diff --git a/services/discourse_translator/amazon.rb b/services/discourse_translator/amazon.rb
index 9afac2f..ac30278 100644
--- a/services/discourse_translator/amazon.rb
+++ b/services/discourse_translator/amazon.rb
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ module DiscourseTranslator
   class Amazon < Base
     require "aws-sdk-translate"
 
-    MAXLENGTH = 5000
+    MAX_BYTES = 10_000
 
     # Hash which maps Discourse's locale code to Amazon Translate's language code found in
     # https://docs.aws.amazon.com/translate/latest/dg/what-is-languages.html
@@ -88,12 +88,20 @@ class Amazon < Base
       cy: "cy",
     }
 
+    # The API expects a maximum of 10k __bytes__ of text
+    def self.truncate(text)
+      return text if text.bytesize <= MAX_BYTES
+      text = text.byteslice(...MAX_BYTES)
+      text = text.byteslice(...text.bytesize - 1) until text.valid_encoding?
+      text
+    end
+
     def self.access_token_key
       "aws-translator"
     end
 
     def self.detect(topic_or_post)
-      text = get_text(topic_or_post).truncate(MAXLENGTH, omission: nil)
+      text = truncate get_text(topic_or_post)
 
       return if text.blank?
 
@@ -114,7 +122,7 @@ def self.translate(topic_or_post)
         result =
           client.translate_text(
             {
-              text: get_text(topic_or_post).truncate(MAXLENGTH, omission: nil),
+              text: truncate(get_text(topic_or_post)),
               source_language_code: "auto",
               target_language_code: SUPPORTED_LANG_MAPPING[I18n.locale],
             },
diff --git a/services/discourse_translator/base.rb b/services/discourse_translator/base.rb
index b14eee8..0143329 100644
--- a/services/discourse_translator/base.rb
+++ b/services/discourse_translator/base.rb
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ def self.from_custom_fields(topic_or_post)
     def self.get_text(topic_or_post)
       case topic_or_post.class.name
       when "Post"
-        text = topic_or_post.cooked
+        topic_or_post.cooked
       when "Topic"
         topic_or_post.title
       end
diff --git a/spec/services/amazon_spec.rb b/spec/services/amazon_spec.rb
index b7b1efa..cba7ff0 100644
--- a/spec/services/amazon_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/services/amazon_spec.rb
@@ -5,10 +5,21 @@
 RSpec.describe DiscourseTranslator::Amazon do
   let(:mock_response) { Struct.new(:status, :body) }
 
+  describe ".truncate" do
+    it "truncates text to 10000 bytes" do
+      text = "こんにちは" * (described_class::MAX_BYTES / 5)
+      truncated = described_class.truncate(text)
+
+      expect(truncated.bytesize).to be <= described_class::MAX_BYTES
+      expect(truncated.valid_encoding?).to eq(true)
+      expect(truncated[-1]).to eq "に"
+    end
+  end
+
   describe ".detect" do
     let(:post) { Fabricate(:post) }
     let!(:client) { Aws::Translate::Client.new(stub_responses: true) }
-    let(:text) { post.cooked.truncate(described_class::MAXLENGTH, omission: nil) }
+    let(:text) { described_class.truncate(post.cooked) }
     let(:detected_lang) { "en" }
 
     before do
@@ -33,12 +44,6 @@
       end
     end
 
-    it "should truncate string to 5000 characters and still process the request" do
-      length = 6000
-      post.cooked = rand(36**length).to_s(36)
-      expect(described_class.detect(post)).to eq(detected_lang)
-    end
-
     it "should fail graciously when the cooked translated text is blank" do
       post.cooked = ""
       expect(described_class.detect(post)).to be_nil