What are Profiles?
Profiles are collections of configurations for the MT engines and LLMs used to translate your content in Smartling. They allow you to customize translation output based on your specific requirements and preferences.
Once configured, Profiles can be used to:
Generate translations in the translation step of a machine translation workflow
Deliver translations via Smartling's MT API
Support instant MT integrations to display translations directly where needed
Understanding Profile Types
Smartling offers two types of Profiles, each designed for different kinds of translation providers:
MT Profiles
MT Profiles are used to configure machine translation engines. They allow you to:
Translate using your preferred MT engine
Configure provider-specific settings (such as formality levels for DeepL)
Define language-specific rules
Enable features like profanity masking (for supported providers)
When to create an MT Profile:
Create an MT Profile for any traditional MT provider (Google Translate, DeepL, Microsoft Translator, Amazon Translate, etc.), custom trained MT engine, or for Copy Source-to-Target.*
*Google Translation LLM is an exception. If using Google Translation LLM, you will need to create an MT Profile, not an LLM Profile.
Info: Learn more in Creating and Managing MT Profiles.
LLM Profiles (RAG)
LLM Profiles provide advanced customization options specifically for LLM providers. They support capabilities beyond MT Profiles that are specific to translating with LLMs, including:
Custom translation prompts - Write instructions that tell the LLM how to translate your content
Prompt tooling with RAG - Augment prompts with contextual information from your translation memory and glossaries
Translation parameters - Adjust output creativity, repetition tolerance, and other factors that influence translation output
Hallucination detection - Automatically flag potential translation issues
Token management - Configure token limits for your selected model
When to create an LLM Profile:
Create an LLM Profile for any of Smartling's supported LLM providers.
Google Translation LLM is an exception. If using Google Translation LLM, you will need to create an MT Profile, not an LLM Profile.
Info: Learn more in Managing LLM Profiles and Prompts.
Tip: View the complete list of supported MT and LLM providers.
Prerequisites: Provider Credentials
Before creating any Profile, you need to store provider credentials in Smartling. There are two ways to obtain credentials:
Smartling-provisioned credentials - The Smartling team provides credentials for you (automatically available, no setup needed)
Note: Smartling keys are available for a limited number of providers and may include usage restrictions, such as being intended for initial testing only. Refer to the Smartling documentation for the specific provider to confirm whether a Smartling key is available. If you have questions about Smartling keys, contact your Customer Success Manager or another Smartling representative.
Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) - Add your own provider credentials to the Credentials page in the AI Hub
Tip: Learn more in MT and LLM Provider Credentials.
Smartling Auto Select
Your Smartling account comes with two pre-configured Profiles: Smartling Auto Select MT and Smartling Auto Select LLM.
Auto Select MT automatically chooses the highest-performing machine translation engine for each language pair and requires no setup to get started.
With Auto Select LLM, large language models are used instead. Smartling handles the prompt, model selection, and all parameters, so no setup or LLM expertise is required.
Tip: Learn more about Smartling Auto Select MT and Auto Select LLM.
How to access Profiles
To view, manage, or create Profiles:
Click into the AI Hub from the top navigation bar of your Smartling dashboard.
Click into the Profiles section.
From here, you can view and edit all existing MT and LLM Profiles and create new Profiles. You can also search, filter, and sort the list to find specific Profiles:
Search - Use the Search profiles by name search bar to find a Profile by its name.
Filter by provider - Use the Select providers dropdown to narrow the list to Profiles that use a specific provider.
Sort - Use the sort dropdown to order Profiles by Name (Ascending) or Name (Descending).
Next steps
Ready to create a new Profile?