Upload and Translate Your Own EPUB
Have a Chinese novel as an EPUB file? On the Pro plan you can upload it directly — no browser extension or source site needed. TeaNovel imports the book into your private bookshelf first. You then choose which chapters to translate and confirm their credit cost. Uploading and parsing do not spend translation credits.
TL;DR — Dashboard → Upload EPUB button → pick an EPUB (≤ 20 MiB) → upload and wait for import → choose chapters → Review estimate → Confirm and translate.
Plan and limits
| Item | Limit |
|---|---|
| Plan | Pro ($14.99/mo) — Free and Starter are not supported |
| File size | Up to 20 MiB per file |
| Chapters | Up to 5,000 per book |
| Source text | Up to 10 million characters per book |
| Active uploads | One unfinished upload or import at a time |
| Translation | Choose a range and confirm its credit budget separately |
| Format | EPUB only — TXT import is not offered |
Uploaded novels are private: they are stored per-account, never shared, never publicly indexed, and never merged with other users' libraries.
What gets imported
When you upload an EPUB, TeaNovel automatically:
- Builds the table of contents from the book's structure (EPUB3 nav or EPUB2 NCX), splitting chapters the way the book itself does
- Extracts the cover and shows it on the book's detail page and in your bookshelf
- Translates the metadata — the title, author, synopsis, and tags are queued for translation into English after import
- Preserves the text as written — short dialogue and repeated paragraphs are preserved; layout whitespace is normalized
Uploading step by step
- Go to your dashboard and click the Upload EPUB button next to the supported-site icons
- Drag your EPUB into the file area, or click to choose a file (EPUB, up to 20 MiB)
- Click Upload EPUB. The percentage shows the actual file upload; 100% is followed by server confirmation and processing
- Wait for the book to finish importing. Once the upload is confirmed, processing continues if you leave the page; return to the dashboard to view its status
- Choose Next 50 untranslated chapters, a custom chapter range, or all untranslated chapters
- Click Review estimate to see the selected chapter count, credit cost, and available balance
- Click Confirm and translate to approve that budget and start the selected chapters
The default is the next 50 untranslated chapters, not the entire book. You can explicitly select the whole book. If your balance is insufficient, choose fewer chapters or add credits; the uploaded book stays in your library.
The confirmed budget is a spending limit for that translation run. Chapters are accepted in a bounded sequence, rather than freezing the whole book's cost at once. Pause stops further chapters from being accepted; work already accepted may finish and be charged under the usual rules. Continue resumes eligible unfinished chapters within the same budget. Completed chapters remain readable.
If you close the browser before the upload is confirmed, choose the local file again and retry. Upload retries send the complete file again. Processing errors show Retry processing; cancelling an unfinished import removes its partial book. Previously completed books are preserved when you upload the same EPUB again, and uploading alone does not restart translation.
Content policy
The translation model may refuse explicit sexual or extreme-violence content. Refused chapters are not charged. Upload only files you have the right to use — see the Terms of Service.
Deleting an uploaded book
Delete uploaded book on the book's detail page permanently removes:
- The uploaded file and its extracted cover
- The source text and all translations
- Glossary entries and reading history for that book
- The import plan and its tasks
Stop any active translation and wait for accepted work or an active export to finish first. Credits already spent are not refunded; translating the book again after re-uploading costs credits again.
Supported and unsupported files
Works best with standard text EPUBs from Calibre or common stores. Not supported:
- Encrypted or DRM-protected EPUBs
- ZIP64 archives
- Image-only EPUBs (scanned pages without text)
- Files with no readable body text
If your EPUB is above 20 MiB, re-export it without embedded fonts or oversized images, or split it into volumes.
After translation
- Read in the standard reader, with all customization and progress sync
- Export to TXT or EPUB with the translated title, author, synopsis, and tags; EPUB also embeds the cover where available — see Export TXT/EPUB
- Review the book's extracted terminology on its terminology page — see Terminology Basics
Troubleshooting
For upload errors, size limits, refused content, and resume behavior, see the EPUB upload issues section of Import Issues.