The cost of a translation of a 1,000-word text depends on several factors – text type, language combination, specialisation and deadline. Rather than focusing on figures, companies should consider what quality translation brings to their business.
What factors affect translation costs?
A 1,000-word text might be anything from a section of an annual report to marketing material or technical documentation. Financial text requires IFRS expertise, technical texts require product knowledge and marketing material might need creative adaptation for the target market. The language combination also plays a significant role – translation between closely related languages such as Swedish and Norwegian differs from translation between languages with vastly different structures. Timelines are another factor affecting cost – urgent projects require resource reallocation, whilst normal timeframes enable efficient workflows.
What is included in a professional translation service?
Quality translation involves translation by a subject matter expert, review by another specialist, terminology control against client-specific term bases and often client validation using modern validation tools. For certain text types, copywriting is also included to sharpen the content. Where text contains recurring phrases that have been previously translated, translation memories can reuse these segments, enhancing both quality and efficiency. This is common for product descriptions or standard text in reports.
Investment in quality
Choosing a translation partner based on quality rather than the lowest price benefits your business. Mistranslations can damage trust, create security risks and require costly reworking. Translating internally within the company might feel like a significant cost saving, but is actually a cost shift that results in increased workload for employees. Moreover, it’s inefficient because companies lack translation tools that streamline the process and save both time and resources. An experienced translation partner with specialist expertise and processes that follow ISO standards delivers translations that work first time. Browse through our client case studies and see how we’ve helped our clients with the translation of everything from financial content to sustainability reports and web copy.