Rates

Basic prices¹

Surcharges¹

Discounts

Proofreading, editing

¹The prices quoted are the gross prices to be paid. The actual offer may be more favourable than the unit price multiplied by the volume due to repetitions in the text, therefore we recommend sending the source material. Delivery by e-mail, post or in person at the Budapest office. Postage for international deliveries: AT: DE, CH: UK: US: EUR + EUR / page. Payment against official invoice (on request the invoice can be prepared in advance) by bank transfer or in cash. You pay what you are quoted (no subsequent calculation).

²As a basis for the above values, we have chosen a FULL PAGE WITH STROKES INCL. ALL CHARACTERS chosen. The fee of at least one average page is charged per order.

Certified Hungarian Translation Prices¹

¹A minimum of one average page will be charged for each order. The prices quoted are gross prices, which include the cost of the clause and postage for domestic delivery. Costs for international delivery: AT: DE, CH: UK: US: EUR + EUR / page. Payment by invoice (on request after sending a proforma invoice) by bank transfer or cash. Delivery by e-mail, post or in person at our office in Budapest. You pay us what is stated in the quote (no extra charges).

Quantity discount

How do we calculate translation fees?

Do you regularly have something translated and think the price could be better? Here are some guidelines to help you decide.

1. Volume

A key factor is, of course, the volume, which in this industry is measured in at least 4 units:

• strokes without spaces (also called characters)
• strokes with spaces
• words
• standard lines (55 strokes including spaces; today only occasionally used in German-speaking countries)
• pages

Most translation agencies charge in strokes or words. Words in strokes can be converted quite well with a knowledge of the technical language; in any case, the average word lengths (including 1 space) are as follows

• Hungarian: 6.5 strokes / word
• English: 6.1 strokes / word
• German: 6 strokes / word

All character strings between two spaces are considered words, including numbers.

Since translation memories do not usually require long words to be typed through to the end, the number of strokes becomes less important and the calculation is based more and more on the number of words.

The volume of typed material can be measured automatically. However, sometimes the material is handwritten or bad photocopies/faxes or a combination of both, in which case we use flexible pricing based on the number of pages.

Large volumes can also reduce the price, as both translation agencies and translators are happy to have a single client for several weeks and a single project.

2. Language and language direction

Rare languages are more expensive, but even among rare languages, countries with significant economic power are more expensive. English and German are considered common.

Translation into the foreign language is often more expensive than translation into the local language. Translation between two foreign languages is the most expensive. If the two foreign languages belong to the same language family (two French, two Germanic or two Slavic languages), it is possible to offer them relatively cheaply from a single source. However, if one of the foreign languages is that of a distant, small culture, the translation can often only be done with an intermediary language (usually English), which doubles the working time.

3. Repetitions

10,000 words is not the same as 10,000 words. The statistics of translation tools show how many words or segments are unique in the whole document and how many words or segments are variants of each other. The degree of repetition in texts varies according to the subject area; for example, technical texts may contain a lot of repetition (e.g. safety regulations), but volumes of investigative documents that have been growing in length for some time may also contain repetitive parts (e.g. legal instructions).

We apply a damping multiplier to the price of segments or words that are more or less repetitive:

• for individual words / segments the indicated unit prices apply
• words/segments with little repetition are multiplied by 0.9
• those with a high degree of similarity by a factor of 0.8
• and those that match perfectly or very closely are multiplied by a factor of 0.7

Of course, there is also work to be done with repetitive parts. Often everything in a sentence is repeated with the exception of one word or date, so you have to be very careful that nothing is taken over by mistake.

4. Technical language

Almost all the texts we receive are more or less specialised. There are 4 main areas of specialisation: law, economics, technology and medicine.

Legal texts are sometimes included under the heading of social science translation, which also includes the fields of administration, diplomacy, sociology and political science. Business texts include texts on economics, national and world economy, marketing strategy, business, trade and finance. The technology category also includes larger industrial texts and information technology texts.

Ideally, the translator will have a degree in the subject, but this is not a requirement. Whatever field he or she feels connected to, whether through education or work experience, he or she will have the general competence necessary to understand most texts in the field. He or she does not need to be an author, but it is important to be in touch with the content; the more effortlessly the translator understands the material, the later he or she will tire of the work. They look up terms more or less frequently, they do research, using offline and online dictionaries, encyclopaedias and sometimes image searches.

In addition, there are easier and more difficult specialist languages, and more or less easily translatable types of documents or texts. Much more complex thinking is required for the correspondence of second and third instance lawyers than for the relatively clear materials of first instance courts. The interpretation of technical documentation from and to industry professionals requires more prior knowledge than instruction manuals aimed at laypersons.

In general, cultural, tourist or marketing texts are considered to be inexpensive. Diplomacy, lighter legal, some technical, commercial or business texts are of medium price range. The more difficult legal (second and third instance applications and their evaluation), economic, financial, more difficult industrial and medical texts are the expensive text types.

5. Deadline

The faster a translation is required, the more expensive it will be, because the individual translator's workload will be higher and/or several translators will have to be coordinated. The current workload of the translation agency also plays a role, so prices will be lower during the summer slump or at Christmas than during the peak season in September.

If a large job is urgent, only a larger translation agency with many translators can accept it. Since they need to work on a collaborative platform to ensure consistent terminology, which requires software and a project coordinator, the price will inevitably be higher.

A translator - depending on his or her experience and the size of his or her translation memory - can handle up to 8 pages or 3,000 words a day for the same (good) quality in the long run.

We are on the safe side if there is an additional 10% time for reading and a few percent for communication / looking things up on the internet.

6. Flat rate prices

For standard documents such as certificates, civil register extracts and some official certificates, where the text is the same except for the individual data, we apply lower rates measured in strokes, but increased by the price of official preparation and postage.

7. Additional services

1. Proofreading by a native speaker
   • When translating specialist texts, it is not necessary for the translator to be a native speaker; it is sufficient if he or she has either completed a language course and further training, or has a degree in law, economics, engineering or medicine and has completed further training to become a specialist translator. Advertising texts often try to be close to everyday life - a native speaker is essential. No one can achieve this level of linguistic economy, no one knows trendy phrases as well as a native speaker.
   • Money is spent on a native speaker proofreader when the naturalness of the target language text is particularly important, as in the case of tourism, advertising and some cultural texts. For other specialised texts, in-depth knowledge of the subject is more important.
   • The price of proofreading by a native speaker depends on the rarity and professionalism of the language (see points 2 and 4) and is between 30% and 40% of the price of the translation.
2. Certification
   • Certification involves manual work and postage, which is why most translation agencies charge a flat rate and a price per page. In our case, the price for certifying documents is € / document + € / page. This includes the postage to a Hungarian address.
3. Postage costs
   • We charge postage for international shipments (AT: DE, CH: UK: US: EUR + EUR / page). We always choose registered mail, so "priority" is included.
4. Transcribing audio material
   • Transcription is the typing of the spoken text of interviews, video recordings and radio broadcasts, with or without timecode. The text to be transcribed often needs to be translated. It is difficult to relate the price to the length, as the density of conversations in recordings varies greatly, which is why translation agencies sometimes relate the price of the transcription to the output. We, on the other hand, translate a short passage and charge for the time spent on it. Hourly rates for transcription vary between 25 and 35 EUR.
5. Video subtitling
   • Video subtitles are stored with the timecodes in text files that can be viewed by installed or online video players. Subtitles are created using specialist software.

8. Other factors of pricing

1. Translation of handwritten texts
   • Handwritten texts need to be made machine-readable for computer-assisted translation, and as each handwriting is individual and variable, character recognition software cannot be used. This is why such jobs sometimes include a transcription element. The advantage is that the client can then use the source language variant.
2. Whether the corporate client provides terminology
   • Dozens of new words are created every week in industry. Companies that pay attention to terminology will build up their glossaries continuously, saving time and effort for each future translation. If the company provides a terminology database, the translation agency can offer better deadlines and prices.