Intercom Translation Options Explained: Live Chat vs Help Center

If you've looked into translating your Intercom content, you've probably noticed some confusion. Intercom has "AI translation." They have "multilingual help centers." But when you dig in, things get murky.

Here's the reality: Intercom offers translation for live conversations, not for help center articles. These are different problems with different solutions.

Let's break it down.

The two types of translation you need

When supporting international customers, you're translating two things:

1. Help center articles (static, self-service content)
2. Live conversations (real-time agent-to-customer chat)

Intercom handles these very differently.

What Intercom offers today

AI Auto-translation (for live chat)

Intercom includes "AI Auto-translation" in their pricing plans. Here's what it actually does:

• Translates messages during live conversations between agents and customers
• Works in real-time while a chat is happening
• Each teammate gets 10 free auto-translation conversations per month
• Beyond that, it's usage-based pricing

This is useful when your agent speaks English and the customer writes in Spanish. The agent sees the Spanish message translated to English, types their reply in English, and the customer sees it in Spanish.

The limitation: This only works during live chat. It doesn't touch your help center.

Multilingual help centers (manual)

Intercom lets you create help center collections in multiple languages. But there's a catch: you provide the translations.

Here's the process:

1. Create your article in English
2. Duplicate it for each target language
3. Translate the content yourself (or hire someone)
4. Publish each language version separately
5. Repeat every time you update an article

For a 50-article help center in 3 languages, you're looking at 150 articles to maintain. Every update means updating 3 versions.

The limitation: No automatic translation. No sync. Just manual work.

Fin AI agent

Fin can respond in whatever language the customer uses. It detects the language and generates responses accordingly.

Here's the thing: Fin pulls from your help center. If your articles are only in English, Fin translates on the fly when responding in Spanish or French. That works for simple questions, but technical content or product-specific terms often get mangled.

Native-language help center content gives Fin accurate source material to draw from. Better input, better output.

What Intercom doesn't offer

To be clear about the gap:

• ❌ Automatic help center translation
• ❌ Keeping translations in sync when source articles change
• ❌ Bulk translation of existing articles
• ❌ Machine translation + human review workflow for articles

If you want a multilingual help center without hiring a team of translators, you need a third-party tool.

Where TranslateDesk fits

TranslateDesk fills the help center gap:

• Bulk translation: Translate your entire help center in minutes, not weeks
• DeepL quality: Professional-grade machine translation, not basic auto-translate
• Sync detection: Know when source articles change and translations need updates
• One-click workflow: No copy-paste. No juggling spreadsheets.

It works alongside Intercom's native features. Use Intercom's AI for live chat, TranslateDesk for help center articles.

Which do you need?

Scenario	Solution
Agent chats with customer in different language	Intercom AI Auto-translation
Customer reads help articles before contacting support	TranslateDesk
Fin answers questions in multiple languages	Both (TranslateDesk gives Fin better source content)
Team maintains 100+ articles in 5 languages	TranslateDesk (manual is unsustainable)

The math on manual translation

Let's say you have:

• 80 articles in your help center
• 3 target languages (Spanish, French, German)
• Average article takes 45 minutes to translate properly

That's 180 hours of translation work. At $50/hour for a professional translator, you're at $9,000.

Then an article changes. The product gets a new feature. You update 10 articles. Now you have 30 translations to update.

Manual translation works for 5 articles. It breaks at 50.

Making Fin smarter with translated content

Here's a bonus effect: when your help center has native-language content, Fin gives better answers.

Fin answers in Spanish by either:

1. Translating English content on the fly (okay for simple stuff)
2. Drawing from Spanish articles you've already published (more accurate)

Option 2 wins. The terminology is right. The phrasing is natural. The links go to Spanish articles, not English ones.

Translated help centers aren't just for human readers. They make your AI better too.

Getting started

If you're on Intercom and need multilingual support:

1. For live chat: Use Intercom's built-in AI Auto-translation (included in your plan)
2. For help centers: Connect TranslateDesk and translate your articles with DeepL
3. For Fin: Do both. Fin benefits from having source content in each language.

Most teams can translate their entire help center in an afternoon. Five free credits to start, no card required.

Translate your first article free →

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does Intercom have built-in translation for help center articles?

No. Intercom lets you create help centers in multiple languages, but you must provide the translations yourself. There's no automatic article translation. You either translate manually, hire translators, or use a tool like TranslateDesk.

What is Intercom AI Auto-translation?

AI Auto-translation is Intercom's feature for live chat conversations. It translates messages in real-time between agents and customers during a conversation. Each teammate gets 10 free auto-translation conversations per month, with usage-based pricing beyond that.

Can Fin AI respond in different languages?

Yes, Fin can detect a customer's language and respond accordingly. However, Fin's accuracy depends on your help center content. If your articles are only in English, Fin essentially translates on the fly, which can miss nuances. Native-language help center content gives Fin better source material.

Do I need TranslateDesk if I have Intercom's AI translation?

They solve different problems. Intercom's AI translation handles live conversations. TranslateDesk translates your help center articles so customers can self-serve in their language. Most companies need both: translated articles for self-service, plus live translation for agent conversations.

How do I translate my Intercom help center automatically?

Use TranslateDesk. It connects to your Intercom help center, translates articles with DeepL, and keeps translations in sync when you update the source content. You can translate 50 articles in about 10 minutes.

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Related reading

• Intercom Translation - Your complete guide to translating Intercom Help Center articles
• Does Intercom Support Translation? - Full breakdown of Intercom's native capabilities
• Best Intercom Translation Apps 2026 - How TranslateDesk compares to alternatives
• Complete Guide to Help Center Translation - Strategy for going multilingual