At this point in your research, you’d probably already know the fundamentals of what a professional translation service provider would offer, how they can help, and how to know you’re hiring the right choice. If you still aren’t sure, do head over to our article on the importance of translation services. In this article, we’ll be covering the translation rate in Singapore for 2020. Without further ado, let’s dive in.
Translation Rate Singapore: How Do Translators Price Their Services:?
There are several ways on how your project will be quoted. Similar to writing service, translation can be charged per word, per hour, per page, and per character.
Below, you can find more about each pricing method.
Per-Word Translation Pricing
The standard method of quoting a project or work would be per word, from the source. The “source” refers to the original document that you would like to translate.
Singapore market rate for translation per word is $0.06 and $0.035 per word from the source.
This is the default way of pricing as most documents are in text format. Also, it leaves little room for discrepancies and overall, a fair way of deciding the price.
Per-Hour Translation Pricing
This method of pricing can be unreliable due to the fact that some work can take faster or slower than estimated.
It’s bad for the client because he/she may need to pay more than expected if the translator took a little longer.
On the other hand, faster translators who are most probably more experienced and skilled would be paid lesser if they use this pricing model.
However, this method works very well for revision work.
Per-Page Translation Pricing
The per-page pricing is not the best in the bunch. Because of the many variables such as page size, font size, space used on each page, graphics, etc., the final price might not be your money’s worth.
This method is only used for documents that need to be scanned like PDF formatted files. In most cases, those would be medical documents where doctor’s notes in handwriting would be present.
Per-Character Translation Pricing
The per-character pricing is more on the rare side. It basically charges like the per-word model but by the number of characters instead of words. Spaces are counted as characters as well.
The translation of a standard page costs on average USD$25 (SGD$35) which is about 1,500 characters including spaces.
Factors Affecting the Translation Rate Singapore
The cost of translation service isn’t just a random number picked out. It is validated by 3 main factors: Time, Words, and Quality.
On top of those, we have to also take into account other factors that contribute to a higher translation rate per word.
Translation rate in Singapore
- Unusual language combinations where skilled translators in those languages are hard to come by
- Language combinations where the pool of translators have high living costs (Singapore, USA, etc.)
- Highly specialised subject matter like legal or medical-related translations
- Whether notary public translation is required or not
- Overnight delivery or urgent delivery of work request
- Reliance on trusted translators
Contact Us
