DeepL vs Google Translate for businesses in Luxembourg

For a Luxembourg business that translates contracts, offers or customer mail, DeepL is the safer choice: paid plans exclude training, the company sits in Cologne and prices include VAT.

Google Translate wins on cost for occasional use and, through the Cloud Translation API, on high volumes with an EU endpoint.

Prices, terms and data rules are as published on 12.11.2026, read from Luxembourg where possible. No vendor paid for this piece and we did not test translation quality.

What do DeepL and Google Translate cost in Luxembourg?

Only DeepL publishes euro prices for Luxembourg, and the page says "VAT is included in the price". The same gross amounts appear for Germany, France and Belgium, so the net figures below are our calculation at 17 % Luxembourg VAT. Google Translate itself is free; businesses pay Google only for the Cloud Translation API.

Annual billing saves 16 %. Per user and month, Free allows 50.000 characters and one file of up to 5 MB, Individual 300.000 characters and 3 files, Team 1.000.000 characters and 20 files, Business unlimited characters under fair use and 100 files of up to 100 MB.

What do the APIs cost per character?

Google lists US dollars; we converted at the ECB reference rate of 12.11.2026, 1,1081 dollars per euro. Cloud usage in Luxembourg is subject to 17 % VAT, but EU business accounts are billed without VAT and declare it themselves under reverse charge. With VAT, 20 USD is about 21,12 EUR.

At 1 million characters a month, DeepL Growth costs 23,80 EUR including VAT on annual billing; on Google the first 500.000 are free and the rest costs 10 USD, about 9,02 EUR net.

Where is the data processed, and is it used for training?

DeepL. DeepL SE is based in Cologne and says it is subject to the GDPR and the EU AI Act. On the free translator, texts are processed for a limited time to train and improve its models, and the terms forbid personal data on the free API. On Individual and above, texts are not stored permanently, are deleted after translation and are not used for training. DeepL runs a hybrid setup of its own servers in Europe and Amazon Web Services as a sub-processor, with regions in Europe, the United States and Asia-Pacific, and states that by default "customer content may be processed in different regions". A data residency add-on is available to sales-assisted Team, Business and API for Business customers and is standard in Enterprise. Existing customers can object to AWS until the end of 2026. The Data Processing Agreement is part of the terms. DeepL lists ISO 27001 for all plans and SOC 2 Type 2 for paid plans.

Google. The free Google Translate falls under Google's general privacy policy, with Google Ireland Limited as controller in the EEA. Google analyses Translate usage to improve quality, and we found no business processing terms for it. The Cloud Translation API is different: Google holds text only briefly in memory, does not use it to train Translation, and applies the Cloud Data Processing Addendum. With the Advanced edition and the translate-eu endpoint, data at rest and machine learning processing stay in the EU; the global endpoint is the default, and an organisation policy can block it. Google Cloud lists ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2 and C5 among its certifications.

Which languages are covered, including Luxembourgish?

Both cover German, French and English. DeepL lists Luxembourgish in its translator, and its API supports LB for text, but not for glossaries. Google lists Luxembourgish in the Cloud Translation language list and offers it in the web interface; its newer Translation LLM marks it as experimental. We did not test the quality of Luxembourgish in either.

How do documents, glossaries, integrations and admin compare?

DeepL translates files within the limits above. Free and Individual get one glossary with five entries, Team five with 1.000 entries, Business unlimited plus translation memory. DeepL offers apps for Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Google Workspace and Chrome. Team administration starts at 2 users, SSO via SAML or OIDC on Team and Business only from 50 users, SCIM from Business and bring your own key in Enterprise.

Google Translate on the web translates .docx, .pdf, .pptx and .xlsx up to 10 MB, PDFs up to 300 pages, in a computer browser. In Google Docs, Tools > Translate document creates a translated copy. The Cloud Translation API adds batch document translation, free glossary creation and Google Cloud IAM access control, but needs a developer or an integration. Google asks for attribution when raw machine translations are published.

How do they compare side by side?

Which one should a Luxembourg business choose?

Choose DeepL if staff translate client documents in the browser or in Office, if you want a written promise of no training and a euro price with VAT, and if a German contract partner matters. Team suits most SMEs; ask for data residency if texts must stay in Europe.

Choose Google Translate for occasional, non-confidential text, and the Cloud Translation API with the EU endpoint if a developer can connect it to your systems and you translate large volumes. Do not put customer data into the free web version.

Before rollout, write down what staff may paste into which tool; our guide to an AI usage policy for employees has a template. For AI chat assistants that also translate, see our comparison of AI chat subscriptions in Luxembourg.

What remains unclear?

• DeepL shows the same gross euro prices across several EU countries; how invoices for businesses with a Luxembourg VAT number are issued is not stated.
• DeepL does not say in which region a standard plan processes texts by default, and the Trust Center details sit behind an access check.
• Google publishes Cloud Translation prices only in US dollars; the euro figures above are our conversion.
• Google publishes no business terms for the free Google Translate, and how long it keeps entered text is not stated in the sources we read.