How to turn on Edge web translation

Three ways. (1) Open the foreign-language page, click the translate icon at the right of the address bar and pick the target language. (2) Right-click the page and choose "Translate selection" or "Translate page to…". (3) Turn on "Use Microsoft Translator services" in edge://settings/languages; after that, foreign-language pages show a translation prompt automatically.

The translate icon is gone or the page will not translate. What now?

First open edge://settings/languages and confirm the translation switch is on; then check whether the page language was detected incorrectly (click the address-bar icon to set the page language manually); browsers managed by an organization may have translation disabled by group policy; PDFs, local files and some Chinese sites do not support built-in translation. If none of that helps, install a third-party web translation extension such as TopCopilot AI Translation Assistant and translate the page again.

Where is the Bing Translator web page?

Go to bing.com/translator — Bing Translator online, the web version of Microsoft Translator — and paste a passage to translate it, which suits short passages. It cannot translate a whole page and keep the layout, so to read a full page use the browser's translation or a web translation extension.

Does Edge built-in translation replace the original text?

Yes. Built-in translation in Edge and Chrome replaces the whole page with the translation, navigation and ads included, and you have to switch back and forth to compare. If you want the original and the translation one above the other, use a web translation extension such as TopCopilot AI Translation Assistant, which puts translations below the original and can switch to translation only or restore in one click.

Is there a free web translation extension for Edge and Chrome?

TopCopilot AI Translation Assistant supports Chrome and Edge (version 114 or later). Bing, Google and built-in browser AI engines are free, and translations appear below the original as a bilingual view; LLM engines use credits and suit cases that need higher translation quality.

How to use Edge translation: three ways to turn it on + fixes when a page will not translate (2026)

1. Three ways to turn on Edge web translation

When you do not know how to translate a page, try these three steps in order; the first solves most cases:

1. The address-bar translate icon

Open the foreign-language page and click the translate icon at the far right of the address bar (a globe or translate symbol), then choose the target language (for example "Chinese (Simplified)"), and Edge translates the whole page. If the icon does not appear, scroll the page or reload once and look again.

2. The right-click menu

On an empty part of the page, right-click, then choose "Translate page to Chinese (Simplified)"; if you select some text first, the right-click menu offers "Translate selection" to translate only that fragment.

3. Turn translation on in settings

Type edge://settings/languages in the address bar to open the language settings and confirm that "Use Microsoft Translator services" is on. If needed, also tick "Offer to translate pages that aren't in a language you read"; after that, foreign-language pages show a translation prompt automatically — that is Edge auto-translation.

2. The page will not translate? Work through the list

If you tried everything above and translation still fails, or there is no entry point at all, work through the table below. If "Cannot translate this page" keeps appearing or the translate button is gone, see what to do when Edge translation fails.

Symptom	Cause and fix
No translate icon in the address bar	The translation switch is off in the language settings, or the page was detected as Chinese. Open edge://settings/languages and turn the switch on, or click the globe icon in the address bar to set the page language manually, then translate.
Translation is unavailable on a work computer	An organization-managed browser may have translation disabled by group policy; ask IT to confirm. Personal devices do not have this restriction.
PDFs and local files will not translate	Edge built-in translation does not support PDFs or files opened locally. Use a PDF reader with translation, or install a web translation extension to handle HTML pages.
The page turned into Chinese and I want the original back	That is how built-in translation works: whole-page replacement. To compare both languages you have to switch back and forth, or use an extension that puts translations below the original (see section 4).
The page translates, but navigation and ads change too	Built-in translation does not separate body text from navigation. When you only need the body, a web translation extension usually processes the main content area only.

3. Bing Translator on the web: good for paragraphs, not for whole pages

Many people search for "Bing translator web page" or "bing online translation", but what they actually need is Microsoft Translator for the web: bing.com/translator. It works by pasting a paragraph and getting a translation, which suits a few sentences or a short passage, and works without signing in.

But it cannot translate a whole web page directly: a long article means copying and pasting over and over, images, layout and context are lost, and the original is not kept alongside. If you are reading a full English page, the browser's translation or the extension approach in the next section is far more efficient. How to choose between pasting, whole-page replacement and a bilingual view is covered in how to use Bing Translator.

4. Want a bilingual view? Use a web translation extension

The biggest pain with built-in translation is whole-page replacement: once you have read the Chinese, checking the English original means switching back and forth. TopCopilot AI Translation Assistant This web translation extension does it differently:

Translations below the original: one click on "Translate this page" builds a bilingual view paragraph by paragraph, and you can switch to translation only or restore in one click;
Four translation engines: Bing, Google, built-in browser AI (free, on-device) and LLM models (for subscribers) — switch engines whenever one does not fit;
Translate main content only: skips navigation, ads and code blocks so reading is never interrupted;
Close-reading tools: selected-text translation, word dictionary cards and English grammar analysis (long sentences are labelled with subject, predicate, object, attributive, adverbial and complement);
Works in Chrome and Edge: built on Manifest V3 for version 114 and later; Edge is already on the Add-ons store and the Chrome Web Store listing is coming soon. Edge users can treat this extension as the Edge browser translation extension option, alongside Edge's built-in translation, and it shares one account and credits with the TopCopilot web app and the Word / Excel / WPS add-ins.

For people who often read English news, technical documents or forums, a browser translation extension saves more than the time spent copying text into Bing Translator: it also saves the reading rhythm that switching pages keeps interrupting.

Summary

To translate a passage once, use Bing Translator on the web (Bing online translation); to understand a whole page quickly, use the address-bar translate icon or right-click translation in Edge; for a bilingual view, switchable engines and main-content-only translation in whole-page translation, install TopCopilot AI Translation Assistant (already available on Edge Add-ons).

English pages turn into a bilingual view in one click

TopCopilot AI Translation Assistant: available on Edge Add-ons, free engines work right after installation, and translations appear below the original.

Install from Edge Add-ons

How to use Edge translation?