As you know, I run a small agency and every now and then I need translators for certain language combinations. And usually, if I don't have a translator on hand, or I already have someone in my database, then I'll go to proz.com, to try to see what I can find. And I just kind of wanted to show you that how an agency you know, what they see when they receive the quotes. And so you can kind of get an idea of what they see and the average of the prices that they get. Because I know this is a big question for a lot of translators, at least, you know, was for me, every time I was, I was applying for a job, especially at the beginning. So here, what I did was I blocked out the name of the quarter, these are just screenshots of various jobs that I've posted up, but I kind of wanted to show you sort of what you see as an agency when people apply.

You have first of all the proposed completion which very often isn't entered and sometimes is entered like you can finish it on time or depends on the deadline, blah, blah, blah. And, and otherwise, you see the quarter here as the name of the quarter plus the thumbnail, I think and then you have The quote as the subject and then the price per word, usually or sometimes its total. So anyway, I want to show you here this was for a job that was English to Chinese. And I've always been so surprised at the rate at how low is very often a lot of people seem to be offering stuff for a very low rate. And this kind of really worried me the first time I saw it, because, you know, when I'm applying for jobs as a translator, my rates aren't nearly this low. But on the other hand, I do think it's so I as an agency, I actually every time every single one of the people that I've hired through these have been definitely on the higher part of this rate, just because I've had some nightmare scenarios with people with low rates in the past and so I I tend to go for people who have a higher rate I don't trust the low rate, and I do think it is a losing strategy to try to compete on price but here I just want to give you an idea anyway.

So this is English to Chinese. And as you can see people right yeah, five years experience blah blah and they write to seven cents a word at a corresponding member I'm not sure what corresponding memory is I think it means they just paid their dues or something five cents a word five US dollars eight, six or five us cents I should say eight six here 25 total. I don't remember what the total job was for obviously was a small job and etc etc etc. and but you know, you see everything from four cents to double that eight cents. So you know, it really runs the gamut. And actually, I'm surprised it doesn't go higher than that here for English Chinese.

But anyway, let's let's look at another example. This is English to Japanese. And as you can see here, they're a bit higher 12 cents, 14 cents, stuff like that. And you know, some are bid on the lower side but anyway, yeah, here this is English to Japanese. And these are some of the prices that we see. So this is English to Spanish and this was editing though that's right the market down and that's why the prices are so low here.

As you can see they're quite low. three cents, three cents, four cents. word for an ad total I don't remember what the full text you know how long it how long it was. And I'm pretty sure it was not about homosexuality though. That's pretty weird editor with experience on text about homosexuality. I have no idea why would that they would have that I mean I don't know I guess that's their specialty.

But I don't remember what this text was about it's definitely wasn't about that though. I mean, it's probably some document. Okay, that's weird. I'm kind of curious about that. Anyway, I don't remember that from the first time around. But anyway, as you can see, they kind of run a little round here for editing as well I tend to hire on the higher side and I don't remember who exactly I hired from here, but some of these low ones like two cents three cents a word for editing even there I'm not you know, I don't know it's kind of iffy.

But you know, it also depends. So for me Actually, I should say these aren't the first things I look at. The first things I look at are the ratings, the past ratings on pros, and you need to click on their profile to see that but I kind of just want to give you an idea because a lot of other agencies might just you know, look at this list and this is what they see first so it kind of gives you an idea. Anyway, let's go to the next one French to English and so here and here you see something like foreign paralegal, you know, that kind of catches your eye as well, in case you're wondering what to put in your, your subject. You know, once again, you put stuff like French to English that doesn't help you at all French English, then in fact, I think proz.com even says don't put that in here subject because, you know, it's obvious that this is French English.

That's what I'm hiring for. Unless I have many, many different languages that maybe can help but usually have to specify the language ahead of time anyway. Anyway, here we see five cents a word eight euro cents a word 11 cents a word nine euro cents a word and so you know, it kind of goes up and down a bit. And once again, this is French to English. I'm guessing this was a legal translation because it's a licensed attorney, former paralegal. But yeah, there we go.

The next one French to Chinese so here we have some interesting ones French to Chinese. I thought there will be way higher than this and seven cents a word this one surprised me. In fact, I remember thinking this would be too low. So here we have 12 cents, 15 cents 10 euro cents, etc etc. And so yeah, you know these are a bit on the higher degree on the higher level but not as much as I would have thought I would have thought French or Chinese I'd get a lot higher quotes and but here I want to show you Italian to Chinese. And here I got 20 cents a word and 10 euro cents a word so yeah, these were higher.

I only got two quotes. But anyway, um, these, you know, kind of shows you and it's interesting because yeah, you have a language rare language combination, like at times Chinese. The main thing is you won't have much competition. You know, these are only two people you know, 10 cents a word and 20 cents a word. I don't remember who I went with in the end. But oh yeah, I need a traditional Chinese actually, I think I went with this person even though they were cheaper and this is quite high actually for for any type of translation.

But yeah here I needed a traditional Chinese I remember it was it was hard to find people and that's also why you have you know a lower number of people here Chinese to Italian and this is six year I guess it was just a stamp of a short translation so $25 total here at six five euro cents and so this yeah hear again only two quotes so you know not that much. And then here we have Portuguese to English and here obviously quite a few other quotes and nine cents eight cents five cents six cents 65 total 8769 blah blah blah I'm for that's very low. And again here I don't remember who I went with in the end but I can assure you it was definitely not this one. You know, it's probably somewhere from eight seven maybe but eight or nine you know anyway, I always like I said the first thing I check is always the ratings and so it usually depends on that.

But But you know, usually the prices will be a bit on the high I just because I trust that more, it's less of a headache. And I know I won't have to come back to it and deal with it and stress out about it later, maybe pay someone else to edit it or redo it. So, anyway, I hope this kind of gives you an idea for some of the prices least for some of the language combinations and it shows you what people see when you're applying for a job you know, so it helps to lower the price and also you know, the subject line so you can kind of take advantage of that and you know, put something Yeah, like master's degree, maybe whatever you have that catches people's eye more than 120,000 words translate you know, something like that. This can you know, this can help out something that Portuguese to English translation that won't help at all.

So, anyway, hopefully this can help you out of it. By the way, if you want to know standard rates for any language combination, I think the best thing is just to go to here proz.com employers slash rates and and here you can just enter you know, anything you want. So if I put like Italian into English, that's my language combination. Put on put any field for now and submit in US dollars and then it kind of gives you the average rate 11 cents minimum eight cents average rate per hour I don't anyway, and and so this kind of gives you and this is more in line with what you know to expect you know from professional translators so when you're first applying I would say don't become demoralized if you saw those low prices because a lot of people are going to give really low quotes.

And usually these are like the fly by night translators I call them because you know, they'll, they'll do a couple translations but they're usually bad and so they don't get hired again. And and the people who do hire them aren't serious about translators, so you know, their career kind of floundered after a while also because they can't really earn a living from it. And the, you know, while the people who charge a bit of a higher rate usually tend to have more long term careers and are more serious about it as well and are also a higher standard. So anyway, hopefully this helps you out. Once again. Again, it shows you the rates and here if you go to search dot pros comm slash employee slash rates, you should get this.

I never know how to find it on here. Like I said many times their websites really confusing. I usually actually just google proz.com rates and then and that's how I get this page.