Translation services prices and how are they calculated
In every purchase of goods or use of services, it is logical to inquire about the cost of that product or service. This information will serve as an indicator of whether you get the real value of the product or service for that money.
When it comes to goods, it may be simpler to determine their price, but when it comes to services, it is debatable to determining the cost by providing the service.
If you need a translation, it is very difficult to find a price list on a translation agency’s website. Often these agencies don`t bring out their translation services prices because each project requires an individual approach, a unique weight and requires a special effort. These categories vary from case to case, and it is very difficult to compile a unitary price for translation.
The cost of translation can be offered when the translator sees the original text, but there are some boundaries that can vary the costs and therefore determining the total cost of your project.
Translation services prices and how are they calculated
Translation services prices according to the number of words
One way that companies charge their services is determining the price according to the number of words.
In this case, it does not matter that one translator can complete the translation of 1,000 words for 4 hours, while another translator can complete same work in 3 hours. You pay the same price and the faster translator earns more.
Another case to consider is whether the payment will be according to the number of words in source or target text. An example for this is the translation from English to Spanish, where the text in English has always less words than the Spanish version where the entire word count will increase by about 20% due to expansion.
Sometimes you have offers from companies quoting “th” or thousand words. This is common for projects that are more than 1,000 words in volume.
Price according to number of pages
Some translation companies still charge for their services according to the number of pages contained in your document. Such a practice can be used for documents that have been scanned into a PDF file, such as medical records, court records and IEPs.
Translation services prices as cost per hour
Although this way of recovery is rare, some companies may charge for translation services by the hour.
Flat fee
A flat fee for estimation of your translation project can be paid in cases where simply not make any sense to calculate the price according to the number of words or cost per hour. An example of this would be the translation of content from traditional Chinese to be translated into English. Prices per word and per site does not make sense for this project because only one sign of China’s means a few words of English. Therefore, the flat fee approached is used and both parties are satisfied.
Minimum price
This pricing is most often applied to small projects or documents with summaries, usually up to 250 words. In this case language service companies charge minimal fees, so it does not make any difference if you need to translate only 25 or 250 words, you will pay same price as a minimal fee.
These are just some of the ways that you can determine the cost for translating your documents. It is up to you to agree to the translation services prices that most suits you and is most cost-effective for you. In this case neither of the two parties should be damaged.
