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

Advanced Custom Fields Multilingual (ACFML) is a WPML addon for translating ACF custom fields into more languages. 

Over 70,000 developers from around the world rely on ACFML to build their advanced multilingual WordPress sites.

ACFML in action

Key Features

Translate custom field values, labels, and titles

Customize the translation workflow to suit complex field setups

Simple and intuitive translation options for everything you create with ACF

Translate custom fields inserted dynamically with the Elementor PRO and ACF integration

Use automatic translation, individual translators, or translation services on your ACF-powered website

On this page

Required Plugins

Choose How You Want to Translate Each Field Group

How to Translate ACF Fields with WPML

Same Fields Across Languages

Different Fields Across Languages

More Things You Can Do with ACF Multilingual

Required Plugins

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

  • ACF
  • ACFML (free add-on)
  • WPML
  • WPML String Translation

Choose How You Want to Translate Each Field Group

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) lets you create diverse field groups tailored to meet your website’s specific needs. This flexibility means that each field group might require a different translation approach.

Let’s say you run a tech website and create ACF custom fields to introduce products, like Product Description, Release Date, and Specifications. 

You want to show the same information across all your site’s languages and just simply translate the content.

A product review in the default language

A product review translated into Spanish

Now, picture you’re developing a website for a tutoring service. You’re using custom fields for details like Tutor Name, Subject, Bio, and Price per Hour. On this platform, you have different tutors for your English-speaking and Spanish-speaking audience. 

So, you need the ability to display different field values and even a different number of fields in each language.

A page with custom fields introducing English-speaking tutors

The translated page with custom fields introducing Spanish-speaking tutors

With ACF Multilingual (ACFML), you can pick the translation option that best meets the unique needs of each of your field groups. You have two main options to choose from.

  • Same fields across languages – This option is best when you want to translate your content and keep your field values the same in all languages, like in the example for product descriptions on a tech website.  
  • Different fields across languages – You can opt for this translation option if you want different content, a different number of fields, or a different layout in each language, as seen in the tutoring website example. 

Setting the Translation Option For Each Field Group

You can set the translation option for each field group by:

  • Clicking the Set translation options button in the prompt that appears after you activate ACFML.
  • Going to ACF → Field Groups and clicking Edit for each field group.

If you don’t set a translation option for a field group, you won’t be able to translate its fields.

How to Translate ACF Fields with WPML

Same Fields Across Languages

To translate fields that appear the same across languages, go to WPML → Translation Management and send your post with custom fields for translation.

Selecting post with custom fields to translate

If you decide to translate the content yourself, taking the translation job opens WPML’s Advanced Translation Editor.

Translating post with custom fields in Advanced Translation Editor

From this editor, you can translate the post content, and its custom fields.

Make sure each of the custom fields across your different field groups has a unique Field Name. If you use the same Field Name with more than one custom field, you may not see all your field values available for translation in the Advanced Translation Editor.

Different Fields Across Languages

With the Different fields across languages option, each language version can have its own custom field values, layouts, and designs. This requires you to translate the post and its fields in the WordPress editor or page builder you’re using (Gutenberg, Elementor, Divi, etc.).

To translate fields so that they appear differently across languages:

01.

Click the plus (+) icon next to the language you want to translate your post or page with the custom fields into.

02.

In the WordPress editor, add the title to the page in your secondary language and click Publish.

03.

Refresh the page and write your translations into the empty custom fields that appear in the editor.

By selecting Different fields across languages for your field group, WPML automatically sets up the correct translation process for you. You don’t need to configure which translation editor the plus (+) icon leads to – WPML knows that you want different content for each language version.


When you view your default and secondary language pages on the front-end, you’ll see the translations connected and each language version showing its own field values and layout.

Page with custom fields in the default language

Translated page with a different field values

More Things You Can Do with ACF Multilingual

Check out these related topics for more in-depth information on using ACF and WPML:

Translating ACF Field Labels

Using Different Files and Images Across Languages with ACF and WPML

Translating ACF Custom Fields Added to Taxonomies
Kathy Banach
Updated
February 12, 2025