OpenAI just went into "silent assassin" mode.
Without a press release, a tweet, or even a blog post, they quietly launched a dedicated website to kill Google Translate. It’s live at chatgpt.com/translate, and it’s the clearest sign yet that Sam Altman is tired of being "just a chatbot" and is coming for Google’s most iconic utility apps.
So what does it pack?
Well here is the breakdown of the quietest (and possibly biggest) product launch of 2026:
The "Google" Clone (with a twist): At first glance, it looks like a total rip-off of Google Translate—two big boxes, auto-detect, and 50+ languages. But the "Automated" difference is the Style Switcher. Once you get your translation, you get one-tap buttons to make your text sound "Business Formal," "Academic," or "Explain like I’m a child."
The Conversation Loop: Unlike traditional tools that just swap words, this actually understands intent. It handles idioms and slang like a bilingual friend rather than a robotic dictionary. And if the quick translation feels a little off? You don’t start over. You jump straight into ChatGPT and keep "chatting’ with the translation until it’s perfect.
So yeah, you don't just get a translation; you get to argue with it. You can tell the AI, "Make this sound more like a Gen Z slang-heavy text" or "Check if this is polite enough for a Japanese CEO," and it actually understands the nuance.
The Current Scorecard:
Google is still the King of Scale: They support 240+ languages, offline mode, and handle entire websites, documents, handwriting and "World Lens" image translation.
OpenAI is the King of Context: They only support 50-ish languages right now, and the "image upload"/“audio feature” on the site is still a bit buggy/non-functional for some.
The "Stealth" Factor: There is no mobile app yet—just the URL. It feels like a "beta test" before they drop a dedicated translation app that integrates with their new Siri-rivalling voice features.
But hey, Google's not sleeping: Last month, they announced major Gemini-powered upgrades including better handling of slang, idioms, and regional expressions, plus they're testing real-time speech-to-speech translation through headphones. So this is about to get VERY competitive.
The Bottom Line:
Google has owned translation since 2006, but OpenAI is changing the goalposts. We’re moving from "word-swapping" to "meaning-adapting." If OpenAI can scale their language list and fix the multimodal bugs, Google’s decade-long monopoly is officially in trouble.
Wanna try it out? Here’s where you can.
