Per-word translation fees hide the real hourly return. Everhour helps keep project budgets tied to actual billable work.
Find the right rate based on your annual expenses, desired profit margin, and available billable hours. Stop guessing.
Rent, software, gear, salary
Time lost to admin, marketing, etc.
The calculator gives you the number — Everhour takes it from there.
One click and you're timing. Start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Everhour.
Set a budget, assign rates, and get alerted before you're over.
Measurement
Track your budget through time or costs
Every report you need — configured your way, always up to date.
Tracked hours flow straight into a polished invoice — no copy-paste, no manual math.
A translator hourly rate calculation answers two practical questions: the rate you need when you bill by the hour, and the implied hourly return inside a per-word or fixed project fee. ATA survey data show freelance translators most often price per word, while more than half also use hourly pricing. That makes the hourly figure a control number, even when the invoice uses source words, pages, or a project fee.
The calculation also separates employee wage benchmarks from freelance pricing. BLS lists interpreters and translators under SOC 27-3091 with 2024 median pay of $59,440 per year, or $28.58 per hour, and OEWS wage data exclude self-employed workers. A freelancer carries business expenses, self-funded benefits, nonbillable admin time, and self-employment tax, so a sustainable client rate must sit above an employee wage benchmark.
Per-word pricing becomes useful when you convert it to time. ATA reported Spanish into English median standard translation rates of $0.13 per source word and $50.00 per hour. A 2,000-word assignment at $0.13 per source word pays $260. If the work takes 4 billable hours, the implied rate is $65.00 per billable hour before overhead, taxes, software, project management, and unpaid client communication.
CAT tools and fuzzy-match discounts change that conversion. ATA reported CAT tool use by 79% of freelance translator respondents, machine-translation use by 30%, and an adjusted 62% share offering fuzzy-match discounts among CAT-relevant responses. A discounted fuzzy segment reduces revenue per source word, so you need to measure whether the saved production time offsets the lower fee. The mistake is pricing every word as if every word carries full-rate effort.
The U.S. self-employed pricing formula is: target income plus overhead plus benefits substitute plus tax reserve, divided by billable hours. For example, a freelance translator wants $72,000 in take-home income, expects $8,400 in software, association, hardware, marketing, and office costs, reserves $12,000 for self-funded benefits, and sets aside $14,400 for taxes. Total required revenue is $106,800.
If 1,200 hours are realistically billable during the year, the required rate is $89.00 per billable hour: $106,800 divided by 1,200. U.S. sole proprietors and independent contractors generally report business profit or loss on Schedule C and use Schedule SE for Social Security and Medicare taxes. For 2026, self-employment tax is 15.3% on 92.35% of net self-employment earnings, with the Social Security portion capped at the $184,500 wage base.
A calculator is enough for a new rate sheet, a quote check, or a per-word project sanity test. Use it when the inputs are stable and the decision is one-time: income target, overhead, benefits substitute, tax reserve, and annual billable hours. It also works for comparing a marketplace profile rate against your own cost structure, especially when a posted range reflects global platform history rather than your local business model.
A managed workflow matters once projects, deadlines, discounts, and client budgets start moving at the same time. Everhour Project Budgeting supports hour-based and money-based budgets, recurring budget periods, email alerts, and budget protection. For translators, that means a glossary build, review pass, discounted CAT segment, or rush project can be tracked against the budget before the invoice underpays the actual work.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
High Performer
G2
Summer 2026
Best Ease Of Use
Capterra
Summer 2026
Rated in the top time trackers across G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius — with consistent praise for ease of use, integrations, and support.
Divide the project fee by the billable hours required to finish the job. A 2,000-word Spanish into English assignment at $0.13 per source word pays $260. If it takes 4 billable hours, the implied rate is $65.00 per hour. Compare that number with your cost-plus hourly rate before accepting similar work.
Use billable hours for the rate calculation. ATA freelance translator respondents reported a median of 30.0 hours per week spent on freelance translating, but not every working hour becomes chargeable client production. Admin, quoting, marketing, software setup, continuing education, and unpaid client communication still need funding through the hours that clients actually pay for.
CAT tools lower the hourly rate only when discounts exceed the time saved. ATA reported CAT tool use by 79% of freelance translator respondents and an adjusted 62% share offering fuzzy-match discounts among CAT-relevant responses. Track the actual time required for discounted matches, review, terminology work, and quality checks before treating fuzzy-match pricing as profitable.
BLS wage data for interpreters and translators report employee pay, and OEWS wage data exclude self-employed workers. Freelance rates must cover business expenses, self-funded benefits, nonbillable time, and tax reserves. BLS reported 2024 median pay of $28.58 per hour for employed interpreters and translators, which is a benchmark, not a freelance price floor.
Self-employment tax increases the revenue target before you divide by billable hours. For 2026, net self-employment profit is multiplied by 92.35%, then subject to 12.4% Social Security up to the $184,500 wage base plus 2.9% Medicare. Additional Medicare Tax applies above the filing-status thresholds, including $200,000 for single filers and $250,000 for married filing jointly.
Everhour Project Budgeting tracks hour-based and money-based budgets as work is logged. A translator can set a project budget for a document batch, retainer, or recurring client, then use email alerts at budget thresholds and budget protection to stop extra time from slipping past the agreed scope.
Everhour supports non-billable projects, fixed-fee projects, and time-and-materials rates. That lets a translator separate glossary maintenance from billable document work, price one client by project rate, and use custom task rates when review, editing, or rush work needs a different billing value.
Track translation work against hour-based or money-based budgets, set alerts before scope runs over, and use Everhour Project Budgeting to protect profitable client work.
14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime
