Translate - Developer Platform

Translate text between English and Arabic with dialect awareness. Generates culturally appropriate translations in Gulf, Egyptian, Levantine, or MSA Arabic.

Cost: $0.005 per request (5 credits). Semantic cache hits are free (X-NAWA-Cache: HIT).

Request

Headers

Header	Required	Description
`Authorization`	Yes	`Bearer nawa_live_sk_xxx` or `Bearer nawa_test_sk_xxx`
`Content-Type`	Yes	`application/json`

Body parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`text`	string	Yes	The text to translate. Max 5,000 characters.
`source`	string	No	Source language: `ar`, `en`, `auto`. Default: `auto` (detects automatically).
`target`	string	Yes	Target language: `ar`, `en`.
`dialect`	string	No	Target dialect for Arabic output: `gulf`, `egyptian`, `levantine`, `msa`. Default: `msa`.
`tone`	string	No	Translation tone: `formal`, `casual`, `social_media`. Default: `formal`.
`platform`	string	No	Source platform for social media tone context: `youtube`, `instagram`, `twitter`, `facebook`.
`metadata`	object	No	Arbitrary key-value metadata to attach to the translation.

Example request

  curl -X POST https://api.trynawa.com/v1/translate \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer nawa_test_sk_xxx" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{
      "text": "Hello, how are you?",
      "source": "en",
      "target": "ar",
      "dialect": "gulf",
      "tone": "casual"
    }'

  import { Nawa } from '@nawalabs/sdk'

  const nawa = new Nawa({ apiKey: process.env.NAWA_API_KEY })

  const { data, error } = await nawa.translate({
    text: 'Hello, how are you?',
    source: 'en',
    target: 'ar',
    dialect: 'gulf',
    tone: 'casual'
  })

  from nawa import Nawa

  nawa = Nawa(api_key="your_api_key")

  result = nawa.translate(
      text="Hello, how are you?",
      source="en",
      target="ar",
      dialect="gulf",
      tone="casual"
  )

Response

Success response (200)

{
  "success": true,
  "result": {
    "id": "trn_nw_pon1yom9bkfe",
    "object": "translation",
    "text": "Hello, how are you?",
    "translated_text": "هلا، كيف حالك؟",
    "source_language": "en",
    "target_language": "ar",
    "source_dialect": null,
    "target_dialect": "gulf",
    "tone": "casual",
    "model": "nagl-v1",
    "provider": "claude",
    "fallback_used": false,
    "cached": false,
    "cost_usd": 0.005,
    "credits_used": 5
  },
  "errors": [],
  "request_id": "req_nw_4c11w71e44cb"
}

Result fields

Field	Type	Description
`text`	string	The original input text
`translated_text`	string	The translated output
`source_language`	string	Detected or specified source language
`target_language`	string	Target language
`source_dialect`	string or null	Detected dialect if source is Arabic
`target_dialect`	string or null	Target dialect if target is Arabic
`tone`	string	The tone used for translation
`model`	string	Model version used
`provider`	string	AI provider used. Currently always `claude`.
`fallback_used`	boolean	Whether the fallback provider was used
`cached`	boolean	Whether served from semantic cache
`cost_usd`	number	Cost in USD
`credits_used`	number	Credits deducted

Dialect examples

English to Gulf Arabic (casual)

Input: “The food was amazing, thank you so much” Output: “الأكل كان وايد حلو، مشكور وايد”

    curl -X POST https://api.trynawa.com/v1/translate \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer nawa_test_sk_xxx" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{"text": "The food was amazing, thank you so much", "source": "en", "target": "ar", "dialect": "gulf", "tone": "casual"}'

Input: “Subscribe to my channel for more content!” Output: “اشتركوا في القناة عشان يوصلكم كل جديد!”

    curl -X POST https://api.trynawa.com/v1/translate \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer nawa_test_sk_xxx" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{"text": "Subscribe to my channel for more content!", "source": "en", "target": "ar", "dialect": "egyptian", "tone": "social_media", "platform": "youtube"}'

Arabic to English (formal)

Input: “وش رايكم بالمحتوى الجديد؟” Output: “What do you think of the new content?”

    curl -X POST https://api.trynawa.com/v1/translate \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer nawa_test_sk_xxx" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{"text": "وش رايكم بالمحتوى الجديد؟", "source": "ar", "target": "en", "tone": "formal"}'

MSA to Gulf Arabic dialect conversion

Input: “كيف حالك اليوم؟” (MSA) Output: “شلونك اليوم؟” (Gulf)

    curl -X POST https://api.trynawa.com/v1/translate \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer nawa_test_sk_xxx" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{"text": "كيف حالك اليوم؟", "source": "ar", "target": "ar", "dialect": "gulf", "tone": "casual"}'

Error responses

Status	Type	When
400	`invalid_request_error`	Missing `text`, `source`, or `target`. Invalid values. Text too long.
401	`authentication_error`	Invalid or missing API key
402	`insufficient_credits`	No credits remaining
429	`rate_limit_error`	Rate limit exceeded
500	`api_error`	Internal or provider error

​Request

​Headers

​Body parameters

​Example request

​Response

​Success response (200)

​Result fields

​Dialect examples

​Error responses

Request

Headers

Body parameters

Example request

Response

Success response (200)

Result fields

Dialect examples

Error responses