Summary
The question of how much does it cost to translate a document often arises. It is language professionals who translate documents from one language to another. Translating can be done for any document, including marketing documents, birth certificates, citizenship and immigration forms, business contracts, and other written documents.
Factors of Translation Cost
Translation costs are determined by many factors, including the length of the text, the number of words, and the number of languages involved. It is much more expensive to translate from English to Japanese than English to Italian. The cost of living in Japan is higher than in Italy, and fewer translators are available with rare language combinations.
The quote may be different if the assignment needs special formatting, if there is an urgent deadline, or if the translation is specialized. (For example, sworn translations, proofreading of previously translated material, certified translations, etc.).
Per Word Rate
An average translation of 2,000 words may take one translator eight hours, while another may only take six. Instead of paying by the hour, paying per word allows you to keep project costs under control. In addition to per-word pricing, your target or source word count contributes to calculating per-word pricing.
Based on the example above, the total cost for 2,000 words is $500 if the rate is $0.25/word. The target word count for a translation from English to Spanish will increase by roughly 20%. After translation, 2,000 English words suddenly become 2,400 Spanish words, and your final bill comes to $600.
Per Page Rate
Prices vary between $40 and $100 per page in 2023, depending on the language pair, subject matter, turnaround time, and file type.
There is a possibility of translation vendors charging customers based on the pages in a document, but this is rare. A page’s cost can vary dramatically based on how many words are on it. For example, translate cost of a birth certificate of 200 words starts from $20.
3 Levels of Translation Service
Depending on the client’s needs, translation services are available at three levels (premium, professional, and economy).
1. Premium
Translations are provided by this service in a high-quality manner. All translations are performed by native-speaking translators and reviewed by a second native-speaking translator. Similarly, the project manager oversees the final quality check. The glossary and translation memory are available upon request.
2. Professional
In this service, the document will be translated by a native-speaking professional. A second professional translator assessed it qualitatively. Finally, a project manager checked the final quality. Translation memory is available upon request.
3. Economy
An excellent translation to help you understand a text or for personal use. Unsuitable for publication. By a native-speaking professional translator, a machine-generated translation can be tweak a little to remove only the most significant errors. The service does not apply to scanned PDFs and images.
My name is Arslan Hussain and I am co-founder of The Different Languages blog. Have years of experience in digital marketing, My best hobby is blogging and feel awesome to spend time in it.