RuneManga vs Sumi: manga translators compared
Sumi and RuneManga side by side: online translator, extensions, apps, languages, editing, plans and what happens to your pages. Checked November 2026.
Short answer
Sumi reaches more devices: extensions for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac with a free offline mode, and 134 target languages, with plans from $6.99 a month. RuneManga is a WebApp and an extension for Chrome, Edge, Opera, Brave and Firefox that takes whole chapters as images, a ZIP, a CBZ or a PDF, with Edit mode, a colorizer, 20 free credits a day and plans from $2.99. Both erase the original lettering and set the translation in its place.
| Feature | RuneManga | Sumi |
|---|---|---|
| WebApp upload | Yes. Add images, a folder, a ZIP, a CBZ or a PDF (50 to 500 pages at once depending on the plan, 20 MB each), correct the result in Edit mode, and download single pages, a ZIP or one PDF. | Yes. The online translator takes JPEG, PNG or WebP pages, a ZIP or a CBZ, or a pasted screenshot, and translates up to 20 pages at once. The first page needs no account; downloading needs one. |
| Browser extension | Yes, in the Chrome Web Store (Chrome, Brave, Opera), Edge Add-ons and Firefox Add-ons. It translates pages right on the sites you read: an R button per page, Auto mode while you scroll, show original, Translate an area, Edit image and a ZIP of the page's translations. | Yes, for Chrome (and Edge), Firefox and Safari. It translates the images on the page you read from its popup, a right-click or a per-site Auto mode. There are also apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac, and an Android app in open testing. |
| Languages | From Japanese, Korean, Chinese, English and six more languages (or auto-detect) into 93 languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, French, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Arabic and Thai output is experimental. | Japanese, Korean and Chinese as sources, with auto-detect; 134 target languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Thai and Turkish. |
| Bubble-aware typesetting | Yes. Lettering in speech bubbles, caption boxes and text on the art is erased, the background filled in and the translation fitted in its place. Sound effects stay as drawn. Edit mode, in the WebApp and the extension, lets you move, restyle and rewrite the text. | Yes. Sumi says it erases the original text and re-typesets the translation in place, vertical Japanese, Chinese and Korean included, and a line can be corrected in place. |
| Colorize | BetaYes, our own AI colorizer for black-and-white pages, in the WebApp and the extension, on every plan. It keeps the line art, screentone and lettering; the colors are its guesses, so results vary. 1 credit a page, 2 together with Translate. A page already in color comes back as it is, and its color credit is given back. | Not mentioned on its pages. |
| Translation engine | RuneLingua, our own AI translator for manga dialogue, on every plan, Free included. A few languages it does not cover well yet use another translation service. You can also connect your own AI key (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, xAI or OpenRouter). | Its privacy policy names a Google Gemini vision model, reached through OpenRouter, for online translation; a glossary is included. On iPhone and iPad, a downloadable model pack of over 1 GB translates offline on the device. |
| Pricing | Credits: 1 a page to translate or to colorize, 2 for both. Free at $0: 20 credits a day, claimed on the site. Supporter ($2.99, 1,000 a month), Pro ($4.99, 2,500) and Ultimate ($9.99, 5,000) are on sale now. Credit packs never expire. See the pricing section for the available packs. | Free: one page without an account, 5 at sign-up and 5 more each day you claim them; offline translation in the iPhone and iPad app is free. Pro $6.99 a month (1,500 pages), Pro+ $14.99 (4,000) and Studio $39.99 (12,000). |
| Privacy and retention | Pages are processed on RuneManga's servers; only the text found on the page goes to the translation engine. Jobs are deleted about an hour after they finish and are not used for training. | Online pages go through Cloudflare and OpenRouter to Google Gemini. Uploaded images are discarded once the answer is returned; the text read from a page and its translation are kept for up to 30 days. Training is not mentioned. |
| Sign-up needed | Yes for the WebApp: a free sign-in with Google, Discord or an emailed link, no card. | Not for the first page. A free account (Apple, Google or an emailed code) is needed for more free pages and for downloads, and always for the Android app. |
When RuneManga is the better fit
- You want a whole chapter in one run, from a ZIP, a CBZ or a PDF, up to 500 pages at once depending on the plan.
- You read from English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Indonesian, Vietnamese or Thai, not only Japanese, Korean or Chinese.
- You want 20 free credits a day, paid plans from $2.99 and a colorizer, Colorize (a Beta), in the same tool.
When Sumi is the better fit
- You read in Safari, or in an app on an iPhone, iPad or Mac.
- You want to translate offline: Sumi's iPhone and iPad app has a free on-device mode.
- You read into a language RuneManga does not offer: Sumi lists 134 target languages.
- You want a glossary to keep names and terms the same across pages.
Questions
Do both erase the original text?
Yes. Both say they erase the lettering and set the translation in its place, and both let you correct a line by hand.
Which one is cheaper?
Both have a free tier: Sumi gives 5 pages a day once claimed, RuneManga 20 credits a day plus 30 at sign-up. Paid plans start at $6.99 a month for 1,500 pages on Sumi and at $2.99 for 1,000 credits on RuneManga, one credit per translated page.
What happens to my pages?
Sumi says it discards uploaded images once it answers and keeps the text and its translation for up to 30 days. RuneManga deletes jobs about an hour after they finish and does not use them for training.
Sources
Facts checked on November 8, 2026 from each tool's own pages and store listings. Something out of date? Write to [email protected].