Translation Rates by Word, Page, and Project Type

Translation quality and rates are directly linked to who is doing the work. Automated machine translation is cheap but produces output that requires significant human editing and carries real risk for professional or regulated content. Agencies using unvetted freelancers can undercut the market, but with no quality assurance or accountability. Professional agencies like BeTranslated charge for qualified specialist translators, multi-stage quality review, and project management. The cost of a rejected regulatory submission or a legal dispute caused by a mistranslation far exceeds any savings made on a lower initial rate.

Yes. Most professional translation providers apply a minimum charge to cover project management, file handling, and quality review costs on small jobs. Our minimum is typically equivalent to around 250 words of standard translation. Short certified documents such as birth certificates and diplomas are priced as complete jobs rather than per word, because the specialist handling time is the same regardless of length.

Send us the document and tell us the target language, the deadline, and whether certification is required. We will return a fixed price quote promptly, with no obligation. The quote will specify the per-word rate, any certification or rush fees, and the delivery timeline. For recurring work, we also propose a retainer or volume structure that reduces the unit cost.

Professional human translation into major European languages typically starts from around EUR 0.08 per word for standard business content and rises to EUR 0.12 to 0.15 per word for legal, medical, and certified work, where credentialed specialists and additional review are required. The exact per-word rate depends on the language pair, subject matter, volume, and deadline. The rate table above shows typical ranges by content type, and a quote on your actual document gives the precise figure.

A professional translation agency rate covers more than the translation itself: a qualified specialist translator, an independent reviewer, project management, terminology and quality control, and accountability for the result. That is why agency rates sit above raw freelance or machine-translation pricing. At BeTranslated the per-word rate includes multi-stage review and a named project manager, with volume discounts from around 5,000 words and translation memory reuse that lowers the cost of updated documents over time.