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Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) Multilingual – Translate Fields with WPML

ACFML is a WPML add-on that allows building multilingual sites with ACF and ACF Pro.

Trusted by 70,000+ developers

ACFML in action

Key Features

Translate any field available in ACF and ACF Pro

Use AI translation or translate by yourself

Show the same or different fields across languages

On this page

Required Plugins

How to Translate with ACFML

Same fields across languages

Different fields across languages

Expert Mode (Advanced)

Translate Field Labels

Translate ACF Field Choices

Required Plugins

To translate your website with ACFML, install and activate the following plugins:

Before Starting

To ensure fields appear for translation, avoid using the same field name more than once, and don’t start with an underscore (e.g., _custom_field).

How to Translate with ACFML

ACFML offers three ways to translate and display custom fields.

Same fields across languages

This option lets you show fields using the same structure they have in the original language, while only translating the field values. 

For example, think about the “our team” page on your website. Your team is the same, no matter the language of the page. Since you’re showing the same information (the people on your team and their details), you should use “same fields across languages” for the fields in this group. 

You’ll enter the information about your team once, in the site’s default language. Then, you’ll translate these details to the rest of the site’s languages.

Team page in English
Team page in English
Team page in Spanish
Team page in Spanish

To display the same fields across languages:

  1. Go to ACF → Field Groups and edit your Field Group. 
  2. Under Multilingual Setup, select the Same fields across languages option. 
Selecting same fields across languages
Selecting same fields across languages
  1. Finally, go to WPML → Translation dashboard and send the content with your custom fields for translation.

If you can’t find your content in Translation Dashboard, go to WPML → Settings, scroll down to Post Type Translation, and verify your content is set to Translatable.

Different fields across languages

This option lets you show translated fields with different values in each language. It’s useful when you want to show localized versions of similar content. 

Think about a company that organizes events and offers different events for audiences in different languages. The “events” page will need to show different content (events) for each language. 

Events in English
Events in English
Events in Spanish
Events in Spanish

To display different fields across languages:

  1. Go to ACF → Field Groups and edit your Field Group. 
  2. Under Multilingual Setup, select the Different fields across languages option. 
Selecting different fields across languages
  1. Next, locate the content with your custom fields (e.g., page, post) and click Edit.
  2. On the right sidebar, click the Plus icon for the language you want to show different fields for.
Plus icons in under Translate this Document
Plus icons on right sidebar
  1. A blank draft will open with empty custom fields. Enter your translated, different values for each field and click Publish.
Empty custom fields
Empty custom fields

Expert Mode (Advanced)

Expert Mode lets you manually control the translation preferences for each custom field. This option is useful when you want a combination of same and different fields across languages, and need independent translation control per field. 

For instance, in the event example below, we have a mix of fields with different translation preferences; the title and description are translated, while the price, date, and address are copied. 

Event in English
Event in English
Event in Spanish
Event in Spanish

Expert mode is available alongside the other ACFML options, when choosing a Field Group translation method.

Translate Field Labels

ACF field labels are the names that identify each custom field in the WordPress editor. On the front-end, field labels are usually displayed on forms to help identify different fields.

Field label in backend
Field label in backend
Field label on front-end
Field label on front-end

To translate ACF field labels:

  1. Go to WPML → Translation Dashboard.
  2. Open the ACF Field Group section and send your Field Group Labels item for translation.

Translate ACF Field Choices

ACF field choices are custom fields with multiple choices, such as radio buttons, dropdown selects, and checkboxes. These fields are typically used in forms, and need to be translated separately.

ACF choices in a contact form
ACF choices in a contact form

To translate ACF field choices: 

  1. Go to WPML → Translation Dashboard.
  2. Open the ACF Field Group section and send the item with your ACF choices for translation. 

Get Started with ACFML

Start building a multilingual website with custom fields.

Get ACFML

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I translate ACF Blocks with ACFML?

Yes, you can translate ACF blocks with ACFML using the same translation methods previously covered; same fields or different fields across languages.

Can I use different images across languages?

Yes, you can use different images across languages. Just use the Different fields across languages and upload different media in each language.

If you want to use Same fields across languages, install the WPML Media Translation add-on and go to WPML → Media Translation to upload different images per language. 

Tomer Helzer
Updated
November 26, 2025