How much do professional English translation services cost?
What budget will you need if you’re buying professional translation services?
Are you looking to commission a translation of your valuable, high-profile documents? Not sure where to start? I know it can be stressful to navigate the maze of information online to decide which service is right for you. It’s hard to know if a translation service provider is going to be reliable or knowledgeable enough to deliver the high standards you need.
You might have done your research and found a selection of translators you would be interested in working with. Yay! But now that big deadline is looming and it’s time to talk costs and get that translation done.
2. How to understand the varying costs of document translation
One of your obvious first questions might be ‘How much is it going to cost to get this translated?’. Because of the huge variation in prices you may be quoted, it’s wise to also spend a bit of time considering a) what exactly you want to achieve with the translated text, and b) how much budget you are willing to invest.
You could save money by commissioning a different service
Few things are genuinely free in this world. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys…. I’m sure you’ve heard all that before. In this post I’m going to provide as much information as I can to explain the levels of investment you can expect to make, depending on your needs and requirements. I’ll even explain how you could save money by commissioning a different service with me.
So let’s get down to it.
3. How are translation services priced?
Translation services are usually priced by the word, or sometimes per standard page, or per hour. On some occasions, you may find that the translator quotes you a project price. This could be because it makes sense for the particular requirements of the translation service you need.
The price of the translation reflects the time and expertise you are benefiting from.
The price of the translation reflects the time and expertise you are benefiting from. Most translators will tend to translate around 2,000 words per day. But, similar to copywriting, sometimes a particularly thorny text comes along and a lot of back-and-forth is needed before the best term or phrase is pinpointed and the most compelling copy is achieved.
4. What different translation services are available and what benefits do they offer?
Option 1:
Machine translation
*A disclaimer: I’m not talking about free services like Google Translate that you might use to understand a street sign, but instead more context-aware, AI-driven, paid-for services such as DeepL, ModernMT.
What you need to decide is whether the initial cost savings of using machine translation will actually pay off, and whether any benefits outweigh the risks.
Pros:
o Low-cost and quick when you just want to get a ‘gist’ of what something says.
o You don’t even need to bother interacting with a human to explain your needs.
Cons:
o First up are accountability issues – you’re sending your valuable data into a machine, so who is accountable for any mistakes it makes?
o Next is voice. Because a lot of machine translation content draws on past translations, conveying the right tone of voice and unique personality is beyond its capabilities in creative, persuasive, complex or high-stakes copy.
o Even with post-editing by a human translator, the resulting copy will almost certainly read like robotic writing. For the obvious reason that it was translated by a machine.
o Oh, and watch out for random inaccuracies, inexplicable mistranslations that were somehow ‘missed’, language bias, and be sure to check whether it knows the difference between language varieties such as Mexican and European Spanish.
Cost: Low, but DeepL and ModernMT are subscription-based services. Based on my research, translation agencies offer machine translation services from as low as £0.03 per word.
What you need to decide is whether the initial cost savings of using machine translation will actually pay off, and whether any benefits outweigh the risks.
Option 2:
(Large) agency translation services
Pros:
o They can probably handle multilingual projects, so if you need one document translated into more than one language at once, they are often a great choice.
o Agencies often offer more of a full-service solution that could include transcription, voice-over or DTP (although many freelancers also offer these services alongside translation).
Cons:
o Large agencies don’t often specialise in a particular area – if you’re looking for someone who knows your industry and/or organisation inside out, a full-time specialist in that area is probably a better fit.
o Lack of consistency – you may find that your translations are outsourced to different freelance translators each time.
Cost: I’m not totally sure what a translation agency would charge these days, but agencies do have overheads and staff to pay, so you should expect to pay quite a bit. And certainly much more than a machine translation service. I do know that prices vary hugely between countries, and the price is also quite likely to reflect the translation quality you’re getting.
Option 4:
A specialist freelance translator
Pros:
o A specialist freelance translator will work with you as an expert partner to understand what you need.
o They will possess the human experience and judgement needed to carefully adapt cultural references and nuances.
o As a one-to-one partner, they can be flexible enough to accommodate specific requirements and offer a highly customised service.
o If you’ve found a good translation partner, that freelancer will already have invested considerable time specialising in your particular field. So they’ll know the sector’s terminology inside out.
o Consistency: this is a big one. You get to work with the same person every time, which means your tone of voice and brand values remain consistent. Hooray!
Cons:
o Capacity – a freelance translator usually works alone and will translate only into one target language, so they would probably struggle to accommodate a huge multilingual project. However, if they are well connected to their professional network, I bet they’ll be able to refer you to someone who can help you if their own capacity is maxed out.
Cost: You probably know what I’m going to say – ‘it depends’. But if you are looking for a reliable freelancer who can provide premium translations of your important publications, the fees will reflect their expertise, so beware of any quote that comes in at less than something in the region of £100 per thousand words.
Fees will reflect expertise
5. What about hidden costs in translation?
There are sometimes extra costs involved in a translation service, but the translator should always explain these to you in advance. For example, the document you need to get translated might be in PDF format and need to be converted using OCR software. Or, if you’re in a big hurry, an urgency charge may apply. This sort of cost might not add a lot to the total bill, but it’s still worth taking into account in your planning. If you plan your publications with enough time set aside for translation, then you’ll save money on urgency charges.
6. Why is translation so expensive?
As you can see, the cost of translation can vary a lot.
There’s no denying that it will cost more to choose me as your translation service provider over running your document through machine translation. But as a human, I’m accountable for my work. If I mess up, that’s on me (spoiler alert: I won’t mess up).
By working in partnership with you, you also get a more personalised service from me. I will dedicate time to researching your values, your tone of voice, target audience, and the nuts and bolts of what you actually want to achieve by translating your documents.
I’m always happy to discuss your individual requirements when it comes to cost, too. Perhaps it’s not necessarily a ‘full’ translation that you need: could a summary translation/précis fit the bill? I also support multilingual authors with my copy-editing services. This could be another option that might save you money.
What are the next steps?
After reading this blog post, I hope you have a much better idea of how much translation costs.
To find out more about how to work with me for your French, Spanish and Portuguese into English translations, click the link below and let’s schedule a chat.
