your count stops growing once everything’s been seen by Universally.
- If you publish new content (a blog post, a product page, an updated paragraph), the new or changed words are translated into every active language, and that work is added to your count.
- If you remove a language from a project, the words translated into that language are subtracted from your count. The same goes for deleting a project entirely.
- If you exclude a page or block after the fact, future translations of that content stop, but the words already translated stay in your count. Nothing recalculates them for you: to get them back, delete those strings on the Translations screen.
So the count grows as you translate more content into more languages, and it shrinks if you turn off languages or remove projects. If you’re approaching your plan’s limit, you have two options: upgrade to a higher plan, or reduce the amount of content being translated (more on that below).
What Counts as a Word
Universally counts every word of source text that goes through the translator for the first time. That includes:
- Visible page content: headings, paragraphs, lists, links, buttons, captions
- Navigation elements: menus, breadcrumbs, footer links
- Form text: field labels, placeholders, button text, validation messages
- SEO metadata: page titles, meta descriptions, Open Graph and Twitter card text
- Image alt text and figure captions
- Social tags: Open Graph titles and descriptions, Twitter Cards
- Structured data: Schema.org and JSON-LD fields that contain human-readable text
If a visitor or search engine could read it on your site, it almost certainly counts.
What Doesn’t Count
These items are excluded by default:
- Code, scripts, and stylesheets: HTML attributes, CSS, JavaScript, inline styles
- URLs, email addresses, and phone numbers: never translated
- Cached translations: pages that have already been translated don’t recount on each visit. The first translation is the only time the words are added to your usage.
- Excluded pages: any URL you’ve added to the Exclude Pages list is skipped entirely
- Excluded blocks: any section matched by a CSS selector you’ve defined is skipped
- Glossary substitutions: glossary rules control how specific terms are translated, not whether they’re counted
A glossary entry that locks “Acme” to stay as “Acme” in every language doesn’t reduce your count. Glossaries are about accuracy and brand consistency. The levers for reducing the count are excluded pages and excluded blocks.
Edge Cases to Know About
Content updates trigger re-translation of changed strings. If you fix a typo in a 1,000-word page, only the changed sentence is sent for re-translation, not the whole page. The re-translated words are added to your count.
Dynamic content is translated as it appears. Universally translates content live, when a visitor or search engine loads a page. If part of your site is hidden behind logged-in views, popups, or A/B tests, that content only enters your count when it’s actually visited and translated. Your final count may differ from your initial estimate because of this.
Adding a language re-translates existing content. When you turn on a new language, every page that’s been translated before needs to be translated into the new language too. That can be a sudden, significant addition to your count, so plan accordingly.
Estimating Your Word Count Before You Start
If you don’t know your source word count, you can estimate it:
Pages × average words per page × target languages = estimated translated words
Rough averages for words per page:
- Marketing or landing pages: 300 to 600 words
- Blog posts and articles: 800 to 1,500 words
- Product pages (e-commerce): 200 to 500 words
- Documentation pages: 500 to 1,200 words
For example, a 50-page WordPress site averaging 600 words per page, translated into 3 languages:
50 × 600 × 3 = 90,000 translated words
This is an estimate. The actual count depends on your real content, how much SEO metadata you’ve set, and whether you exclude any pages.
How to Reduce Your Translated Words
If your estimate exceeds the plan you want, you have a few ways to bring the count down without losing functionality.
Exclude Pages You Don’t Need Translated
Internal admin pages, thank-you pages, low-value archive pages, or content that’s only relevant to one region can all be excluded from translation. Any URL you exclude is skipped entirely and contributes nothing to your count.
See Exclude Pages for the full setup.
Exclude Specific Blocks Using CSS Selectors
Sometimes you want to translate a page but skip a part of it, like a third-party widget, a customer reviews section, or boilerplate footer text that’s the same on every page. CSS selectors let you target those blocks and exclude them.
See CSS Selectors for examples.
Limit the Languages You Add
The biggest multiplier in the formula is the number of languages. Going from 2 to 4 languages doubles your translated words. Start with the languages you actually need, and add more as your audience grows.
Choosing the Right Plan
Use your estimated translated words to pick a starting plan, then watch your usage. Your dashboard shows the current total, and you’ll get a notification as you approach your plan’s limit.
If you’re unsure, start with a plan that gives you headroom over your initial run, and upgrade later if your content grows beyond it.
For current plan limits and pricing, see the pricing.
FAQ
Does re-translating a fixed typo count as new words?
Yes. When you change a sentence, that sentence is sent for re-translation in every active language, and the new words are added to your count. Minor edits to large pages are usually small, but a major content rewrite can use a meaningful chunk of words.
Do cached pages add to my count when visitors revisit them?
No. The first translation is the only time the words are counted. Every visit after that serves a cached translation for free.
Do glossary rules reduce my word count?
Usually not, with one exception. A rule matching a term inside a longer sentence changes how the sentence is translated, and the sentence is counted as normal. A rule whose term is the entire string, which is common for a brand name in a menu item, a button or alt text, is applied without translating anything, so that string is not counted.
Either way, glossaries are about accuracy and brand consistency rather than quota.
If I remove a language, do those words come off my count?
Yes. When you remove a language from a project, the words translated into that language are subtracted from your count. The same applies if you delete a project entirely. Your total is recalculated to reflect what’s actually live on your site.
Why does my actual count differ from my estimate?
Two reasons. First, dynamic content (popups, hidden tabs, logged-in views) is only translated when it’s actually loaded. Second, your real word count may differ from a rough page-times-average estimate, especially if some pages are unusually long or short.
What happens if I hit my plan’s limit?
Pages already translated keep serving from cache, exactly as before. New or changed text is served in the source language and translated as soon as you have words again, so nothing breaks and nothing is deleted.
If a card is on file, crossing the limit can charge it and move the workspace one plan up instead, which raises your total and keeps translation running. See Usage limits for that and for word add-ons.