Bhashini — the National Language Translation Mission (2026)

• Anuvaad — anuvaad.bhashini.gov.in: paste text or upload a document and translate between Indian languages and English, free, no payment at any step.
• Bhashini app — the official Android and iOS app: speak in your language, get text or speech in another; built for conversations, signboards and documents.
• Text, speech, documents — text-to-text translation, speech-to-text dictation, text-to-speech reading, and document translation in one flow.
• Developer APIs — free access tiers for individuals, startups and small developers building Indian-language features; the mission's whole point is public infrastructure, not a paid product.

1. Open anuvaad.bhashini.gov.in in any browser — no payment, no subscription wall.
2. Pick your source language and target language — any of the 22 scheduled languages, either direction with English.
3. Choose the mode: text to paste a paragraph, or document to upload a PDF or document file for full translation.
4. Press translate; the output appears in seconds, and you can copy or download it.
5. For anything you will show an office or a court, read the output once against the original — machine translation stumbles on names, numbers and legal phrasing.

The whole flow works from a phone browser. A citizen standing at a counter can photograph a notice, type out its key line, and read it in their own language before signing anything.

The National Language Translation Mission was announced in the 2021-22 Union Budget and launched as Bhashini in July 2022 under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Execution sits with the Digital India Bhashini Division (DIBD) under the Digital India Corporation. The platform's work is verified in government deployments — from the Maha Kumbh 2025 multi-language services to integrations across government portals and apps that plug into Bhashini's APIs.

• A citizen who reads only Marathi can translate an English public notice in seconds.
• A shop owner can dictate in Tamil and send the text in Hindi.
• A student can have Hindi study material read aloud, or translate a Telugu certificate for a north-Indian employer.
• A developer can add 22-language support without building models — the free APIs remove the cost barrier that kept Indian apps English-only.
• Government services integrate the same APIs, which is why more official apps now answer in your language.

Limits worth knowing: machine translation is strong on standard text and weak on legal or technical nuance — for a court filing or a statutory form, get a human translator's certification. For reading and understanding, it is more than enough.

MeitY and the Digital India Corporation are public authorities. Legitimate RTI asks include:

1. The number of languages and the models live on the Bhashini
   platform as on [date].
2. The departments and portals that have integrated Bhashini APIs,
   with integration dates.
3. The budget allocated and spent on the National Language
   Translation Mission since inception, year-wise.
4. The terms on which the free API tier is offered to developers,
   and any rate limits.
5. The grievance mechanism for wrong or harmful translations
   reported by users, and complaints received to date.

Address the CPIO, Digital India Corporation / MeitY — the AI RTI Drafter prepares the block. For our part, RTI Wiki's own voice tool AwaazRTI shows where this technology is heading for citizens.

Yes — the web tools, the app and the low-volume developer tier are free.

Yes — the mission's mandate covers the Eighth Schedule languages, with coverage growing by service type; check the app for your pair.

Anuvaad takes document uploads; formatting may need cleanup afterwards. Scanned handwriting is the weakest case.

The Government of India, through the National Language Translation Mission budget — that is why no screen on the platform asks for payment.

Some app features cache; the full platform is online. For offline needs, download the translated text.

The service processes the text you submit; treat any free translator the same way — do not upload documents carrying passwords, bank details or case numbers you would not paste into a public tool.

The department that runs the app owns its content; report through its grievance channel, and where a public authority is involved, the RTI questions above apply.

• Digital India governance
• Best free AI tools 2026
• Learn AI from scratch
• ChatGPT — Hindi guide
• The RTI Playbook

• bhashini.gov.in and anuvaad.bhashini.gov.in.
• Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology — meity.gov.in.
• PIB releases on Bhashini deployments, including Maha Kumbh 2025.

Last reviewed: 27 August 2026.