Google has donated US$2m (AUD$2.23m) to the Wikimedia Foundation to support Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects.

It was the non-profit foundation's first grant from Google, despite a long-standing working relationship. Most recently, the two organisations worked together to translate Wikipedia content into other languages.

The funds will go toward improving Wikipedia and investing in technical infrastructure to support increasing traffic and capacity demands.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said the donation recognised the long-term alignment and friendship between Google and Wikimedia, and a shared goal of "making the Internet better for everyone".

"Wikipedia is one of the greatest triumphs of the internet," said Google co-founder Sergey Brin in a statement.

"This vast repository of community-generated content is an invaluable resource to anyone who is online."