AI-translate Shopify products: titles, SEO, and alt text

French is published. Thirty new hoodies still show English on the FR product page. Meta title too. Alt text empty. The handle `/products/linen-hoodie` must stay English — you do not want a translator rewriting URLs.

AI translate Shopify products means the shopper-facing fields, not the URL. OO - Ultimate AI Translations covers titles, descriptions, SEO title/description, image alt text, and option labels. Jobs skip handles, URLs, IDs, SKUs, barcodes, size codes (S/M/L), JSON, empty source, and locked fields.

Listing (USD): Free $0 — connect your own OpenAI-compatible model, unlimited languages/markets/translations, language switcher; no backups, no scheduled jobs, no App AI. Professional $10/month + usage: monthly schedule, glossary, 1+1 backup, App AI at ~$0.01/unit (pass-through). Plus $20: daily, 5+5 backups. 0 reviews, launched 14 October 2026. Do not invent a rating.

Yesterday: job history (translated / skipped / failed). Earlier: Missing vs Outdated. This post is content type products, plus which product states you include.

Do not paste the catalog into a chat

Translate & Adapt fills fields. It does not schedule Missing/Outdated, lock a sentence you saved, or send glossary/brand voice with the request. A spreadsheet through ChatGPT will happily translate SKUs if that column is in the prompt.

This app: side-by-side editor, or a job scoped to products. Customer-facing fields only. FAQ: automatic jobs do not overwrite saved edits — those fields stay locked until you unlock.

Settings hub (*AI connection, product states, and preferences*): which statuses enter the run. Active only, or also draft / archived / unlisted. Including a seasonal draft collection is a switch, not a surprise. Unpublished locales can sit in a job; the switcher shows them after you publish the language.

Pages, collections, theme, metaobjects, draft themes are other types. A theme job will not fill product titles. Yesterday’s history view shows the type per run.

Which statuses to include

Active only. Live catalog. Drafts stay in the source language until you publish or tick the extra states. Safer while merchandising is still renaming SKUs.

Include draft. Copy ready before the drop. Same idea as draft themes on the listing: build first, shoppers later.

Archived / unlisted. Old SKUs still reachable, or unlisted wholesale links. Costs units. Do not enable “just in case” across ten thousand archived products.

Free: manual jobs, your model. Monthly/daily schedules are Professional/Plus. App AI is not on Free. Own AI can translate without a cap on the $0 plan; you pay the provider.

Glossary and brand voice (glossary on paid listing): pin names, send tone with the request. Size S/M/L is skipped either way.

How product jobs go wrong

“Nothing translated” because skipped lists SKUs. The SKU column should be skipped. The title beside it can still fill. Seeing `LH-2044` in skipped is healthy.

PDP looks French, SERP snippet still English. Include SEO title/description on the products job. Alt text if you care about image results or accessibility.

Unlock everything after one awkward sentence. Locks stop the next schedule from reverting a headline. Unlock that field. History will show skipped-because-locked.

Daily schedule on Professional. Daily is Plus. Monthly is the $10 ceiling. First schedule: Outdated only (source newer than target). Missing fills never-translated gaps — more units.

Ignoring drafts, then translating 400 titles on launch day. Turn product states to draft before the drop, or run a manual job on the day (Free can; schedules cannot on Free).

Eighty hoodies into FR, winter still draft

Source EN, FR market published. 80 active hoodies, 12 winter drafts.

1. Connect AI: own OpenAI-compatible endpoint, or App AI on Professional/Plus (~$0.01/unit).

2. Glossary: brand, fabric names that must not drift.

3. Settings → product states: active + draft. Archived off.

4. Job: products, FR. Outdated only if FR already existed; Missing if FR is empty.

5. Jobs list: expect skipped handles/SKUs/size codes. Failed: key, model, credits.

6. Editor: a line you typed and saved stays locked.

7. Switcher (Free): style it, embed or theme block. Shoppers need a published locale.

Backups are not on Free. On Professional, take a manual backup before a Missing-all on products.

What the job is designed to skip

Handles stay the storefront URL. Forcing a French handle is a migration, not an AI job. SKUs and barcodes belong to the warehouse. Size S/M/L in skipped is a healthy run. JSON in a metafield or theme string stays JSON.

Empty source: Missing will not invent FR from a blank EN title. Write the source first. Locked: you saved it, the job leaves it. Unlock is a click, not the default after a failed run.

Markets: Across markets vs adapting one market lives in the Translating docs. This post stays on products. A FR title for Switzerland can differ from FR-France — that is market-specific copy, a later topic. Fill the default product fields first.

Language switcher (Free): floating or header, flags, labels, CSS. Embed or theme block on the live theme. An unpublished locale will not appear on the switcher even if the job already wrote FR.

Works with A.I., ChatGPT, CSV, Excel, LLMs — listing “Works with”. CSV is not a substitute for locks and skipped SKUs; the editor and jobs are.

Get the first product job out

1. Open OO - Ultimate AI Translations.

2. Connect AI (Free = your model).

3. Pick product states. Do not tick every box.

4. Job or editor on products: title, body, SEO, alt, option labels.

5. History: technical skips are fine. Failed is the AI or Shopify rejecting a field.

6. Add a schedule only after Outdated-only looks right on a small set (Professional monthly / Plus daily).

Docs: OO Translations collection — Translating, Settings (product states), Jobs & schedule.

Wrap-up

AI translate Shopify products is shopper copy: title, description, SEO, alt, options. Handles and SKUs stay put. Product states decide whether drafts join the run. Free with your own AI; App AI and schedules on paid plans at ~$0.01/unit. Listing: OO - Ultimate AI Translations.