How much does a translation cost?

How much can a translation cost, how exactly is the price calculated, and what services are included in the price when you work with a professional language service provider? This article will provide you with a clear picture and help you estimate your translation costs more accurately.

How the price of a translation is calculated

The price of a translation is usually calculated based on volume. In the language services industry, translation costs are typically based on word count, standard lines, or standard pages.

At SwissGlobal, one standard line consists of 55 characters, including spaces. The number of characters per standard line may vary depending on the provider, but it typically ranges from 50 to 60. A standard page contains 30 standard lines, which amounts to between 1500 and 1800 characters, including spaces.

In addition to line-based pricing, translations are often billed per word. Per-word pricing is particularly common for documents in editable formats (such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint), where the word count can be determined precisely. Both approaches – per line and per word – are established industry standards and offer a transparent and comparable basis for calculation.

Most translation tools have a refined file analysis function that precisely calculates the number of characters, lines or words. Microsoft Word also has a built-in “word count” function. This allows clients to estimate the translation costs in advance. For more complex formats or files with special requirements, however, it’s best to request a quote. If certain sections of a document are not to be translated (such as tables or parts of the text), they can be excluded without any extra effort on your part. This way, only the relevant content is included in the cost calculation.

Prices, flat rates, and surcharges

Translation rates in Switzerland typically range between CHF 1.90 and CHF 4.50 per standard line, although low-cost translation providers sometimes offer even lower prices. Some providers may also charge substantially higher rates for highly specialised subject areas or less common language combinations.

The cost of a translation may vary depending on the delivery deadline and additional requirements such as notarisation, service levels, or highly specialised subject areas. To ensure simplicity and transparency, SwissGlobal applies the same rates across all subject areas and language pairs.

Of course, the standard of quality also influences the price. Language service providers that employ only trained language experts and prioritise investing in quality management, secure infrastructure, and technology will naturally charge accordingly. The higher price is reflected in the service and translation quality.

ISO certifications are an indication of a language service provider’s quality standard. Pay attention to the industry-relevant standards:

• ISO 17100 (Translation services)
• ISO 18587 (Post-editing)
• ISO 20771 (Legal translation)
• ISO 9001 (Quality management)
• ISO 27001 (Information security management)

Minimum flat rates usually apply for small orders and correspond to an hourly rate. Surcharges of between 20% and 100% are often charged for express and weekend jobs. 

What does all this mean in concrete terms? This blog post contains 1204 words, or 8023 characters, which translates to 146 standard lines, or approximately 4.5 standard pages. The text is easy to understand and requires no specialised expertise.

Note: This calculation only applies to the sample text and does not represent actual SwissGlobal rates. The rates are for illustration purposes only.

What you (should) get for your money

Project management. Your dedicated project manager will review your text, confirm the details, and assign the order to the translator with the right expertise in both language and subject matter. The project manager also checks if the order contains already translated text segments, established terminology or matches with the translation memories.

Specialised translation. A qualified translator then translates the text into their native language. For specialised topics, the translator also brings the relevant background knowledge and subject-matter expertise.

Quality assurance. Before delivery, the project manager reviews the entire order to catch any inconsistencies or typos. It is also known as the four-eyes principle and is an indispensable element of professional project management in translation. After all, even an experienced translator can occasionally overlook a detail.

Revision. Providers certified according to ISO 17100 must apply the six-eyes principle to all their translations. This involves an extra step: translation, revision by a native-language professional and internal quality assurance. For ISO-certified providers like SwissGlobal, the six-eyes principle is the standard, while the four-eyes principle applies only in rare cases, such as when a client explicitly opts out of revision.

How to save on translation costs

At first glance, the standard line or word rates may not seem high. However, longer texts and multiple language combinations can drive up the costs quite a bit.

Volume discounts. Every translation involves administrative work and research. This means that volume discounts should be an option for longer texts and frequent translation orders from the same area of expertise.

Early-bird discounts. Orders that are placed well in advance also reduce the administrative workload, especially for project management. That’s why many translation agencies offer early-bird discounts.

Translation memories and CAT tools. These technologies help identify parts of the text that have already been translated in previous projects or only slightly modified. Translators can then reuse these translations, which usually results in lower rates for repeated content. This makes long-term collaboration with a translation company especially cost-effective.

Machine translation with post-editing. Modern machine translation (MT), whether neural or LLM-powered, can now deliver solid first drafts. Depending on the content type and the goal, the output can be quite usable, especially if guided through prompting or embedded glossaries that support branded language and consistent terminology. This option is especially attractive in projects that are time-critical and have a limited budget. However, human expertise remains vital for sensitive texts, such as legal, medical, or branded material. The best results come from combining MT with post-editing. With expert linguists in the loop, we ensure translations are accurate, natural, and aligned with your brand.

Establish a clear framework

As you can see, many small details play a decisive role in determining the cost of translations. If you require translations regularly, it pays to build a long-term partnership with a trusted language service provider.

The ideal solution is to outline your collaboration within a framework agreement. It clearly defines the scope of services, rights and obligations as well as prices and conditions, providing both parties with clarity and security.

Important tip: If you are planning a larger project, request multiple quotes and compare them carefully. You can read about everything that needs to be included when you are obtaining quotes in our blog post “How to find the right language services provider”.

When evaluating providers, don’t just focus on price. Quality standards and customer service are equally important and often save you money in the long run, even if the initial rates are higher.

SwissGlobal is more than just a translation company. It has mastered the interplay between content, technology and resources to create reliable, secure language solutions that put you and your unique requirements first. Please get in touch with us, we will be happy to help.

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