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    • Understand translation memory match tiers

    Explore the concept of TM match tiers and Smartwords usage in Smartcat, including their impact on pre-translation, storage, and feature accessibility when the Smartwords quota is exceeded.

    Get a better understanding of TM match tiers and understand Smartword usage better

    This article explains the concept of translation memory (TM) tiers, outlines the principles of Smartwords usage calculation, and demonstrates how to monitor and manage your Smartwords in your Smartcat workspace.

    What are translation memory match tiers?

    Translation memory match tiers are a way to categorize users according to how extensively they use the TM match functionality inside Smartcat. Each Smartcat subscription plan has a corresponding Smartwords amount – for instance, the Starter plan.

    Smartwords are the number of words that you use to pre-translate using Smartcat AI automatic translation and/or insert into translation memories within one calendar month.

    Tiers do not affect the storage of TMs. Smartcat allows for unlimited TM storage in all accounts, including Forever Free subscription plans, along with unlimited users and projects.

    Smartwords are not applicable to Smartcat Marketplace linguist accounts.

    Understanding Smartwords usage with translation memories

    On the first day of each month, a monthly quota of Smartwords is allocated to your account, which updates in line with usage to display how many Smartwords are left for use.

    Smartwords usage with TMs work as follows.

    1. When a TM match is inserted automatically during pre-translation, the number of words in the source segment is deducted.

    2. When a TM match is inserted automatically as a translation with a 100% match, the number of words in the source segment is deducted.

    3. When the translator selects a TM match from the CAT panel, the number of words in the source segment is deducted. In this case, the exact match percentage does not matter.

    4. If a TM match is inserted into a CAT segment and the CAT segment is then repeated several times, the number of words in the source segment is deducted for the initial insertion and for each repetition.

    5. If a CAT segment does not include a TM match, but is then repeated several times, the number of words in the source segment is deducted for each repetition only.

    6. AI automatic translation units also count towards your Smartwords balance as soon as you launch a TM within a translation project.

    Next time a similar source segment is encountered, the translator will be able to insert either the same AI translation unit or the corresponding TM unit from the CAT panel. 

    Selecting the AI translation unit will not affect your Smartwords balance, as Smartcat deducts from your balance as soon as you launch an AI automatic translation. However, selecting the corresponding TM unit will deduct the number of words in the source segment from the remaining TM words.

    If you have exceeded your quota, you can still add new content to your TMs by translating and confirming segments as usual.

    Concordance search will not be affected either, so your team can keep using it to find the right terminology for the source content. Pre-translation, however, will be affected. As explained above, any pre-translation from a TM deducts from your monthly quota. If your quota is reached, pretranslation from TMs will be unavailable.