Translation margins: four places they erode, and the fix

What to take away

The unit problem

A buyer asks for a rate per word because the alternative is asking a question they cannot evaluate. So they get a number, and the number carries every assumption you failed to state.

Those are five different jobs sharing one unit: new text, in-file repetitions, exact matches from memory, fuzzy matches, and context matches. Each takes a different amount of human time, and one word rate pretends they are the same.

The fix is not to abandon the unit. Buyers need it and it makes quotes comparable. The fix is to run an analysis first, band the content, and show the bands on the quote. A buyer who sees the bands learns something about their own content, which is worth more to them than a lower headline rate.

What the price has to cover

The last three rows are where small agencies lose money without noticing, because none of them appear on a rate card and all of them scale with awkwardness rather than volume.

Decide your match policy once

When a file partly matches existing memory, some of the work is already done and some is not. Passing every match discount straight through to the client feels fair and is also how an account becomes less profitable every year while getting larger.

Three defensible positions exist, and the wrong move is to have no position. Whatever the analysis reports — exact matches, context matches, in-file repetition, and fuzzy matches below full match — you need one decision for each category:

Whichever you choose, say who owns the memory that produced the match. If the client owns it, the argument for passing the discount through is stronger. If you built and maintained it at your own cost, say so before the conversation, not during it.

Where price erodes

The urgent job that stays urgent. A rush surcharge quietly becomes the standard rate when every job is rushed. Write the turnaround that counts as normal for that file type into the scope note, in working days, and state what happens when the client needs it sooner. Then apply it. A surcharge you waive whenever a client pushes back is a discount with extra steps.

The scope note nobody reads. If the note says "including one round of client feedback", the second round is a change order, and the round needs a deadline so it cannot arrive after delivery. If the note says nothing, every round is free.

The unpriced language. A sixth language added to a five-language project changes the reviewer coordination, the delivery packaging, and the query volume, not just the word count.

The pass-through with no handling. Voice talent, notarization, courier, and specialist software all cost you time to arrange. Marking them up or charging a handling fee is normal practice, and doing neither is a decision to work for free.

Say what is true about your prices

Everything on a pricing page is an advertising claim. A "from" price no real project qualified for, an unsupported quality claim, and a turnaround you cannot staff on a bad week are all claims.

Consumer protection thinking sets the bar. The FTC's advance notice describing its definition of junk fees treats them as unfair or deceptive fees for goods or services with little or no added value, including ones consumers would reasonably assume are included in the advertised price. The rule that followed, in effect since May 12, 2025, is narrower and covers live-event tickets and short-term lodging, so it does not bind a translation agency; the agency's advertising and marketing guidance for small businesses still applies the general test: claims must be truthful and supportable. That standard is good commercial practice. A claim you cannot honor produces the exact client who leaves in the first quarter.

Keep the evidence behind the number

A price you cannot reconstruct six months later is a price you cannot defend in a renewal negotiation or a dispute. Keep the analysis output, the quote, the scope note, the change orders, and the subcontractor invoices together against the project.

The IRS spells out the expectation in Publication 583, Starting a Business and Keeping Records: your records should support the transactions they represent. A project cost file satisfies that, and it is the only way to know whether the account is profitable.

Rate expectations differ sharply between written translation and spoken interpreting, which the occupational profile of interpreters and translators treats as separate disciplines with separate practice. Do not build one rate card across both.

For the general business questions that pricing decisions sit inside, including structure and insurance, the SBA's Manage Your Business guide lists the topics worth settling. The answers for your jurisdiction come from a qualified adviser, not from a page.

Pricing decisions should follow the work in each language service line: define the deliverable, the costs to recover, and when added work changes the quote.

Worked example: reading an analysis before you quote

Take a real file and run the analysis in whatever tool your team uses — Trados Studio, memoQ, Phrase, Wordfast, and XTM all produce it. You get a breakdown of how much of the content is new, how much repeats inside the file, and how much matches memory at various degrees of similarity. Do not convert that into a price yet. Read it as a description of the job.

Ask four questions of it in order.

First, how much of this is genuinely new writing, and is that volume deliverable in the time the client wants? Second, how much of the near-match content sits in a subject where a small difference changes the meaning, since those matches take longer to check than the percentage suggests?

Third, is any of the content locked in images, tables, or a format that needs rebuilding before translation, and who pays for that? Fourth, does the repetition sit in headings and boilerplate, where it is genuinely free, or in body text where each instance still needs reading in context?

Only after those four answers do you apply rates. The order matters: rates applied to a breakdown you have not read produce a number that looks precise and rests on nothing. A quote built the other way around lets you say, in one sentence, why this file costs what it costs, and that sentence is what wins the work.

Where the same analysis becomes a client-facing document, the scope note is what carries it, and the tighter the scope note, the shorter the argument later.

Common questions

What should I charge per word?

No page can answer that honestly, because the number depends on your language pairs, subject areas, cost base, and your clients' payment terms. Build it from cost upward: what the linguist is paid for new text, what revision adds, what file preparation and query handling cost you, and what margin the account has to carry. Then test it against real quotes you win and lose.

Is it wrong to quote a flat project price?

Not at all, and many buyers prefer it. Just derive the flat price from a real analysis. A flat price with no analysis behind it is a bet, and the client's file decides whether you win.

How do I raise prices on an existing account?

With notice, a reason the client can verify, and preferably alongside a change they asked for. Raising a price at renewal with no explanation reads as opportunism, even when the increase is justified.

Should machine translation lower my prices?

It changes what some services cost to deliver and creates a new service with its own scope. Treat post-editing as a separate line with its own definition of done. Presenting it as a discounted version of translation sets an expectation you will spend years arguing with.