Professional translation is priced per word in most markets, but your per-word rate must still resolve to a sane hourly figure: divide your target hourly rate by your realistic words-per-hour (often 250–500 for quality work) and you have your floor. US/EU rates translate to roughly $30–$80/hour depending on language pair and specialisation.
Machine translation has commoditised bulk work, pushing professionals toward premium segments — legal, medical, marketing transcreation, and certified documents — where accuracy carries liability and rates hold firm.
Your minimum hourly rate
$65/hour
Exact break-even: $61.38/hour — rounded up to the nearest $5.
How this breaks down
- Revenue you need to bill
- $82,500/yr
- — covers taxes (~25%)
- $20,000
- — covers expenses
- $2,500
- Billable hours per year
- 1,344h
Pricing tips for freelance translators
- Set a minimum project fee (e.g. $50) — tiny jobs cost more in admin than they pay.
- Charge MTPE (machine-translation post-editing) at 60–70% of your full rate, not 30% — editing bad output is slow.
- Rare language pairs and sworn/certified status are the strongest price levers in the field.
For the full method — including how to present higher rates to clients without losing the deal — see our guide to setting freelance rates. And when the work is done, invoice it properly.