How Much Can A Freelance Translator Make?
The ideal way to set a translation price is to count the number of words not characters and use source text. So, translation prices or translation salaries usually calculated per word and varies according to the document and text type. However, translation prices for general texts in some popular languge pairs are as follows;
English to Arabic -> $0.08 per word
English to Chinese -> $0.07 per word
English to French -> $0.09 per word
English to German -> $0.08 per word
English to Hindi -> $0.08 per word
English to Indonesian -> $0.07 per word
English to Turkish -> $0.06 per word
English to Spanish -> $0.08 per word
On the other hand, translators working hourly, charge clients between $20-$30. If you find a reliable translator, it is best to work hourly as this will save you a lot of time because you will not spend time on word counting and setting price for each project. Specialization is one key factor in the translation industry in terms of translation prices as, for instance, medical translators and legal translators earn much more than other freelance translators.
A one page document is usually includes 300 hundreds words and with a quick math, translation quote for a one page general text would be around $20 and the price doubles for technical, legal, medical texts as those texts require more work and professionalism.
A translator can translate 6000 words per day. Let's say it is a general text and the price is $0.07 per word. Total price the translator would take from this job is $420. A person working in the US makes minimum $15 per hour, $120 per day and a freelance translator makes almost 4X more than that in a day.
