> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://heygen-1fa696a7.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# heygen-translate

> Translate and dub an existing video into 175+ languages with voice cloning and lip-sync. The presenter keeps their face, their voice is cloned, and lips re-sync to the new audio.

<Info>
  **Skill:** `heygen-translate` · **Invoke:** `/heygen-translate [video_url_or_path] [--to language]` · [Source](https://github.com/heygen-com/skills/tree/master/heygen-translate)
</Info>

`heygen-translate` localizes a finished video into 175+ languages. The presenter keeps their face, their voice is cloned into the target language, and their lips re-sync to the new audio — viewers see the same person speaking natively. You supply a source video and target languages; the engine handles transcription, translation, voice cloning, lip-sync, and optional burned-in captions.

This is **not** new-video generation. The performance, framing, and brand assets in the original are preserved — translation rides on top of what's already there.

## When to Use

* **Localize an existing video** — *"translate this to Spanish", "dub this into Japanese", "I need this in 10 languages for a launch"*.
* **Same presenter, another language** (not a new presenter — that's [heygen-video](/skills/heygen-video)).
* **Podcast / audio-only translation** — *"translate this podcast, keep my video"*.
* **High-stakes content** where you want to review/edit subtitles before final render (the proofreads workflow).

<Note>
  **Not for:** creating new videos from scratch (use [heygen-video](/skills/heygen-video) and write the script in the target language), avatar creation (use [heygen-avatar](/skills/heygen-avatar)), or text-only translation. Use this skill **only when a source video already exists**.
</Note>

## Workflow

Four phases. Discovery is the only place the skill asks questions; the rest is silent until delivery.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Discovery">
    Gathers the minimum: source video (URL, file path, or HeyGen asset\_id) and target language(s) — asked open-ended, no picker. Confirms speaker count, content type, captions, and duration flexibility with smart defaults.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Pre-flight (silent)">
    Validates the language string against the canonical list, routes the source (public URL passes through; local files upload, max 32 MB), and classifies the content into one of five profiles to set the right flags.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Submit + Poll (silent)">
    Submits one job per language (batchable), then background-polls — 30s for the first 3 min, then 60s. Most finish in 5–15 min; some take 30+. Surfaces only on completion, hard failure, or a stall.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Deliver">
    Posts one message per completed language with the video URL, duration, mode, and caption status. Delivers each as it finishes rather than waiting for the whole batch.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Content Profiles

The skill picks one profile from the source and sets flags accordingly — you rarely need to specify:

| Profile                     | Use when                                | Key flags                                                          |
| --------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Talking head** (default)  | One person to camera, clean audio       | `precision`, speech enhancement, captions, dynamic duration        |
| **Podcast / audio-only**    | Static or absent visual                 | `translate_audio_only`, speech enhancement                         |
| **Music / high-soundtrack** | Background music interferes with speech | `disable_music_track`, speech enhancement                          |
| **Multi-speaker**           | Two+ distinct speakers                  | Talking-head defaults + `speaker_num` (**required** — don't guess) |
| **Corporate / branded**     | Brand voice, glossary discipline        | Talking-head defaults + `brand_voice_id`; consider proofreads      |

<Tip>
  **Always precision mode** unless the user explicitly asks for speed. **Always confirm speaker count** for non-obvious cases — wrong speaker count is the #1 quality killer, causing voices to bleed across speakers.
</Tip>

## Proofread Workflow

For high-stakes content, run a proofread session so the user can review and edit translated subtitles *before* the engine commits to a final render. Default **ON** for long videos (>3 min), corporate/branded content, high-stakes legal/medical/educational, and languages the user reads natively.

```
proofreads create → poll → fetch SRT → edit (glossary, register, names) →
upload edited SRT → generate final → poll → deliver
```

This gives you an editable SRT you can also use as a sidecar caption file — preferable to burned-in captions when you might want to restyle them later.

## What to Know Before Translating

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Source quality is the ceiling" icon="video">
    Translation can't improve on the source. Muffled audio, fast cuts, heavy face occlusion, or low resolution all degrade lip-sync and voice quality. Warn the user upfront in Pre-flight — never after a bad result. Lip-sync is best on stable, front-facing, well-lit shots ≥720p with minimal cuts.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Locale pairs compress and expand" icon="arrows-left-right">
    en→zh, en→ja, en→ko run \~30% shorter; de→en, ja→en run longer; en→ar/he expand. Dynamic duration matters most for these — without it, en→zh sounds artificially slow. Regional variants matter too: Spanish (Spain) ≠ Spanish (Mexico); "Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)" ≠ Cantonese ≠ Taiwanese Mandarin.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Formality and RTL" icon="language">
    Register-heavy languages (Japanese keigo, Korean honorifics, German Sie/du, Thai) default to neutral-formal — proofread if you need to match a conversational source. RTL languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, Persian) render captions right-to-left and can collide with source lower-thirds; consider audio-only or caption styling review.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Cost & time" icon="clock">
    Translations bill by source duration. A 5-min video × 5 languages = \~25 billable minutes, each rendering in 10–20 min. Surface source-minutes × language-count and an honest render-time range — don't quote dollar figures (they vary by plan).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Example Prompts

| Prompt                                                                              | What happens                                                          |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| *"Translate this video to Spanish: \[URL]"*                                         | Single-language dub with voice clone + lip-sync.                      |
| *"Dub this launch video into French, German, and Japanese."*                        | Batch translation, one job per language, delivered as each completes. |
| *"Translate this podcast but keep my video."*                                       | Audio-only mode — returns a translated MP3 track.                     |
| *"Localize this for our enterprise launch — I want to review the subtitles first."* | Proofread workflow with editable SRT before final render.             |

<Card title="View the full SKILL.md" icon="github" href="https://github.com/heygen-com/skills/blob/master/heygen-translate/SKILL.md">
  Includes the full proofreads playbook, language-locale guide, asset routing, and failure-mode decoder.
</Card>