Document Translation Cost: How Do You Charge For Document Translation in Any Language?

The costing structure and the basis of quoting a specific price for translation may be something that you are not aware of. So, if you wish to know the behind-the-scenes costing process of document translation, you are at the right place.

In this blog, we are going to highlight how translation vendors come up with a certain price. You will also come to know why some translations are often more expensive than others. So, let’s get started.

What is Document Translation Cost?

If you are looking to grow your business in the different regions, you may feel a huge need of translating content. At that time, you are required to hire a translator to translate your documents for business purposes. For this, you need to request a quote from a translation company that you can trust for your translation needs.

Once that professional translation agency in Gurgaon receive your quote, the experts will go through your requirement and send you an estimated “Document Translation Cost” based on the amount of work you are demanding. Document translation cost is the rate given by the vendor to a client based on the no. of words or pages required to be translated.

But how it is calculated? Keep reading to know.

Techniques to Calculate the Cost of Translating One Page of a Document

Translation rates are usually calculated per word as well as per hour. But when it comes to document translation, you can likewise consider paying a rate calculated per page.

1- Document Translation Rates Per Page

You will get a translation rate that is estimated based on per page, which includes quick translation for small businesses of their certificates, diplomas, and several other official documents.

You can even pay per page if you have multiple pages for translation with the same numbers of words on a page and similar formatting on every page.

2- Document Translation Rates Per Word

This is the most commonly used technique to estimate the translation cost.

The page may have a lower or higher number of words based on the formatting, font sizes and so on. For translation purposes, a word is considered a string of letters or special characters. Numbers ending with spaces are also identified as a word.

No matter, whether you want to accurately translate document into Russian language or any other language, these are the two techniques followed by translation companies to give the right document translation cost to the client leaving no room for confusion.

So, What is the Basic Cost Of Document Translation?

On a very basic level, the cost of translating a document is structured on a per-word basis. So, depending on the total number of words in your document, the price will be calculated and quoted to you. Generally, these are industry standard rates for translation.

Generally, the rates of translation for a document range anywhere between £0.10 to £0.16 per word. So, for a 2000-word document, you will be quoted a price between £200 to £320.

In What Cases The Cost Varies?

The pricing structure may not always be so straightforward, as discussed above. There are multiple situations, where the cost varies.

1- Supply Is More Than Demand

There may be situations wherein the supply of translators is way more than the demand for translation. Hence, in such a case, the industry-standard rates for quality language translation do not really matter.

Since the translators and translation companies have to compete for work, therefore, they quote a lesser price than usual. The rates also depend on the cost of living in a country. In case, the cost of living is less, the translators will quote less price.

2- Expensive Languages

Translation cost also varies with expensive languages, i.e. some languages, like Icelandic, Swahili, Nepalese, Latin and Maori, are more expensive to translate than others. The expensive nature of the languages depends on several factors, while the most prominent ones include the scarcity of experienced translators and the type of translation.

✓ Translators are easily available for the most spoken languages, but for the least common languages, you need to know how to find translator equipped with excellent translating skills. Rare people learn such languages; even native people who translate these languages are also rare. Therefore, due to their scarcity, the cost is higher.

✓ If you need a general translation in an expensive language, this can be somewhat easier. But, if you need industry-based translation, like technical or legal, the scarcity further increases and so does the cost.

3- Pricing Models

It is not a hard-and-fast rule that every translation company would quote a per-word rate. The pricing models may vary depending on different translation vendors for urgent document translation. Some of the major pricing models include per page, per hour, or flat fee pricing.

Further, other factors that translation companies keep in mind while quoting you a specific rate include –

✓ Volume of work
✓ Number of words to be translated
✓ Turnaround time
✓ Complexity of the subject matter
✓ Complexity of language pair
✓ Formatting & DTP requirements

Because of the growing need of business document translation, companies need to understand the above-mentioned factors when requesting a quote for the service from a reputed translation company.

So, Why Do Different Companies Quote Different Rates For Translation?

You would have a question in mind when there are certain factors for calculating the cost of translation, then why the quotation of one translation company differs from another company?
The clear answer is the quality and the expertise of translators.

Although the basic method of analyzing the cost of a specific translation project may be somewhat similar, the final quote may differ, taking into account the quality offered by the translation team. Also, how much experienced and talented the translators are (who are working on your project), also has a great impact on the translation quote.

Quality is not just about converting the words in the target language and sharing the file with you.

Quality involves the combined efforts and knowledge of the project managers, native translators, editors, in-country reviewers, and QC experts. After being passed through all these experts, quality translated work is delivered to you.

In Conclusion

So, a higher translation rate (with all these points intact) definitely makes sense than low translation rates. Sometimes, extremely low translation rates are a bad deal for you. If quality is not important to you, you can always go for a low rate or even machine translation.

But, if you wish to boost your global sales, want to sell more, and reach out to global customers, you should choose a company that commits to quality. Do not be much concerned about the rate. Over to you!!

To know more about our services call us at +91-8527599523 or send us an instant quote to receive the document translation cost from us.