Translation costs depend on aspects like the type of translation, language pair, specificity of the topic, region,  and translator’s experience. Translating your CV to a common language like Spanish by an amateur translator is not the same as translating a complicated scientific research article to Thai or another less common language.

Shortly speaking, you should distinguish between Written Translation and Intepretation. The price for written translation is usually calculated per word (or in some countries per «translation page» that is equal to 1800 symbols) based on the total number of words, and the price may vary from $0.02 to $0.1+ per word, depending on the above mentioned aspects. The price for interpretation is usually calculated per hour with the fee ranging anywhere from a few to dozens of dollars per hour.

Generally, an average translation speed for a translator is 3000-5000 words per working day, but it may greatly vary from one translator to another. Also keep in mind that translators usually have a number of clients at the same time, so if your task is not a priority, a translator can set a longer deadline for it. One more thing that affects the required time is translator’s awareness of the topic. If someone has been translating mostly beaty and fashion articles, it would be close to impossible for them to jump into sophisticated electric motor design or other topics irrelevant to their previous experience. That is why it is always a good idea to ask a translator about their previous projects, send the text for evaluation, request the expected deadline, and only then agree to work with them.

All my translations are done exclusively by myself without the use of Google Translate, DeepL, or any similar tools. When applicable, I use CAT-systems (Computer Assisted Translation) like SmartCAT or Phrase that are special software to ease and speed up the translation process by means of convenient interface, glossary and translation memory features. Customers  with bulk and partialy repeated texts can benefit from these tools be getting more uniform translations, complete glossary of the terms, faster turnaround, and lower fees.

Modern machine translation tools are usually not able to clearly and properly convey the idea and the message of the original text. While they might be helpful for some simple tasks like translating a plain short sentence or getting a general overview of a text written in a foreign language, human translation done by a professional will always outperform an AI-translated text in readability, choice of words, correct sentence structure, localization to specific region and topic etc. If you want the translation to sound and read as natural as it is written in the original language, you’d better avoid using machine translation and opt for  professional translation and localization services.