Poll: Do you accept translation projects paid by the hour?
Tagapagpost sa thread: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
KAWANI/TAUHAN NG SITE
Sep 18, 2025

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you accept translation projects paid by the hour?".

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Claudio Machado Junior
Claudio Machado Junior  Identity Verified
Brasil
Local time: 03:29
Kasapi (2014)
Ingles papuntang Portuguese
+ ...
Accepting anything paid Sep 18, 2025

Well, I'm accepting any paid project these days, as September has been a terrible month. I don't know if any colleague has a different perspective, but it seems that our industry is changing (collapsing, maybe?) really fast.

Jorge Payan
Maria Laura Curzi
 
WolfgangS
WolfgangS
Pransya
Local time: 08:29
Ingles papuntang Aleman
+ ...
Why not Sep 18, 2025

ProZ.com Staff wrote:

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you accept translation projects paid by the hour?".

View the poll results »



If the my hourly rates are accepted


Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Laura Curzi
CasaPhil
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 07:29
Kasapi (2007)
Ingles papuntang Portuguese
+ ...
Another why not... Sep 18, 2025

So far, no one has ever offered to pay me by the hour for translation, but I wouldn't say no or cheat (saying that it took more hours than it really did). There is just one caveat: I’m the one who determines how long it takes me to translate a project, not the agency...

WolfgangS
CasaPhil
Maria Laura Curzi
Luis M. Sosa
Philip Lees
 
CasaPhil
CasaPhil  Identity Verified
Espanya
Local time: 08:29
Kasapi
Ingles papuntang French
+ ...
Yes Sep 18, 2025

A new agency customer from this summer wants me to charge translations jobs by the hour, as well as editing and dreaded MTPE.
As my hourly rate has always been in line with my word rate (commensurate hourly earnings), being paid by the hour makes no difference to my bottom line. Before them, I had always charged translation of editable source texts per source word.

Apart from that, today I got an offer from a global agency that ticked my profile in the proz.com Directory: 16k
... See more
A new agency customer from this summer wants me to charge translations jobs by the hour, as well as editing and dreaded MTPE.
As my hourly rate has always been in line with my word rate (commensurate hourly earnings), being paid by the hour makes no difference to my bottom line. Before them, I had always charged translation of editable source texts per source word.

Apart from that, today I got an offer from a global agency that ticked my profile in the proz.com Directory: 16k "weighted", which in practice means any word count (discount grid unknown), to "review" in 4 days. For USD0.01/word. That's USD160 for the gig.

Philippe
▲ Collapse


Oscar Núñez Alfaro
 
CasaPhil
CasaPhil  Identity Verified
Espanya
Local time: 08:29
Kasapi
Ingles papuntang French
+ ...
Duplicated Sep 18, 2025

Deleted

[Edited at 2025-09-18 17:53 GMT]


 
Oscar Núñez Alfaro
Oscar Núñez Alfaro  Identity Verified
Costa Rica
Local time: 00:29
Kasapi (Oct 2026)
Ingles papuntang Spanish
+ ...
It is very similar to be paid by word. Sep 19, 2025

If it is a general translation or PEMT project, I could charge it by the hour or by word. On the other hand, if it is about specialized or narrative texts, I would prefer to charge by the hour. I could spend too much time searching for terms, phrases, or idioms that fit on the translation very well.

 


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Poll: Do you accept translation projects paid by the hour?






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