Deploy and Host LibreTranslate on Railway

LibreTranslate is a free, open-source machine translation API that runs entirely on your own infrastructure. Powered by Argos Translate instead of proprietary services, it provides a browser interface and REST API for private, offline-capable translation workflows while giving you control over language availability, access, limits, and operational data.

About Hosting LibreTranslate

This template runs the official LibreTranslate image on port 5000 and exposes it through a generated Railway domain. On first startup, LibreTranslate downloads its language models, so the service may take 10 minutes or longer to become available depending on bandwidth and selected languages. A Railway volume mounted at /app/db persists the SQLite API-key database across redeploys. Railway allows one volume per service, so downloaded models under /home/libretranslate/.local remain ephemeral and may be downloaded again after a redeploy. Configure API-key authentication, model updates, and optional language restrictions manually in the template composer using LibreTranslate's LT_* variables.

Common Use Cases

• Adding private machine translation to applications through a REST API
• Hosting an internal browser-based translator without proprietary providers
• Supporting offline-capable or data-controlled multilingual workflows

Dependencies for LibreTranslate Hosting

• Persistent Railway volume mounted at /app/db for the API-key database
• Ephemeral service storage for downloaded Argos Translate language models

Deployment Dependencies

• LibreTranslate upstream repository
• LibreTranslate documentation
• Docker image: libretranslate/libretranslate

Implementation Details

The main service uses the pinned libretranslate/libretranslate:v1.6.5 image and receives public HTTPS traffic through a Railway domain targeting container port 5000. The template intentionally leaves LT_API_KEYS, LT_API_KEYS_DB_PATH, LT_UPDATE_MODELS, and LT_LOAD_ONLY for manual composer configuration so their literal values are not stripped during template generation.

Why Deploy LibreTranslate on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying LibreTranslate on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.