How Are Translation Services Priced?
Translation services pricing based on a per source word rate is a standard pricing metric for calculating the costs for performing human translation services. So the short answer is that pricing is based on the number of word for translation. The word count can be obtained through computer based electronic measurements, or estimations based on OCR (optical character recognition). Beyond the absolute word count there are two other considerations.
1) The total volume: For larger volume translation projects a discounted volume rate can apply. Usually volume discount rates begin with projects that exceed at least 10,000 words. There is no real economy of scale that allow for volume rates to be applied but higher total profit margins can allow some discounting.
2) Word repetition: Computer aided translation (CAT) tools can recognize text repetition within a body of source material. Repetition of text requires less consideration by human translators and so commensurate with this a reduced rate is applied to text in the repetition categories.
Our company welcomes source material submissions for the purpose of pricing prospective translation projects. The request a translation quote page with instructions for sending file(s) is linked here.
