How Much Does Translation Cost? A Buyer’s Guide (2027)

If you’ve asked three providers to translate the same page, you may have three prices that are hard to compare. Two recent national surveys give a benchmark: freelance translators charge a median of €0.09 to €0.14 a word in France, according to the SFT’s 2026 report, and 7.5p to 11p in the UK, according to a 2024 ITI survey.

In both surveys, translators charge agencies less than they charge clients directly. An agency then adds revision by a second linguist and project management, so its quote to a business runs higher again. At Crisol, our published rate starts at £100 an hour.

Comparing totals alone is risky. A cheaper quote may leave out revision or a check on the live page, and fixing errors after launch means paying for the work twice.

Below, you’ll see what each line of a translation quote pays for, what machine translation really saves and when a second Spanish version is worth the cost.

How much does translation cost per word in Europe and the UK?

Two recent national surveys give the clearest benchmarks. Freelance translators charge a median of €0.09 to €0.14 per source word in France (SFT, 2026) and 7.5p to 11p in the UK (ITI, 2024). In both, translators charge agencies less than direct clients, and an agency’s quote to a business adds revision and project management on top.

What the 2026 SFT survey shows

(the France content: the translation, revision and post-editing bullets, the €0.03–€0.43 range, rates flat since 2022 against 13.8% inflation, and the hourly billing preference for post-editing)

What the 2024 ITI survey shows

The figures below are medians for ITI members in the 2024 ITI study. The survey also covered non-members, whose reported medians differed. For each median, half the rates were higher and half lower.

Source: Walker, Ivins and Lambert (2024), ITI rates study.

Why agency quotes run higher than freelancer rates

For an English-to-Spanish brief, a buyer sometimes asks for one per-word figure before sharing the files. The survey helps establish what freelance work can cost, but it cannot tell us whether your Spanish copy needs keyword research or on-screen checks. A useful quote starts with the deliverables, then explains how the supplier will charge for them.

An agency quote can include revision by a second linguist and project management. The agency may also handle translator queries and prepare files for delivery.

UK professional associations don’t publish recommended rates, because competition guidance stops them, as the ITI report notes.

How do translation providers price their work?

Translation is commonly priced per source word, although hourly and project fees are useful when the task involves substantial rewriting or review. The pricing model changes what the supplier measures. A clear quote names the unit, the work included and the circumstances that trigger additional charges.

Slator’s analysis of translation pricing, drawing on its 2024 industry data, reports that 91% of language service providers use per-word pricing.

Per-word, hourly and project pricing

·         Per word: A rate is multiplied by the source-word count. Suits stable text with clear boundaries. Check the minimum fee, repeated text and whether independent revision is included.

·         Hourly: Recorded time is charged at an agreed rate. Suits SEO copy and complex review. Check how time is reported and when additional work needs approval.

·         Fixed project: One price covers agreed deliverables. Suits campaigns and transcreation. Check the number of review rounds and how change requests are handled.

The scope also matters for a campaign. Translating the original slogan and developing a new market-facing line are different tasks. Our guide to transcreation, where copy is rewritten for the market explains where creative adaptation starts.

Why we price by the hour

At Crisol, our published end-client rate starts from £100 per hour. Our 25-, 50-, 75- and 100-hour bundles offer discounts of 5%, 7%, 10% and 13% respectively. The hours in a bundle must be used within a three-month period.

Marketing agencies and language service providers can request a discount of up to 20%. We prepare a tailored quote based on the brief.

We use hourly pricing because marketing translation often includes researching how people search in the target market. A short headline can take more thought than a long page of repetitive instructions. We want you to see where that time goes, particularly when we are adapting a message for several markets.

You can see the scope of our translation, localisation and MTPE services here.. We agree the output and review requirements before work begins. For recurring projects, a bundle can make sense when there is a predictable stream of updates; a one-off project still needs a clear brief.

MTPE rates and edit-distance pricing

Machine translation post-editing (MTPE) is usually priced as a discount on the full translation rate, or by the hour. In the 2026 European Language Industry Survey we mentioned before, the average post-editing discount was 13% for independent professionals and 29% for language companies. That is far below the cuts of up to 90% quoted on translator forums.

The right discount depends on how good the machine draft is. A clean draft of a help article may need only a light pass. A draft that gets product names wrong in every second sentence can take as long to fix as a fresh translation.

That is why many translators prefer to bill post-editing by the hour. In the above-mentioned SFT’s 2026 survey, 63% of respondents said so. Before you agree a rate, ask the supplier how they assessed a sample of your content and who approves the final text.

Some suppliers price by edit distance instead. They compare the machine output with the edited version and set the fee by how much the linguist changed. Slator describes the model as controversial and not widely used.

Edit distance measures effort, and a sentence with few edits can still read badly in the target market. If a supplier proposes it, ask which metric they use and what human review sits on top.

What makes a translation quote go up or down?

The largest differences between translation quotes usually come from the type of text and the checks included. Two providers can count the same source words and still be offering different services. Ask which specialist will do the work and who signs off the final version before you compare the totals.

The text itself: subject, quality of the source and repetition

Content type and specialisation

A medical device instruction needs someone who understands its terminology. A landing page needs a linguist who can judge whether the call to action sounds natural in the target market. The 2024 ITI study shows higher median freelancer rates for specialised material than for general material in the comparable client categories.

Source quality

Source quality also changes the task. A poorly written original forces translators to ask questions, and unresolved ambiguities can spread across languages. We recommend cleaning up recurring product terminology before the first file goes out, especially when several teams will reuse the content.

Repetition and translation memory

A translation memory stores previously translated segments and proposes matches when similar text returns. CAT tools such as Trados Studio and memoQ make it possible to analyse repeated wording before work begins. This can reduce the amount of fresh translation, though someone still needs to check the reused text in its new context.

Ask how exact matches and partial matches are billed, and who owns the translation memory after delivery. The way a supplier applies discounts varies. We explain how translation memory matches affect a quote in a separate guide, without treating any particular discount band as universal.

The work around the text: revision, deadlines and layout

Revision and proofreading

Translation and independent revision are separate pieces of work. ISO 17100, the translation-services standard, addresses the translation process and revision. When comparing proposals, check whether a second qualified person reviews the text and how the supplier records decisions.

We have reviewed language quality assessment batches against an MQM-style error framework. An error affecting the amount a customer pays has a different consequence from a punctuation preference. Reviewers must assess the impact and explain what needs changing.

Our article on how translation, editing and proofreading work together covers the stages in more detail.

A supplier might include revision in its standard rate or show it as a separate item. Either can work if the quote is explicit. Ask who resolves disagreements between reviewer and translator, particularly for branded terminology.

Deadlines and files

A short deadline can mean reorganising a linguist’s workload or paying for additional review capacity. If a rush charge applies, ask for it in writing before approving the project. Scanned PDFs and image-based text also require preparation that an editable file would avoid.

Layout and in-context review

Layout can become a cost once the words are translated. In our work with TrueLayer, we checked character counts for interface widgets and accordion headings. The Spanish heading “Mejora las experiencias de tus usuarios” had 39 characters, compared with 23 in the German “Bessere User Experience”.

The strings had to fit the real interface components, so the on-screen review formed part of the work.

For apps and websites, make sure the quote includes in-context review if the interface has strict limits. A supplier who only sees a spreadsheet cannot assess every truncation or misleading button label. Screenshots or a staging environment give reviewers the evidence they need.

How much does machine translation and post-editing cost?

The machine translation engine itself can be inexpensive. Google Cloud Translation pricing lists neural machine translation at US$20 per million input characters above its free monthly allowance, as checked in October 2026. Business costs rise when a person must review the output and correct errors before publication.

What the engine costs

Google Cloud’s NMT text service includes the first 500,000 characters per month as a credit. Its Translation LLM text service is priced separately for input and output characters. Those API charges are distinct from the cost of preparing files or reviewing the resulting copy.

A public Google Translate interface can be free for an individual user. An organisation translating a product catalogue through an API faces usage charges and usually needs a review workflow. The fact that the machine produced the first draft tells you very little about the time a reviewer will spend fixing it.

What post-editing costs and how to test it

Light and full post-editing

Light post-editing makes the text understandable and accurate for internal use, without polishing style.

Machine translation post-editing (MTPE) is the work of correcting machine output to an agreed quality level. A lightly edited internal draft and a customer-facing product page need different treatment. ISO 18587 covers full post-editing of machine translation output; it is under revision, so we describe the required workflow in the quote instead of relying on a vague label.

A fixed post-editing percentage assumes that every machine draft needs similar effort. Errors differ by subject and source quality, so a quoted percentage tells you little until someone examines the output.

Testing a sample before quoting

We test a representative sample before quoting MTPE because quality varies between content types. A sample reveals whether terminology is consistent and whether the source is suitable for automated translation. If the reviewer has to rewrite most sentences, a low MTPE rate is unlikely to deliver a cheaper finished page.

Read more about where machine translation still needs a human.

Keeping confidential text out of free tools

Before sending customer records or unpublished marketing material to a free translation tool, agree which content is permitted and who controls access. At Crisol, we confirm the approved tools and confidentiality requirements with the client before a sample is processed.

Does Spanish cost more if you need more than one variant?

Each Spanish market adds work when you need genuinely local copy. Spain, a broad Latin American version and a country-specific campaign can share a starting translation, but each version needs its own review. Budget for the extra market decisions and future updates as well as the initial adaptation.

One Spanish version or several?

The familiar ordenador and computadora distinction is a quick illustration. A Spanish product page written for Spain might use ordenador, while a Mexican audience expects computadora. Search queries can also differ, so the word chosen for a page heading deserves research in the target market.

The locale labels es-ES and es-419 describe Spanish for Spain and Latin America respectively. Your market strategy determines whether a regional version meets your needs. If you target Mexico and Spain separately, check whether each audience needs its own wording.

What each extra variant adds to your budget

A shared base translation can reduce initial work, but country-level sign-off takes time. Decide who owns each market version and how changes will be approved before you commission several locales.

The more variants you maintain, the more updates have to be reviewed. A price change, legal disclaimer or new feature name may require several sign-offs. Our guide to choosing between Latin American and European Spanish covers the linguistic decisions; the quote should show how the extra review is charged.

What should a translation quote include?

A usable quote tells you what will be delivered and what happens when the source changes. It should separate translation from extra review where those are distinct services. For a multilingual website or app, ask specifically about on-screen testing and who handles corrections after the files are returned.

Line items to check

·         Translation: Which languages, variants and files are covered? Clarifying scope prevents missing content.

·         Revision: Who reviews the translated text, and how? The answer shows which quality checks you are buying.

·         Project management: Who handles queries and version changes? Named responsibility keeps approvals moving.

·         SEO keyword research: Are local search terms researched or supplied? This determines whether search research is part of the brief.

·         In-context review: Will someone test copy in the actual interface? On-screen checks can reveal errors hidden in spreadsheets.

·         Layout / DTP: Who updates designs after translation? Text expansion can require design work.

·         Rush or minimum fee: What surcharge or minimum applies? It makes urgent and small projects easier to compare.

·         VAT: Is VAT included, and does it apply? You need the amount payable on your invoice.

·         Repeated text / translation memory: How are repeated segments and partial matches charged? Reuse and the review of reused wording affect the final cost.

The UK standard VAT rate is 20%, according to current UK VAT guidance. Ask how VAT applies to your invoice.

How to compare two quotes

Return to the £900 promotion on the euro-denominated app screen. The line item that caught it was human review with access to the wider interface. Without that stage, the supplier might have delivered a grammatically sound sentence that nobody checked against the customer journey.

When proposals differ widely, use the checklist as a set of questions. One quote may include a second reviewer while another assumes the client will do final approval. Ask both providers to describe the handover, and compare the work you will receive.

How do you budget for a translation project?

Start by counting the content you intend to publish, then decide which pages deserve the most attention. Your budget should follow the pages that support enquiries or sales. A smaller first launch can give you better evidence for the next market than translating a large archive in one go.

Inventory and prioritise your content

Collect the source files and identify duplicated passages. Include buttons and automated emails that sit outside the main page copy. Note which pages are updated frequently, because maintaining translated content is a recurring cost.

Start with the service pages that already convert in your home market, then assess demand in the new one. If a translated page has no search demand and no route from the customer journey, it can wait. Our guide to planning a website translation page by page gives a framework for these choices.

Choose a workflow, test a sample and plan for updates

A technical support article may suit machine translation with review. A paid campaign headline deserves a linguist who understands the target market. Agree which category each content group belongs to before you request a fixed price.

Ask the supplier to work through a small sample with the real files. This reveals whether the translation memory is useful and whether the interface needs extra attention. Put future product updates into the budget, especially when the same change must reach several locales.

Why does cheap translation cost more later?

A low initial quote becomes expensive when errors force you to reopen files after launch. The cost includes the second review and the work of publishing corrected content. For a customer-facing app, a mistranslated price or misleading button can also delay a release while the team investigates.

What fixing errors after launch involves

We see the risk most clearly from the reviewer’s seat. When an error is found late, the question spreads beyond the single string: does the same wording appear elsewhere, and did it reach another language? Early access to the full context gives the team a chance to resolve those questions before release.

How to test a provider before you commit

Send a short representative sample with the same file format you will use for the full project. Agree the review criteria before the test, then have someone independent of the initial translator assess the output. Record terminology questions so the decisions can be reused during production.

How Crisol Global Marketing Services can help

Crisol is a global marketing team for companies working across more than one market. We help you scope multilingual content and decide which work needs specialist translation or on-screen review. We can also support updates after launch.

For companies expanding into new markets, our international SEO work helps identify the search terms customers use locally. We also advise on AI workflows for marketing content where automated drafting or translation fits the brief. The starting point is the material you need to publish and the decisions it has to support.

If you have two quotes that seem to cover the same work, send us the scope and tell us what you are trying to achieve. We can explain the review stages and propose a suitable workflow. Ask us for a quote.

Frequently asked questions about translation cost

How much should I pay a translator per word?

The 2024 ITI survey found median rates of 7.5p to 11p per word among ITI-member freelancers, depending on client and text type. These are freelancer rates, so agency quotes usually run higher. A buyer should compare the review stages and delivery responsibilities included in each offer.

Is per-word or hourly pricing better?

Per-word pricing is convenient when the text is stable and the work is straightforward to count. Hourly pricing suits marketing adaptation and specialist review, where a short passage can need considerable research. The better choice depends on the scope, reporting method and approval process.

Why do translation quotes vary so much?

Quotes vary because providers make different assumptions about the source and the review needed. One supplier may include an independent reviewer, while another prices translation alone. A like-for-like comparison starts with each provider’s deliverables and approach to later changes.

Is machine translation free?

Some consumer translation tools are free to use, but commercial API services can charge for volume. Google Cloud lists a free monthly allowance for its neural machine translation text service, followed by usage pricing. Human post-editing adds to the cost when the output needs to be ready for publication.

How much does it cost to translate a website?

A website quote depends on the pages you translate and the workflow each one needs. SEO research and in-context review can be separate tasks. Ask for an inventory-based proposal that covers the language variants and future updates.

Author: Maria Scheibengraf

Maria Scheibengraf is co-founder and Operations Manager of Crisol Global Marketing Services, which she set up in 2016 with three fellow Spanish translators. She started out translating marketing and SEO copy from English into Spanish for software companies, and her programming background has steadily pulled AI and automation into the work. Today she leads Crisol’s SEO and AI search work. She is the author ofThe SEO Translation Bible, now in its fourth edition, and speaks regularly about SEO localisation at industry events.