Book translation cost calculator
Compare four ways to get a book translated: a human literary translator working from scratch, an editor working on a Transept draft, Transept with you reviewing every line, and AI alone. Pick a length or type your word count, set the rates for your market, and see what each route costs and how long it takes.
How does the calculator work out the numbers?
Cost is your word count times a rate per word. The translator’s rate is preset to €0.10, within the €0.07–€0.13 a word that literary translators typically charge. The editor’s rate is preset to €0.03 a word, which puts a 90,000-word novel near the top of the €1,000–€3,000 that editing an AI draft typically costs. Move either slider to match your market or a quote you already have.
For time, the calculator assumes five working days a week: 1,000 finished words a day for a translator working from scratch (the top of what veteran literary translators report for a challenging book) and 1,500 a day for an editor working on an AI draft. AI alone costs anywhere from nothing to a few hundred and takes hours, but the result is a draft that still needs a human.
Transept’s price covers the whole Novel or book workflow, not the translation alone: one credit per source word to translate in Standard mode (three in Pro), a proofread against the source that reads every word and fixes what it flags, and a check of every name. The calculator takes the top of that range, as if three paragraphs in ten needed a proofread fix and one in ten a name fix, plus a glossary built from the manuscript, and prices it at the cheapest plan or credit pack that covers it. The app shows the exact price before every run.
Treat the result as an estimate. Rates vary by country, genre and translator, so get a quote and a paid sample chapter before you set a budget. Our guide to what it costs to translate a novel has the full breakdown, with rates by market and the sources behind them.
FAQ
- A 300-page novel runs to roughly 75,000–90,000 words, at 250–300 words a page. At €0.07–€0.13 a word, a human literary translation costs about €5,000–€12,000. Editing an AI draft costs about €1,000–€3,000, plus the cost of the AI tool. A translator’s own quote is always more accurate than a rule of thumb.
- It depends more on the market than on the book. The Authors Guild’s survey puts the US average at $0.13 a word, and the Society of Authors reports UK rates starting at about £100 per 1,000 words. Indie authors in Germany report €0.07–€0.09 a word, though some translators charge €0.15 and more. For a 90,000-word novel, that comes to roughly €6,000–€12,000.
- Translation alone is one credit per source word in Standard mode and three in Pro. A book usually also goes through a proofread against the source and a check of every name, so a 90,000-word novel comes to about 117,000–171,000 credits in Standard mode, which one month of the Pro plan (€79) covers, or 297,000–351,000 in Pro mode. The app shows the exact price before every run.
- You can, but plan on a human pass first. Across 300 pages, an AI draft tends to handle character names inconsistently, drop lines and read more literally than a published translation. Amazon KDP also counts a translation made with an AI tool as AI-generated even after substantial edits, and asks you to declare it when you publish.
Translating your own book?
Transept keeps every character name, place and invented word in a glossary that applies to the whole book, proofreads each chapter against the source, and gives your editor a review link to comment on. See how it works for fiction and book translation.