Rates

Rates depend on the source language, the complexity and the degree of specialization of the source, the size, the format in which it is supplied, and any surcharges for evening and weekend work and any additional services such as review or correction and proof-reading that may be required on top of the basic translation.

Where additional work is involved due to the format supplied (e.g. non-editable PDF, paper or fax, scans, uncorrected OCR output), there will be a surcharge of one cent per word.
Work often has to be squeezed in at short notice that then has an impact on other jobs (e.g. resulting in evening work). We apply the +20% rate for urgent jobs in such cases.
Additional embedded items (spreadsheets, diagrams, images, headers and footers and in particular text boxes) are often left out of the Purchase Order (PO) by business clients. We generally do them anyway – delivering an incomplete job would not be very professional – but it is highly time-consuming and we will always ask for it to be included in the PO.
our pricing structure has different rates for different fields. We apply a surcharge of two cents for the specialist work: medical, pharmaceutical and financial.

Translation:	EUR 0.10 to 0.15	per word
Review / correction:	EUR 40	per hour

Turnaround times

Accurate and high-quality translation work is not something to be left until the last minute. Plan it in. We work quickly and efficiently, but we can't perform miracles. A throughput of 500 words an hour is possible for a straightforward text, but that soon becomes less simple to attain if the job is more complex. There may be terminology to be researched, additional proofreading required, discussions with the customer about style and preferences, your own specific terms or acronyms... quite apart from the fact that demand for our services is high and the work has to be fitted into the schedule.

Minimum fee

We also apply a EUR 25 minimum fee. A letter containing just a couple of sentences still has many of the same administrative overheads as a complete manual, such as the database entries, e-mails and phone calls to make, invoicing, VAT and bookkeeping. Think of it as being similar to your plumber's call-out fee.

Unsocial hours and Urgent jobs

There is a 20% unsocial hours surcharge for weekend and evening work, or where the knock-on effect of taking on an urgent job pushes other work into the evenings and weekends. Obviously, this only applies where it has been planned and agreed as being necessary with the customer beforehand.

Translation

As a basic guideline: for straightforward translations without tight deadlines between the major European languages that we handle in-house, the basic rate for clients such as larger translation agencies will be around EUR 0.10 per source word; these generally have their own revisors and editors who perform the proofing and checking. For larger projects, even more competitive rates may be possible. Our translation work includes re-reading and spell-checking by the translator, but not correction and review by a third party; this is our standard output for bureaus and agencies. For other clients, we naturally have to take on the extra tasks ourselves; the basic rate is then normally EUR 0.12.
Specialist fields (medical, IT, technical, financial) will be EUR 0.02 more.
Less common language combinations can to be harder to find and the rates may be higher.

Word counts

The method used as the basis for pricing a translation job varies a lot from one agency to another and one country to another. The simplest approach in the computer age - and one that gives maximum clarity for the customer before the work starts - is pricing according to a computerized word count for the source document (if the source is in a format for which no count can simply be obtained, we use the target document instead). Yes, this does mean for example that the following are all counted:

every single "the" and "and"
numbers
dates
proper names
currency amounts

The price per word is pitched to allow for averaging out the easy words and the hard ones. And don't think that the numbers and addresses and names involve no work - have a look at the section on localization if you want a few examples. And in any event, every single "the" and "and" contributes to the meaning: remember that we're translating the overall meaning, not the individual words - that's precisely where machine translation goes wrong!

Review and Correction

Translation is still a business in which the human factor plays a major part. Correction and review are generally advisable, except for example for agencies or bureaus with their own in-house staff who can do this (reputable agencies will not usually hand a freelance translator's output over to the end client without checking it). For our other clients, another translator reviews and corrects the output first, to help maintain the level of quality. This is included in a higher price to direct customers.
If you have produced work in a foreign language that you would like reviewed or corrected by a native speaker, this can also be done. The rate for this is EUR 40 per hour. It may also be possible to quote a price per word, if we are able to see the material beforehand.