Is There a Free Church Translation App, and What Are Its Limits?

What does the free plan actually include?

Every account without a paid plan gets 1 free hour of live translation each calendar month. There is no credit card to enter, and the allowance resets on the 1st of the month, so it is not a one-time trial that ends. It is one hour per church.

• Real-time AI captions in any of the 123 languages, with 1 language included.
• Bible verse popups when the speaker clearly names a passage.
• QR Code Join, so members read the captions on their own phones with no account and no app.
• The Subtitles screen for a projector, which runs within the free hour.
• 1 active device at a time.

Everything you do with the free plan counts against that one hour, including the minutes the Subtitles screen and QR Code Join are running.

How far does one free hour go?

The hour is measured in recording time, not in services. A 35 minute sermon uses about 35 minutes. A full two hour service with the microphone open the whole time would use the hour and then some.

That last row matters. A language beyond what the plan includes uses more plan time for every hour recorded, whether the host picked it or a listener on a QR code did. Scanning the QR code itself costs nothing, but the languages the room chooses do count.

What happens when the free hour runs out in the middle of a service?

A live service is not cut off mid-sermon. When the hours run out during a session, the service keeps going for up to 30 extra minutes on the free hour (and up to 90 on a paid plan). A new service cannot start until hours are added or the month resets.

When is the free hour enough?

The free hour fits a church that has a particular, limited need rather than a weekly one.

• A church that is deciding whether live captions work with its own preacher, microphone and room before it spends anything.
• A congregation that holds one bilingual or special service a month, such as a missions Sunday or a fellowship day.
• A pastor who wants to test how the app handles church vocabulary and Bible book names on a recording.
• A visiting speaker for one evening.

For any of these, the free hour is a fair way to learn whether the app suits you. The step by step guide shows how to run that first test from the microphone to the screen.

When do you need a paid plan?

If one language group in your church needs the sermon every Sunday, count the hours. A weekly sermon of about 40 minutes is roughly three hours a month, and a full service is more.

Basic works out to about $1.67 an hour, and Standard to about $1.13 an hour. Standard and All Languages include the Subtitles screen, while on Basic it is a $10 a month add-on. New subscribers get 50% off the first month of a monthly plan. Extra hours can also be bought one time, from $3.00 for 1 hour to $44.99 for 20 hours, and unused hours carry over. The pricing page lists every option.

How does a free app compare with a free general translator?

General purpose translation tools are free to try, and they can help in a pinch. What they are not built for is a live sermon: they do not know the church vocabulary, they do not put captions on a projector for the whole room, and they do not read a Bible verse when the pastor names one. The comparison with Google Translate goes through the differences.

There are also free ways to bridge a language gap that need no software at all, and they work well for a small group.

• A bilingual member who sits beside the guest and whispers a summary.
• A printed or emailed outline of the sermon in the second language, sent before the service.
• A short written summary of the main points after the service.

These cost nothing, but they depend on a volunteer being there every week, and they do not let a visitor follow the sermon line by line.

How do you get the most out of the free hour?

1. Pick a recent sermon from your own preacher, not a sample, so the accent and the microphone are the real ones.
2. Create an account, set the speaker language, and choose one reading language.
3. Start recording when the sermon begins and stop when it ends, so no minutes go on announcements or music.
4. Open the QR code on a projector and have two or three members read it on their phones.
5. Ask a native speaker of the reading language to mark every line that is wrong or awkward.
6. Add the church's own terms to the glossary if you move to a paid plan, then run the same passage again.

Planning the minutes is the whole trick. One careful test with a native reader tells you more than a feature list.

Honest limits of the free plan

• There is no free unlimited plan. The allowance is 1 hour a month, one per church.
• Spoken output is a phone or browser voice reading the captions in Listen mode, not a human interpreter.
• It needs an internet connection on the translating device and on every phone reading captions.
• Accent, background noise and a speaker who strays from the microphone all lower accuracy, and sung worship captions poorly.
• A listener who uses the app on their own device, rather than reading through the host's QR code, needs their own account.

Frequently asked questions

Is Sermon Translate really free?

Every account without a paid plan gets 1 free hour of live translation each calendar month, with no credit card. It is not a free unlimited plan, so a weekly service needs a paid plan.

Does the free hour expire?

The hour is not a one-time trial. It resets on the 1st of every calendar month and has no end date.

Can my members read the captions on their own phones for free?

Yes. QR Code Join is included in every plan and works within the free hour. Members scan the code and read in a browser with no account and no app.

What happens if the free hour ends during the sermon?

The service keeps going for up to 30 extra minutes on the free hour, so a sermon is not cut off in the middle. A new session cannot start until hours are added or the month resets.

How much is the first paid plan?

Basic is $19.99 a month for 12 hours and 1 active device, and new subscribers get 50% off the first month of a monthly plan.

Try Sermon Translate at your next service

Start with 1 free hour every month, no credit card needed. Plans start at $19.99 a month.