Managing translation projects means coordinating people, tracking progress, meeting deadlines, and keeping quality consistent.

This guide is for product, project, and localization managers who want to understand the main project management capabilities in Lokalise. It highlights the features that are most useful throughout a typical translation workflow rather than covering every available option.

For detailed setup instructions and advanced use cases, follow the links to the relevant Help Center articles.

The projects dashboard shows all projects you have access to and provides a quick overview of each one:

The project summary includes:

You can also view translation progress for each target language separately.

Click New project in the projects dashboard to create a new project. Then, choose a project type:

Then enter the project name and select the base and target languages:

Configure any other project settings you need, and then click Create project.

Once the project is created, you can further adjust its settings under the project settings tab.

Lokalise manages access at two levels:

The person who creates a team becomes its owner by default. The owner has full access to the team, is automatically added to all new projects, and cannot be removed from them.

Other team members (non-owners) do not automatically get access to team projects. They must also be added to each relevant project as contributors. When you invite a new contributor directly to a project, they are automatically added to the team with the Member role.

For more information about these access levels, see the Teams and roles and Contributors articles.

You can add multiple users from the team management page. Click your team avatar in the bottom-left corner, select Team settings, and open the Team tab.

Proceed to the Team tab and click Add team member:

Enter one or more email addresses and choose:

New users are added to the team with the Member role. This is the most limited team role: members can work only in the projects they have been added to and cannot manage team settings, users, or billing.

Their permissions within an individual project can still be broader. Depending on their contributor role, a member may be allowed to change project settings, upload files, manage translations, or perform other project-level actions.

To manage access to a particular project, open the project and click Contributors:

The Contributors page lists everyone who currently has access to the project. You can search for contributors, filter them by language, and update their roles, permissions, or language access.

Click Add and choose one of the following tabs:

For detailed information about the available project roles and permissions, see the Contributors article.

You can also reuse the contributor setup from an existing project. On the Contributors page, click Import and select a project from the dropdown.

Lokalise adds its contributors to the current project and keeps their existing permissions where possible.

Contributors who are already part of the current project are not changed. If a contributor only has access to a language that does not exist in the current project, they are not added.

Your subscription plan limits the number of advanced seats, while basic seats are unlimited.

Each contributor is also a team user. The team seat they occupy depends on both their team role and their permissions across all projects:

Users with a team role above Member always occupy an advanced seat, even if they do not belong to any projects. A member also occupies an advanced seat if they have elevated permissions in at least one project, including permissions assigned through a group.

For larger teams, you can use user groups to manage multiple contributors together. A group has shared project permissions and language access, so you can add all its members to one or more projects at once. Groups are created and managed in Team settings.

To add a group to a project, open Contributors, click Add, switch to the User groups tab, select one or more groups, and click Add user groups:

This is mainly useful for advanced workflows with many users or recurring contributor teams.

When opening a specific project, you will be presented with a project editor. You will be using this editor to manage languages, translation keys, create professional translation orders, and perform other actions. Please note that certain elements might not be visible depending on the project settings, project type, and access rights.

Lokalise supports a wide range of translation file formats for iOS, Android, web, desktop, and document-based projects.

To upload files, open your project and click Upload in the top menu.

You can select individual files or folders, drag and drop multiple files, or paste file contents directly.

You can also re-upload updated versions of existing files. During import, Lokalise can add new keys, detect existing ones, and update their values depending on the selected upload options. Additional settings let you apply tags, run automations, pre-translate content using translation memory, or remove keys that no longer exist in the uploaded file.

Review these options carefully when re-importing files, especially settings that replace existing values or delete missing keys.

Alternatively, you can upload content using the API, CLI tool or GitHub, GitLab, and other integrations with GitHub, GitLab, and other services.

Marketing and support projects work differently from file-based projects. When creating the project, select the service you want to connect, such as Salesforce, Intercom Articles, Contentful, or Zendesk, and configure the integration.

After connecting the service, use the Content management tab to import new or updated content and export completed translations back to the source platform. You cannot upload files or add and remove keys directly in these projects.

Setup and synchronization steps vary by service. See the documentation for your selected integration for detailed instructions.

Screenshots provide translators with visual context by showing where and how the text is used. You can link one or more screenshots to translation keys, and they will appear directly in the project editor.

To upload and manage screenshots, click Screenshots in the top menu:

Drag and drop your images into the upload area. You can also upload, link, or unlink screenshots directly from a specific key in the editor.

Enable Try to find keys on images to let Lokalise detect base language text and automatically link the screenshot to matching keys. Detected text is highlighted on the image so translators can see its exact position.

Automatic detection works only with existing keys and supported base languages. Results also depend on how clearly the text is displayed, including the font, background, and image quality. If some text is not detected, you can open the screenshot editor and link it to a key manually.

You can also add titles, descriptions, and tags to screenshots, replace their images, and filter project keys based on whether they have screenshots attached.

A glossary helps keep terminology consistent across your translations. You can use it for product names, technical terms, words with multiple meanings, terms that should not be translated, and terms that translators should avoid.

When a glossary term appears in the source text, Lokalise shows its translation and description to contributors directly in the editor. Translators can use this information to choose the correct wording. Glossary entries are also taken into account when generating translations with Pro AI.

To manage the project glossary, click Glossary in the top menu:

You can add terms individually and provide translations, descriptions, and usage rules.

You can also add multiple terms at once by selecting More > Upload CSV. Existing glossary entries can be downloaded as a CSV file, allowing you to export a glossary from one project and upload it to another. See the Glossary article for CSV formatting requirements and other details.

Translation memory (TM) stores previously translated text and helps reuse it across projects. When users add or update translations in the editor, upload translated files, or send translations through the API, Lokalise automatically saves the source and target text as a TM entry.

When the same or similar source text appears again, Lokalise shows matching translations directly in the editor together with a match percentage.

Contributors can apply a suggestion or open the Translation memory tab to search existing entries manually. TM matches can also be applied to multiple keys at once or used to pre-translate content during file uploads.

By default, projects in the same team share a translation memory. Team administrators can manage TM storages under Team settings > Translation memory, where they can create storages and upload or download TMX files.

Project settings determine which storages are searched and where new translations are saved. See the Translation memory article for detailed setup and management instructions.

Style guides help keep tone, formality, formatting, and other writing conventions consistent across languages. They provide human translators with clear instructions and help AI generate translations that better match your brand voice.

Upload a PDF or DOCX file from the Style guide page, assign it to the relevant projects and languages, and attach it to translation tasks. Guides can be general or specific to a target language.

For AI translation tasks, sync the guide with Pro AI and review the generated summary that the AI will use. See the Style guide article for setup details and recommendations.

Tasks help you assign specific content to contributors or Pro AI, organize translation and review workflows, and track progress by language.

You can create a task from the Tasks page or by selecting keys in the editor and choosing Create task from the bulk actions menu.

When creating a task, choose:

Additional settings let you control how items are completed, lock translations to assignees, close completed tasks automatically, apply tags, and save recurring workflows as task templates. You can also chain tasks, for example, to start a review after translation is complete.

For Automatic translation tasks, Pro AI can use the task instructions, project glossary, attached style guide, and custom AI profile to generate translations. You can also apply exact 100% translation memory matches before sending the remaining content to AI and choose whether AI-generated translations should be saved to translation memory.

Enable Trigger AI quality scoring to evaluate AI-generated translations automatically. Each translation receives a score from 0 to 100, together with details about any detected issues. Exact 100% matches applied from translation memory are not scored.

For a more detailed evaluation of existing translations, create an AI LQA task. Lokalise AI checks the selected content and produces quality reports with detected issues and suggested corrections.

The Tasks page shows task status, assignees, due dates, and progress for each language.

Contributors receive notifications about assigned work, while managers can monitor completion and close finished tasks.

An initial analysis report is available after a task is created and includes information such as word counts, repetitions, and translation memory leverage. Once the task is completed, final and detailed reports show how much each assignee translated or reviewed and provide a breakdown of their contributions. See the Tasks article for all available settings and workflow options.

AI profiles let you control what context Pro AI uses when generating translations. By default, AI can use project glossaries, text descriptions, style guides, and task instructions.

For more consistent results, you can create a custom AI profile that also uses high-quality translation memory entries or existing project translations as examples. This helps AI follow your established terminology, tone, and wording, especially for repetitive product content.

When setting up a profile, choose its source and target languages, data source, and the projects where it should be used. Make sure the selected translations are accurate and consistent, as poor examples can reduce translation quality.

See the AI profiles article for setup instructions and availability details.

Lokalise offers two features for automating repetitive localization work:

In simple terms:

Be careful when using both features for AI, machine translation, or translation memory in the same project. Changes made by a workflow may trigger an automation, potentially causing conflicting updates or loops.

If you do not have your own translation team, you can order professional or machine translation directly from Lokalise.

Open Orders in the side menu, click New order, and choose a provider: Lokalise, Gengo, Google, or DeepL. You can then select the project, source and target languages, and the content to include.

Before payment, Lokalise shows the word count, price, and estimated delivery time.

The available workflow depends on the provider. Translators from the Lokalise Translation Team work directly in your project and can use its comments, screenshots, glossary, translation memory, and other context. These translators and editors do not count towards your team seat quota. Gengo translators work outside Lokalise and receive more limited project context, while Google and DeepL provide machine translation.

See the Professional translation services article for available quality levels, pricing, provider-specific limitations, and ordering instructions.

Comments let contributors discuss questions and share context directly alongside project content. A comment can be linked to an entire key or to a specific translation, so the discussion stays connected to the relevant text.

In the project editor, click the Comments button under a key name or next to a translation. You can also open Comments from the left-hand menu to view discussions across the project.

Use @ mentions to notify individual contributors, reply in threads, and resolve discussions once the question has been addressed. Contributors can only view translation-level comments for languages they have access to.

See the Comments article for details.

Translation history records every version of a translation and shows who changed it, when the change was made, and which tool was used. This helps project managers investigate unexpected changes and restore an earlier version when needed.

In the project editor, click the History button next to a translation to view its previous versions, compare changes, or restore a specific version. You can also select multiple keys and use Restore to last translation history from the bulk actions menu to undo their latest changes.

See the Translation history article for more details.

Project branching lets you maintain separate versions of the same localization project. It is useful for managing different product releases, development environments, or experimental changes without affecting the main project content.

Enable branching under More > Settings.

You can then create and switch between branches, upload and export content separately, and merge completed changes into another branch. If the same content was changed in both branches, Lokalise asks you to resolve the conflict before merging.

Branching is available for Web and mobile projects only. Some project data is shared across all branches, while keys, translations, tasks, and several other features are branch-specific.

See the Project branching article for limitations and recommended workflows.

To export translations, open the project and click Download in the top menu.

Choose the output file format, languages, and file structure. You can also control which content to export—for example, only translated, reviewed, or verified strings—and filter keys by tags or filenames. Additional options depend on the selected file format and cover settings such as empty translations, plurals, placeholders, comments, and key ordering.

Alternatively, you can initiate the export via the API.

Click Preview to inspect the generated content in the browser, or Build and download to generate an archive.

You can also export translations through the API or send generated files to connected services using app triggers. See the Downloading translation files article for all available options.

Lokalise Analytics provides team-level dashboards with charts and reports for monitoring localization activity.

You can track processed word usage, compare human, AI, machine translation, and translation memory workflows, monitor task progress and completion times, review contributor workloads, and analyze translation quality and editing effort. OTA usage reports are also available for mobile projects.

Use filters to explore data by date, project, language, task, contributor, translation method, and other criteria. This can help you identify bottlenecks, estimate future workloads, compare workflows, and find areas that require additional review.

See the Lokalise Analytics article for a full description of the available dashboards and metrics.

Project snapshots let you create backups before major uploads, bulk changes, or configuration updates. To manage them, open More > Settings > Snapshots:

You can create snapshots manually or configure them to run automatically during file uploads. On supported plans, Lokalise can also create daily snapshots or snapshots after certain bulk actions.

Restoring a snapshot does not overwrite the current project. Instead, Lokalise creates a separate project copy with a new project ID and restores most project data, including keys, translations, settings, contributors, and screenshots.

Some data, such as tasks, workflows, non-master branches, and translation history, is not included. See the Project snapshots article to learn more.

Connect Lokalise with code repositories, content platforms, design tools, and other services used in your localization workflow. Integrations can help you import and export content, keep projects in sync, and automate actions through triggers or the API.

For Web and mobile and Ad hoc documents projects, open More > Apps to browse and configure available integrations.

For Marketing and support projects, you select the content platform when creating the project and configure the connection as part of the setup. Content from that service is then managed through the Content management tab.

The Review center lets clients, subject-matter experts, and other occasional stakeholders review selected translations without joining your team or using a paid seat. It is useful when someone needs to provide feedback but does not require full access to the Lokalise project editor.

In the editor, select the relevant keys, choose Invite to Review center from the bulk actions menu, select the languages, and enter the reviewers’ email addresses.

Guest reviewers can view the source text, translations, key details, and screenshots, mark content as reviewed, and leave comments or suggest corrections through discussions.

Review center activity does not change the main project review status automatically. See the Review center article for detailed instructions and guest reviewer limitations.

Vendor rate profiles are designed for advanced workflows where you work with multiple agencies, freelancers, or translation vendors. They are especially useful for language service providers that need to manage different rates and calculate payments based on completed work.

Under Team settings > Vendors, you can group contributors by vendor and create rate cards with per-word prices for translation and review. Rates can vary by language pair and translation memory match percentage.

When creating a task, select the relevant rate card for each vendor. After the work is completed, use vendor reports to calculate payments and review costs by task, translator, or rate card.

See the Vendor rate profiles article for setup details.

Each Lokalise team has its own subscription plan. The plan determines which features are available and sets limits for resources such as advanced seats, projects, processed words, AI translation, automations, integrations, and OTA usage.

Lokalise currently offers several plans for teams of different sizes and workflow complexity. Higher plans include larger quotas and additional features for automation, access management, analytics, security, and enterprise workflows.

To view your current plan, open Team settings > Billing:

This page shows your subscription details and lets you update the payment method, change the current plan, or cancel the subscription. Only team Owners and Billers can manage billing.

When upgrading, the unused value of the current subscription is applied toward the new plan. Card subscriptions renew automatically, while annual Advanced and Enterprise subscriptions can also be paid by bank transfer.

See the Available plans and payment methods and Managing your subscription articles for current feature limits, pricing options, and billing details.

If you need a simpler way to translate long-form marketing and creative content, such as documents, blog posts, presentations, or support articles, try Lokalise Vantage.

Vantage is a separate workspace available within your Lokalise team. It provides a streamlined workflow with AI translation, optional human review, translation assets, and content previews, without requiring you to configure the more advanced workflows available in Lokalise Expert.

See the Lokalise Vantage onboarding guide to get started.

That's it! If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us in the support chat.