Abstract The purpose of this study is to determine the difference between human translation and machine translation. The data sources for this article come from several references, books, journals and articles related to the title of the discussion. The research findings show that human translation is more effective and easier to understand when compared to machine translation which can only translate literal sentences or words without understanding the intended purpose of the target language. So the machine translation language mainly focuses on the source language without paying attention to the target language. In terms of semantic meanings in machine translation, it is far away from the truth of the meaning it has when compared to the meaning of human translation, especially with meanings related to cultural meanings. Therefore, machine translation can be said to be a literal translation that applies in general. So, the role of human translation is still bigger in the correct translation, because if you use machine translation to translate the role of human translation is needed to understand and know the truth.