Seam runs an AI translation model directly on your machine. Paste a sentence or a whole book — nothing is uploaded, and no connection is used while it works.
Unpublished writing, client documents, research notes and internal reports stay on the machine you are sitting at.
The model, the translation and the result all stay local. There is no server involved and nothing to opt out of.
Paste a paragraph or a full manuscript. Seam handles the complete text without exposing internal passage boundaries or asking you to switch modes.
Long translations appear on screen as they are produced, so you can start reading before the whole thing is done.
Stop a long translation whenever you like. Close the app mid-run and it continues where it left off instead of starting over.
Swift for speed, Balanced for everyday writing, Pro for nuanced prose. Switch or remove one at any time.
Every translation is searchable and kept locally. Small edits update the existing entry rather than piling up duplicates.
Three screens. Everything you see here is running on the local machine.
The source stays on the left and the translation grows on the right as it is produced. A highlight tracks the passage being worked on, so you always know where it is.
Every translation is saved locally and searchable. Refining a source updates the same entry instead of piling up near-identical duplicates.
Swift for speed, Balanced for everyday writing, Pro for prose headed for publication. Downloaded once, then never online again.
Three steps, and only the first one needs the internet.
Pick Swift, Balanced or Pro on first run. This is the only moment Seam uses the network.
Choose the language you want it in. Any length is fine — there is no mode to switch on.
The translation grows beside your source text. Copy it out whenever you are ready.
Seam is not the right tool for every job. Here is an honest look at where it fits and where something else is better.
| Seam | Cloud translation services | Web translators | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your text is uploaded | Never | Yes, under a policy | Yes |
| Length limit | None | Plan-dependent | Usually capped |
| Works without internet | Yes | No | No |
| Account required | No | Yes | Sometimes |
| Raw translation quality | Good | Usually the best available | Good |
| Speed on a long document | Minutes to hours | Seconds to minutes | Seconds |
| Depends on a remote service | No | Yes | Yes |
If you need the highest possible quality on a short marketing page and the text is not confidential, a large cloud service may be a better fit. If the document is long, private, or both — that is what Seam is for.
Here are the exact specifications before you install.
| Operating system | Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit) |
|---|---|
| Memory | 4 GB RAM minimum · 8 GB recommended · 16 GB for the largest model |
| Disk space | 1.1 – 1.8 GB per translation model, plus the app |
| Graphics card | Not required. Runs on the processor. |
| Internet | Needed once, to download a model. Never used for translation. |
| Languages | 23, in either direction |
| Input | Pasted text only — no file or PDF import |
| Interface languages | English, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Italian |
The things people ask before installing.
Yes. The translation model runs on your own computer and your text is passed to it locally. Seam makes no network request while translating — you can disconnect entirely and it works exactly the same.
Only to download the translation model you choose, once. Models are large, so they are not bundled with the app. After that download finishes, Seam never needs a connection again.
No. There is no sign-in, no profile and no email required. Seam does not know who you are and has nowhere to send that information anyway.
No. Paste the complete text and Seam handles longer material internally. Long passages simply take longer to finish on your computer.
23 languages in either direction: English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malay, Turkish, Polish, Dutch, Ukrainian, Czech and Hebrew.
They trade speed for fidelity. Swift is fastest and lightest on memory, Balanced is the best choice for most writing, and Pro gives the most nuanced results for prose headed for publication. You can keep more than one and switch between them.
In a file on your own computer, alongside the models you downloaded. Deleting a translation in the app removes it from that file. Nothing is synced anywhere.
No. There is no telemetry, no usage tracking and no crash reporting that leaves your machine. Problems are written to a local log file you can read yourself.
Practical writing about translating long and confidential documents — useful whatever tool you end up using.
A practical spreadsheet template for keeping names, product terms and technical language consistent.
Find skipped lines, duplicate paragraphs and lost numbers without comparing every word.
What you can verify yourself, what you cannot, and how to spend human review where it matters.
A controlled workflow for academic prose, terminology, references, formulas and final verification.