Fast, smooth web page & YouTube subtitle translation. 8 target languages, multiple AI engines, data stays local.
Users
6,000
0 in 30 days
Rating
4.4 / 5
−0.15 in 30 days
Ratings
21
+2 in 30 days
Store rank
#13K
#11K among extensions
Version
2.6.0
updated 8 Oct 2026
Users
monthly, 6 months
Latest, 15 Oct 2026:6,000 usersMove the mouse over the chart for any month
Ratings count
monthly, 6 months
Latest, 15 Oct 2026:21 ratingsMove the mouse over the chart for any month
The Chrome Web Store rounds user counts down to the leading digit, so the user line moves in steps. The ratings count is exact and is the better signal of real adoption.
About Shinkansen
Shinkansen is a fast, private, high-quality translation extension that uses AI models to translate foreign-language web pages, YouTube subtitles and documents into your language. Text is replaced in place so the page layout stays intact, and requests go straight to the AI model — your data never passes through a third party
Recent major updates:
• New: hover translation — hold a modifier key and rest the cursor on a paragraph to translate just that one, in place; choose the modifier and bilingual / monolingual display in Settings (off by default)
• Glossary scoped to a site path — enter "domain/path" to apply a domain glossary only under that path, so sections or series on one site can each have their own
• Automatic Simplified ↔ Traditional Chinese conversion — no longer lights the toolbar icon; the first press after conversion translates the rest of the page; icon-only buttons and short headings keep their layout
• YouTube subtitles — the settings menu is no longer closed by subtitle translation while open
• Performance and stability — no more stalls when hovering long pages or opening the menu; hover and full-page translation no longer overwrite each other
• iOS and iPadOS version is on the App Store — a Safari extension with three- or four-finger touch translate and the floating button
Features:
Instant translation
The page starts changing within 1 second of pressing translate — no waiting for the whole batch of API calls to come back first (Gemini only)
Preserves page layout
In-place text replacement keeps fonts, sizes, colors and links intact — it looks like a page originally written in your language
Bilingual side-by-side
Original and translation shown together for language learning or proofreading; switch between overlay and bilingual modes anytime
Multi-language translation + UI
Translate into any of 8 target languages, and the extension interface switches to match
Document translation
Upload a whole document or subtitle file — everything is processed inside the browser, nothing is uploaded to a server. PDF output keeps the original layout; e-books get a book-wide glossary and a post-translation consistency scan; Word translations are written back into the original file; edit any paragraph before exporting, with monolingual or bilingual output for most formats
YouTube subtitle translation
Watch YouTube videos with the captions auto-translated into your language, with optional bilingual display; auto-generated captions are re-segmented by meaning into readable full sentences
Respects do-not-translate markup
Content that site authors mark as not-to-translate is kept as-is and never sent to the API, and icon-font glyphs are never turned into text
Auto-translate across pages
Once a page is translated, clicking links or pressing Back also auto-translates the next page — no need to trigger translation on every page
Floating button
A draggable button at the page edge: tap to translate, long-press to switch engines or open the menu; position, size and opacity are adjustable
Custom glossary
Pin specific terms to your preferred translations so proper nouns are always rendered consistently — global and per-site layers, CSV import, room for hundreds of entries
Blocked-word list
An editable list of words you don't want in the translation (26 defaults). Block a word on its own, or pair it with a required replacement — the LLM is explicitly instructed to comply
Translate opening only
Preview the first few paragraphs before deciding whether to translate the whole article — saves a lot of tokens
Translation cache
Already-translated paragraphs are cached automatically — re-opening the same page costs nothing
Transparent pricing
Cost is shown live during translation. The settings page tracks token usage and cost for every past run, with charts and CSV export
Three translation engines
Gemini, Google Translate and custom models coexist as three engines — switch freely depending on context. A custom model can point at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, whether a cloud service or a model you run yourself
Free Chinese variant conversion
Built-in dictionaries convert between Simplified and Traditional Chinese locally — no API key, no API calls, works offline — with phrase-level Taiwan-convention mapping. Auto-convert on page load is on by default
Send to Instapaper
Save the whole translated article to Instapaper in one click, with a summary in your target language, for later re-reading
Custom shortcuts
Three customizable shortcuts (Alt+A, Alt+S, Alt+D) for switching engines and models on the fly