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How to add a language to your store

Adding a language is the first step to translating your store. You'll add the language, publish it so customers can see it, and enable AI so Lokalize can translate it for you.

Step 1 — Add a language​

  1. Open Lokalize → Languages.
  2. Choose a language to add. Every language Shopify supports is available — well over one hundred to pick from.
  3. Add it to your store.

Shopify allows up to 20 secondary languages per store in addition to your primary language. Lokalize doesn't add any limits beyond Shopify's.

Screenshot pending

Languages page with the add-language control

Step 2 — Publish the language​

A new language stays hidden from your storefront until you publish it.

  1. On the Languages page, publish the language you just added.
  2. In your Shopify admin, go to Settings → Markets and make sure the language is assigned to the relevant market.

Once it's published and assigned to a market, customers can see the language on your storefront.

Step 3 — Enable AI for the language​

To translate a language with Lokalize's AI features — Bulk Translate, Auto-Translate, and the per-field AI translate button — you need to mark it as AI-enabled.

  1. On the Languages page, click Enable next to the language.
  2. Confirm when prompted. The language is now ready for AI translation.

A few things to know:

  • The number of AI-enabled languages you can have depends on your plan — Basic 2, Pro 5, Premium 10, Business 20. See Lokalize plans compared.
  • Languages that aren't AI-enabled can still receive manual translations — you just can't use the AI features on them.
  • AI can't be disabled for a single language once it's on. To stop AI translations for a language, remove the language from your store entirely. This is by design, to avoid accidentally disrupting active translation workflows.

Unpublish vs. delete​

  • Unpublish hides a language from your storefront but keeps its translations, so you can keep working on them in the app.
  • Delete removes the language and permanently deletes its translations.

Your translations are stored in Shopify, so they stay in your store even if you uninstall Lokalize. But if you delete a language and might need its translations later, export them first.