For readers of Japanese, Korean, Chinese and English
Read the original,
one word at a time.
Paste a passage and Gloss Read lays out every sentence word by word: the pronunciation above each word, its meaning below, a natural translation underneath, and an AI explanation of any grammar you ask about.
5,000 characters free every month. Sign in with your email: no password, no card.
Built for reading real text
Stories, articles, textbooks, song lyrics: read them in the language they were written in, with help exactly where you need it.
Word by word
Every word with its pronunciation above and a short meaning below, lined up so the rows read together. Romaji or kana for Japanese, pinyin for Chinese (and zhuyin for Traditional), romanization for Korean, IPA for English.
Grammar you can see
Verbs, adjectives, particles and connectives each keep one colour, from the pronunciation to the translation. Grammar words are labelled with what they do, such as [SUBJ], [OBJ] or [when].
A natural translation
Each sentence also gets a fluent translation, coloured to match its words, so you can follow how the original became the sentence you would actually say.
Ask why
Click a grammar word to have AI explain what it does in that sentence, or ask how a sentence came to be translated the way it was. Answers come in the language of your translation.
Listen as you read
Hear a word, a sentence or the whole passage in your device's own voices, with each phrase highlighted as it is read.
Proofread your writing
Wrote something yourself? Check it sentence by sentence and see the corrected version, with each mistake and the reason for it.
Languages
Choose the language you are reading, and the one you want it translated and explained in.
Read
- Japanese
- Korean
- Chinese (Simplified)
- Chinese (Traditional)
- English
Translated and explained in
- English
- Chinese (Simplified)
- Chinese (Traditional)
- Japanese
Any combination works, except a language into itself or one Chinese script into the other.
Pricing
Every plan includes every feature. Plans differ only in how many characters you can read each month.
Professional
$10 / month
300,000 characters a month
- Every feature
- Cancel any time
Platinum
$25 / month
1,000,000 characters a month
- Every feature
- Cancel any time
Prices are in US dollars, billed monthly through Stripe. Upgrade, downgrade or cancel from your account at any time; a cancelled plan keeps working until the end of the period you paid for.
How characters are counted
- Every character of the text you gloss counts, apart from spaces and line breaks. One passage can be up to 5,000 characters.
- Reopening a passage from your history is free, and so is pasting the same passage again.
- An AI answer counts as a flat amount: 50 characters to explain a grammar word, 100 to explain a translation, 100 to proofread a sentence. Opening it again is free.
- Unused characters do not carry over to the next month.
Questions
Do I need to install anything?
No. Gloss Read runs in your browser on a computer, tablet or phone. Reading aloud uses the voices your device already has; Chrome and Edge usually offer the most.
How do I sign in?
With your email address. We send you a six-digit code to enter, so there is no password to remember.
How accurate is it?
The glosses, translations and explanations are written by AI. They are usually right and sometimes wrong, so treat them as a reading aid rather than an authority. Explanations say so, and a sentence whose words do not match the original is flagged.
Can I delete what I have read?
Yes. Delete any passage from your history and its text and translation are removed. Only its character count is kept, so your usage still adds up.
What happens when I run out of characters?
Gloss Read tells you before it starts a passage that is longer than what you have left. Wait for your allowance to reset, or upgrade, and the larger allowance applies straight away.