Comments on: How do you know how much to charge as a freelance translator?

By: Fadi El-Eter

Fadi El-Eter — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:12:44 +0000

I guess the rates differ per length of document. I did get a document translated the other day and I paid around 75 cents/word. It was only something like a 200 word document in Chinese and I needed it in English. Paid $150 to do the translation.

By: ivan

ivan — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:51:52 +0000

am living in Mexico and i want to start as a trasnlator Spanihs-english-spanish but i dont know how much can i charge i dont want to charge an excesive quantity of money ($65$ just sounds nuts awesome but nuts) I just want to know how much does a starter like me should charge?

By: Elisabetta

Elisabetta — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:15:05 +0000

So, I have been translating Italian/English/Italian for over 30 years. I am perfectly bilingual. But I have never offered my services online. I have paid 45 dollars to become a member of an agency. Now I have to prepare my CV and establish my rates. Help, please, please. Elisabetta.

By: Morad

Morad — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:32:53 +0000

I have been a freelance translator/interpreter for many years. I am tired of agencies trying to take advantage of individual like us freelance translators. the fact is the knowledge and skill is ours not theirs. I get calls from agencies to do a deposition for example, or translate a birth certificate. When I tell them my price, their response is NO Thanks. That is because they contact everyone else and whoever does it for them for dirt cheap, that is who they go with. talking about ethics.

By: Neil

Neil — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:33:11 +0000

..very helpful info, much appreciated.
Ive been working as a translator/Interpreter for the same company over the last 10 years. I’ve now started to do some freelance work as well, and have a couple of doubts re. pricing.

If, lets say, i set .08€ as my price per word for general translations- could anyone suggest a suitable rate (per word) to use for ‘edition’, ‘dubbing’ and ‘subtitling’ translations?

Thanks.

By: Elena

Elena — Fri, 20 May 2011 09:46:45 +0000

I’m currently located in Dubai, I translate from English-Spanish, Spanish-English and was wondering how much can I charged per hour based on consecutive translations?

By: Bill Alger

Bill Alger — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:26:06 +0000

I used to work for an agency called Trusted Translations. It’s supposed to be an American company but in reality all of their translators, editors and sales people are located in Argentina. They pay their translators 2.3 cents per word from English to Spanish, and 3.0 cents per word from Spanish to English. Their rates for editing were even lower, at only 1.0 cent per word.
100% of the company’s business comes from clients in the US.
Talk about exploitation!

By: Ryan Ginstrom

Ryan Ginstrom — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 02:20:58 +0000

@Diana

How much you charge depends on a lot of things. One of the most important is whether you are able to make a living at that income.

In my first translation job, I worked in-house at a car maker and earned $24/hour, $36/hour for overtime. $65/hour certainly beats that!

By: Diana

Diana — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 01:16:50 +0000

I would like to know how much can I charge for a proyect translation.
I used to charge $65 per hour- Is it too low?

By: MT

MT — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:07:19 +0000

Actually, a lot of translators work fewer than 6 hours a day, too: for instance, I work generally no more than 4 hours a day, but I’m still making a full-time salary. It just kind of depends on your individual speed, the kind of material you get, your rates, etc., so you can’t really generalize too much. 2,400 words a day sounds about right for most people, however.

I personally don’t think professional translators should ever charge less than $0.10 per word–no matter the language combination. In some combinations, like Spanish/English, that is a cent or two higher than a lot of people charge, but I still feel strongly that $0.10 is the minimum rate at when the profession of translation makes economic sense.