Forecast Translation Costs with Usage Estimates

Before running translations, get a clear picture of your project's localization status and expected word count usage with the status command.

Safe to Run Anywhere: This command is read-only - it never writes files or triggers translation requests, making it perfect for CI environments and pre-translation planning.

Quick Status Check

npx lingo.dev@latest status

When run in a project with an i18n.json configuration, you'll receive a comprehensive report like this:

📄 LOCALIZATION STATUS REPORT

📑 SOURCE CONTENT:
- Source language: en
- Source keys: 254 keys across all files

🌐 LANGUAGE BY LANGUAGE BREAKDOWN:
Language │ Status      │ Complete │ Missing │ Updated │ Total Keys │ Words to Translate
──────────┼────────────┼──────────┼─────────┼─────────┼────────────┼───────────────────
ja        │ 🔴 Not started │ 0/254     │ 254     │ 0       │ 254        │ ~10,480
es        │ 🔴 Not started │ 0/254     │ 254     │ 0       │ 254        │ ~10,480
de        │ 🔴 Not started │ 0/254     │ 254     │ 0       │ 254        │ ~10,480
zh        │ 🔴 Not started │ 0/254     │ 254     │ 0       │ 254        │ ~10,480

📏 USAGE ESTIMATE:
- WORDS TO BE CONSUMED: ~41,920 words across all languages
  (words are counted from source language for keys that need translation in target languages)
- Per‑language breakdown:
  – ja: ~10,480 words (25.0% of total)
  – es: ~10,480 words (25.0% of total)
  – de: ~10,480 words (25.0% of total)
  – zh: ~10,480 words (25.0% of total)

💡 OPTIMISATION TIPS:
- ja, es, de, zh have no translations yet – translating one language at a time reduces complexity.
- Try `lingo.dev@latest i18n --locale ja` to process just one language.

Understanding the Report

The status report provides three key insights:

1. Source Content Overview

See at a glance how many translation keys exist in your source language files.

2. Language-by-Language Status

For each target language, view:

• Completion percentage
• Missing and updated key counts
• Total keys to process
• Estimated word count for translation

3. Usage Forecast

Get a precise estimate of:

• Total AI word count that will be consumed
• Per-language breakdown with percentages
• Smart optimization suggestions

Word Count Calculation

The report uses two important metrics:

• Words to Translate: Source-language word count for content needing translation in each target language
• Words to be Consumed: Total across all languages - this matches what you'll see in your usage dashboard

Consistent Measurement: Word counts are always calculated from the source language, ensuring stable estimates regardless of target language verbosity.

Troubleshooting Tips

• Configuration Not Found? Ensure you're running the command from your project root directory
• Slight Variations in Final Count: Actual usage may differ slightly due to plural rules and interpolation placeholders being resolved during translation

For additional options, run:

npx lingo.dev@latest status --help

Use this command before translation runs to plan your localization strategy, manage costs, and optimize your workflow.