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As with many things, translation quality increases with price: translators who charge higher rates can dedicate more time to researching terminology, fine-tuning style, and learning about the client’s specific needs. Qualified translators with experience and training are able to command higher prices, while amateurs and scammers earn a living by churning out large volumes of a mediocre product. When all of the options look the same, it can be tempting to go with lowest bidder. This is a mistake. To help you figure out how much you should pay for translation services, I’ve put together this guide on average prices within the translation market.
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Standard pricing within the translation market
Price per 1,000 words (USD) Google Translate: FREE
Quality: C- Pros: Free and instant. Cons: Many mistakes, poor style, data sharing with third-party vendors, sometimes incomprehensible results. Not suitable for publication. Uses: Sending and reading non-technical emails in other languages, skimming foreign websites, etc. The results are often wrong or unpretty, but you can usually get the gist. junk translation: $90-$110
Quality: F Pros: Cheap. Cons: Lots of mistakes, poor style, sloppiness with confidential information, slow, non-native translators, no revision. Uses: None. Don’t waste your money. If these translators could charge more, they would. Mid-Market: $110-$130
Quality: B- Pros: Affordable, usually delivered on time. Cons: There will be a few mistakes, and the reader will usually be able to tell it's a translation. No revision. Uses: Blogs, internal communications. High-end: $130-$180
Quality: A+ Pros: No mistakes, on-time delivery, revision by a second professional. The translation will read as if it were written in the target language. Cons: Expensive. Uses: Books, legal texts, marketing documents, widely distributed publications. My standard prices fall within this bracket. Specialized: $180+
Highly technical translations (such as medical or legal documents), rush jobs, and projects in rare language pairs. Note that $210 per 1,000 words is the average rate for government contracts. |