WPML 5.0 is the biggest update we’ve shipped in years. It rethinks how you navigate and configure WPML, makes automatic translation the default for new sites, and simplifies the translation engine to deliver the best possible quality. We’re releasing a beta first to catch any issues before the production release, and we’d love your help testing it.
The WPML admin has been rebuilt from the ground up. Instead of scattered menu items across the WordPress sidebar, everything now lives under a single WPML menu with five clear sections: Translations, Settings, AI Translation Billing, Support, and Activate & Update.
The Translation Dashboard now has a tab menu at the top with quick links to all the areas you need most: Menus, Strings, Taxonomies, Translation Jobs, Glossary, and more.
New menus in the completely redesigned WPML admin
Reorganized Settings Section with Search
The Settings section now includes a search bar, so you can find any option without knowing exactly where it lives.
Completely redesigned WPML Settings screen
You can now search settings to find what you need
Translate Everything Automatically Is Now the Default
For new sites, Translate Everything Automatically (TEA) is now the default translation mode. When you set up WPML on a new site, TEA is what you get out of the box with no extra configuration needed to start translating your entire site automatically.
Translate Everything Automatically (TEA) is now the default, recommended translation engine for new sites
Cut-Off Date Setting per Post Type
If your site has years of content but you only want to translate recent posts, you can now tell TEA to automatically translate only content published after a certain date, and set different dates for different post types. Your pages might be translated in full while blog posts are limited to the last two years, for example.
You can now select how far back you want to translate specific post types
TEA Now Translates from Any Language on Your Site
For example, if your default language is English but you publish a new post in Spanish first, TEA will now automatically translate it into English and all other languages on your site. Previously, only content published in the default language would trigger automatic translation.
PTC Is Now the Default Translation Engine with New Features
WPML’s AI-powered Private Translation Cloud (PTC) is now the default translation engine for all new sites. It also comes with new features that will save you money and improve your translations.
It’s the only engine that allows us to guarantee translation quality, learn from your existing translations, and keep building features that make automatic translation better and better over time.
DeepL, Google Translate, and Microsoft Translator are staying available but are now treated as legacy options.
Re-translating Edited Content Is Now Free
From now on, editing your original content no longer means paying to translate it all over again. For pages you’ve already translated with PTC, WPML remembers how many words you paid for. When you update the content and re-translate it, those words are free — you only pay if your edits push the page past its original word count, and then only for the difference.
Manual Translations Now Inform PTC Translations
When you send content for automatic translation that was previously translated manually using the WordPress editor or in the Classic Translation Editor, PTC now uses your existing translation as a starting point rather than replacing it. This means the tone, terminology, and style you established are preserved in the new translation.
Automatic Translation Improvements Based On Your Editing
When you edit translations done using PTC, you often make the same edits again and again.
WPML now watches for these repeating edits and works out the preference behind them. When it spots a pattern, it suggests the real fix instead of another one-off correction:
Glossary terms: if PTC translates dashboard as tablero but you always change it to panel, WPML offers to add panel to your glossary.
Links: if you keep repointing an English URL to its localized equivalent, WPML captures the mapping and applies it to existing and future pages.
Regional variants: if you keep editing toward a regional variant (for example, Swiss German), WPML suggests switching the language pair to that variant.
Formality: if you consistently change the register, WPML suggests updating the formality setting.
WPML’s new screen with suggestions that improve your translation quality while saving you time
WPML applies accepted suggestions across all current and future translations and re-translates the affected content. This way, you don’t repeat the same edit dozens of times.
Suggestions reach you where you work: as a banner in the Advanced Translation Editor, on the WPML → Translations → Improve Translations page, and as an email notification.
This feature works with WPML’s AI translation (PTC) only. Because it learns from the edits you make to AI translations and applies engine-level settings such as glossary, formality, and regional variants, it isn’t available for the legacy DeepL, Google Translate, and Microsoft engines.
Easily Select Language Variants
WPML 5.0 brings a single, unified way to set up your site’s languages in both the Setup Wizard and the WPML → Languages page.
WPML 5.0 brings easy selection of regional variants for languages
Now you can:
Pick a language and its regional variant in one step. For example, Mexican Spanish or Argentinian Spanish instead of generic Spanish
Choose the flag you want including uploading a custom flag, without workarounds
Create custom languages and dialects more easily, using presets and clearer guidance to avoid mistakes
For existing sites, WPML now automatically detects when your site is using a regional variant of a language and reflects that in the new Languages configuration so you don’t have to reconfigure anything by hand.
No More Waiting in Admin for Translations to Complete
With WPML 5.0, you no longer need to keep a browser tab open in your site’s admin for automatic translations to run. Previously, translations that were in progress only continued while an admin page was open. If you closed the tab, the queue stalled until someone came back to it.
Now, WPML creates and delivers translation jobs on its own, server-to-server, with no open browser required.
There are a few cases where our service can’t reach your site, so the original open-tab behavior still applies: sites on a private network, staging, or VPN-only environment; sites protected by a restrictive security plugin, and similar configurations. In cases like this, WPML warns that your site can’t be reached.
Translate Taxonomies from the Translation Dashboard
WPML 5.0 adds a Taxonomies section to the Translation Dashboard, so you can translate categories, tags, and custom taxonomies right where you manage the rest of your content. Until now, bulk-translating categories automatically meant awkward workarounds, like assigning every category to a dummy post.
WPML 5.0 allows you to easily translate any taxonomy right from the Translation Dashboard
Now, you can send all untranslated terms of a taxonomy for translation in a couple of clicks. Automatic translation receives the right context, such as whether a term is a category or a tag, and which post type it belongs to. This makes sure the results are more accurate.
It also works smoothly with Translate Everything: if you switch a taxonomy from “Not translatable” to “Translatable” after automatic translation has already run, WPML quietly queues the existing terms for translation, with no extra prompts or manual steps.
Improved Workflow for Local Translators
WPML 5.0 makes editing rights consistent for translators. Previously, a translator could see the Edit translation button for content that was translated automatically, but not for content another translator had already translated.
Now, translators can edit any translation in their assigned language pairs, regardless of how, when, or by whom it was originally translated. The Edit translation button appears in the admin bar whenever a translation exists and the translator has the matching language pair.
To avoid two people overwriting each other’s work, WPML warns when someone else is actively translating the same content.
WCML Adjustments for WPML 5.0 Interface Changes
WPML Multilingual & Multicurrency for WooCommerce (WCML) 6.0 will be released alongside WPML 5.0 and adapts to the new navigation. WCML 6.0 Beta is also available for testing right now.
WCML’s screens move out of WooCommerce → WCML and into the WPML menu, so everything related to translation lives in one place:
WCML Settings: WPML → Settings → WCML
Multicurrency: WPML → Settings → Multicurrency
Store URLs: WPML → Translations → Store URLs
Status and troubleshooting tools: WPML → Support
In WPML 5.0, WCML settings moved to WPML → Settings → WCML
Don’t worry, the old WooCommerce → WCML page points to these new locations so you can quickly navigate to the screen you need.
Other Fixes
Beyond the major features and improvements, WPML 5.0 Beta includes a large number of smaller fixes across the plugin. If you’ve been experiencing a minor issue in an earlier version, there’s a good chance it’s been resolved in this release.
If things work as expected, we’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
If you run into any issues, please open a ticket in our support forum and mention that you’re testing WPML 5.0 Beta. This helps us prioritize and respond faster.
14 Responses to “WPML 5.0 Beta – A Redesigned Experience and Smarter Automatic Translation”
Good news !
What is the approximate date of production release?
Thank you
Hi Julien! It’s hard to say at this point because the release includes a number of major changes and is going some deep testing. If I had to guess, I would say late August.
Hi Pontus! WPML 5.0 is not directly related to compatibility with Etch. However, their team has just recently joined our Go Global compatibility program. This means that our teams are working together on testing the products together and will work on ensuring they are compatible. At this point, I cannot say when it will happen. If you’d like to raise this further, or recheck the status in a few weeks, you can create a ticket in our support and our supporters will check.
Hi Mike! Two clarifications about this:
1. It only applies to new sites you install WPML on. Existing sites stay exactly how they are.
2. Even for new sites, this is a clear, separate step in the Setup Wizard, and you have full control over how you are translating the site. So, even though Translate Everything Automatically is selected, you can simply select the other option during this step and that’s it.
Hi Martin! New WPML brings even better AI translations via our PTC translation engine, which quality-wise now tops all other engines like DeepL. It also has a completely revamped admin interface for easy navigation and translation of your site. Finally, with WPML 5.0, you will be able to fine-tune the Translate Everything Automatically mode for your site so translations happen in the background without you needing to worry about them.
I have 2 questions:
– what are the possible area’s bugs may appear when migrating from the latest WPML to 5.0. Anything users should be aware of and try to fix before?
– Will there still be a seperate plugin for everything? It would make sense to have these extra plugins like string, SEO, media, woo be a addon toggle. Perhaps not Woo because of the size of it but others should be rather minor. Is there a real benifit of keeping it this way for the user?
Really happy you guys will update navigation, menu’s, … Now it is one of the most complex layouts
Hi! WPML 5.0 is completely compatible with the previous versions, and updating from previous versions shouldn’t introduce any issues at all.
We didn’t change the way WPML addon plugins are separated, so they stay the same. However, I will definitely forward your suggestion to the development team.
Did you already try the beta? If WPML navigation/admin has been a pain point for you, it would be great if you check out the beta and let us know how you like the new interface. 🙂
Thank you for the fast reply. I am always an early adopter of new versions so you guys will deff get my feedback. However my site is a live site so I can’t test is with the first version.
WP-rocket has a cleaner way of handling smaller addons with toggles and this is clearer I think.
Hey Mirte, my pleasure! If you want to test the beta, you could use something like Local by Flywheel. Use it to install a site in a few clicks on your local computer, then just put WPML 5.0 Beta (plus String Translation addon) on it, and you’re set for testing. Would love to hear your thoughts on the new interface. 🙂
Thank you for such a thoughtful and ambitious update!
The redesigned interface and smarter translation workflow look like a huge step forward.
I’m especially excited to see WPML learning from edits and making multilingual site management even smoother!
Good news !
What is the approximate date of production release?
Thank you
Hi Julien! It’s hard to say at this point because the release includes a number of major changes and is going some deep testing. If I had to guess, I would say late August.
Will WPML 5 be compatible with websites built with Etch?
Hi Pontus! WPML 5.0 is not directly related to compatibility with Etch. However, their team has just recently joined our Go Global compatibility program. This means that our teams are working together on testing the products together and will work on ensuring they are compatible. At this point, I cannot say when it will happen. If you’d like to raise this further, or recheck the status in a few weeks, you can create a ticket in our support and our supporters will check.
‘Translate Everything Automatically Is Now the Default’.
You’ve lost me on this one – I don’t want an additional paid option switched on by default whereby clients can rack up costs on my behalf.
Hi Mike! Two clarifications about this:
1. It only applies to new sites you install WPML on. Existing sites stay exactly how they are.
2. Even for new sites, this is a clear, separate step in the Setup Wizard, and you have full control over how you are translating the site. So, even though Translate Everything Automatically is selected, you can simply select the other option during this step and that’s it.
“It only applies to new sites you install WPML on. Existing sites stay exactly how they are.”
Thanks for clarifying that, I would have hesitated upgrading if this is not the case.
I have WPML and other translation plugins. What are the benefits of the new WPML compared to https://gtranslate.io/ for example?
Hi Martin! New WPML brings even better AI translations via our PTC translation engine, which quality-wise now tops all other engines like DeepL. It also has a completely revamped admin interface for easy navigation and translation of your site. Finally, with WPML 5.0, you will be able to fine-tune the Translate Everything Automatically mode for your site so translations happen in the background without you needing to worry about them.
If you’re specifically interested in comparing WPML to GTranslate, I suggest reading our comparison article about which of these two plugins you should choose.
And for all other major WordPress comparisons with WPML, check out our detailed comparison of WPML with other plugins.
I have 2 questions:
– what are the possible area’s bugs may appear when migrating from the latest WPML to 5.0. Anything users should be aware of and try to fix before?
– Will there still be a seperate plugin for everything? It would make sense to have these extra plugins like string, SEO, media, woo be a addon toggle. Perhaps not Woo because of the size of it but others should be rather minor. Is there a real benifit of keeping it this way for the user?
Really happy you guys will update navigation, menu’s, … Now it is one of the most complex layouts
Hi! WPML 5.0 is completely compatible with the previous versions, and updating from previous versions shouldn’t introduce any issues at all.
We didn’t change the way WPML addon plugins are separated, so they stay the same. However, I will definitely forward your suggestion to the development team.
Did you already try the beta? If WPML navigation/admin has been a pain point for you, it would be great if you check out the beta and let us know how you like the new interface. 🙂
Hey Dario,
Thank you for the fast reply. I am always an early adopter of new versions so you guys will deff get my feedback. However my site is a live site so I can’t test is with the first version.
WP-rocket has a cleaner way of handling smaller addons with toggles and this is clearer I think.
Hey Mirte, my pleasure! If you want to test the beta, you could use something like Local by Flywheel. Use it to install a site in a few clicks on your local computer, then just put WPML 5.0 Beta (plus String Translation addon) on it, and you’re set for testing. Would love to hear your thoughts on the new interface. 🙂
Thank you for such a thoughtful and ambitious update!
The redesigned interface and smarter translation workflow look like a huge step forward.
I’m especially excited to see WPML learning from edits and making multilingual site management even smoother!