How it works
Translate with AI is a page in the Alva admin with three steps: choose the languages, copy a prompt, paste the reply. The prompt holds the texts of your download email and of any other store-wide email you have given your own text, the limits and placeholders each field allows, the translations you already have, and a JSON answer template. Alva Digital Downloads never contacts an AI itself: you run the prompt in the assistant you choose, and nothing is written until you click Import.
The reply is checked the moment you paste it. A review table shows, per language, which fields will be added or changed, and names anything the assistant got wrong, such as a dropped placeholder. You can still edit every text by hand afterwards, exactly as described in Send the download email in your customers' languages.
Translate your emails
Translate with AI works on every plan, including Free.
1. Open Translate with AI
In the Alva admin, go to Settings and click Edit Email Template. Click Translate with AI at the top of the page. If the editor has unsaved changes, Alva warns you before leaving the page: click Stay to save them first, or Leave to drop them.
2. Choose the languages
Tick the languages you want translations for. Languages you have already added are ticked for you, so you can refresh them along with the new ones. You can choose any of the 35 languages the Alva admin is available in. The prompt below updates as you change the selection.
3. Copy the prompt and run it
Click Copy prompt, open your AI assistant, paste the prompt and send it. The prompt is written in the language of your Alva admin and tells the assistant everything it needs: which texts to translate, how to address customers in each language, which placeholders such as {customer.first_name} to keep, and that its whole answer must be the JSON block at the end of the prompt. Most assistants follow that. If yours adds an explanation around the JSON, that is fine: Alva ignores the text around it.
A long prompt is normal: it carries every text once, plus one answer block per language. If an assistant cuts its reply short, choose fewer languages and run the prompt again for the rest.
4. Paste the reply
Copy the assistant's reply and paste it into the AI reply box. Alva checks it as you paste. The review table has one row per language: how many download email fields change, how many fields of the other emails change, how many notes there are, and whether the language is new. Show details under the table lists every field with its new text and a note, so you can read the translations before anything is saved.
A warning never stops an import. It tells you something worth a look: a placeholder the original uses but the translation leaves out, HTML that was removed, or a text that came back unchanged. An error skips only the item it concerns: a text that is too long or a field name the assistant invented is dropped on its own, and a language code Alva doesn't know drops that language. The rest of the reply is still imported.
5. Import and review
Click Import: the button says how many languages it will import. The result lists each language with a link to its editor view. Open a language to read through the text, adjust anything you like, and click Send test email to see the result in your own inbox. A language that was new is added for you, so buyers who check out in it receive the translated email from then on.
What the prompt contains
The prompt lists the text fields of your download email: the subject, From name, title, message, button text, footer, and the headings and texts used for links and license keys. Fields you have left blank are included only where Alva would otherwise send English text, so that the assistant has something to translate; the other blank fields already have a built-in translation in every language and are left out.
The prompt also lists the license-key, delayed-download and under-review emails, but only the fields you have given your own text under the Email list of the template page. An email you haven't customised needs no translation: once a language is added, Alva's own wording for it is already in that language.
Translations you already have are filled into the answer template, and the prompt asks the assistant to keep them unless they no longer match the original. That is how you add a language later, or fix one sentence, without retranslating everything.
What an import changes
- A field with text in the reply replaces that field's translation. If you want to keep a translation you wrote yourself, leave its field empty in the reply, or simply paste a reply that doesn't contain it.
- An empty field keeps what you have. An import never clears a translation and never removes a language. To clear a field or remove a language, use the editor.
- A language that isn't added yet is added. From then on it applies to every buyer email, following the matching rules described in the multilingual email article.
- Design is never touched. Colours, logo and layout always come from your default template, in every language.
- Only the item with a problem is skipped. Everything else in the reply is imported, and the result tells you which language got what.
Good to know
- Your texts stay with you. Alva Digital Downloads only builds the prompt and reads the reply. Your email texts reach an AI assistant only when you paste the prompt into it, under that assistant's own terms.
- Read the translations once. An assistant translates well most of the time, but it is your store's voice. The review table and the editor views exist so you can check the result before buyers see it.
- Placeholders are kept as they are.
{shop.name},{order.number}and the other placeholders must appear in the translation exactly as in your original text. The prompt says so, and the review warns about any that went missing. - Product custom emails are translated on the product. Translate with AI covers your store-wide emails. A product's custom email, and a personalized product's order received email, have their own language controls on the product's pages.
- You can run it again any time. Changed your default text? Added a market? Open Translate with AI, tick the languages and run the prompt again; the existing translations are kept unless the reply changes them.
FAQ
Does Alva Digital Downloads send my email texts to an AI?
No. Alva only builds the prompt. Your texts leave Alva when you paste the prompt into the AI assistant you choose, under that assistant's terms, and come back when you paste its reply.
Which AI assistant do I need?
Any assistant that can follow written instructions and answer with text: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot or another. There is nothing to connect and no API key to enter.
Does an import overwrite translations I typed myself?
A field in the reply that contains text replaces that field's translation. An empty field, or one the reply leaves out, keeps the text you have. The review table shows every change before you click Import.
Can I translate a product's custom email this way?
Not yet. Translate with AI covers the download email and the other store-wide emails. A product's custom email and a personalized product's order received email are translated on the product's own pages.
Do I need a paid plan?
No. Translate with AI works on every plan, including Free, like the translations it fills in.
What happens if the reply has a mistake in it?
Only the affected item is skipped, and the review names it. Everything else in the reply is imported. If the reply is not valid JSON at all, nothing is imported until you paste a corrected one.
See also
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Last updated 2026-10-22