96% of marketers reported positive ROI from localization, with 65% seeing returns of three times or higher. And it’s not just about revenue. 75% said localization led to a strong impact on customer engagement as well.
In short, when done right, localization pays for itself.
But with growing pressure to scale localized campaigns across many markets, understanding what website localization really costs has never been more important.
We created this detailed guide with insights about all types of localization rates and tips to plan your budget smartly.
What do localization rates really include
Localization is never as simple as translating text from one language to another, recreating visuals, and calling it a day. That’s why budgeting for such a campaign involves many moving parts.
Let’s look at a few critical factors to keep in mind when estimating localization costs.
Translation and editing
Translation is the starting point of every localization project. But it rarely stops there.
In a typical workflow:
- A translator converts the content into different languages
- A linguist reviews the content for grammar, context, tone, and more
- A fact-checker analyzes the content for factual accuracy to find mistranslations
In short: You have to consider the charges for editing and review alongside the cost of translations.
For example, companies in the healthcare and financial sectors need to invest more because of the many rounds of review required.
❌ Pricing varies for language pairs
You won’t find the same translation and editing prices for all language pairs.
More common combinations like English-Spanish and English-French are priced lower than less popular ones like English-Japanese or non-English languages. This happens because the rarer your language pairs, the fewer translators are available.
Formatting and design
Translating textual content is just one part of the puzzle.
You have to align this text visually to make sure it looks appealing, whether that’s a landing page, software, e-commerce listing, or something else.
Adjusting the visual formatting is a crucial step because word length varies across languages. For instance, German phrases are typically much longer than their English counterparts. Besides, not all fonts will be compatible with your target languages.
All of these factors mean you need design support to review and recreate your visual layouts based on the localized content.
Quality assurance (QA)
Even with expert translators and editors involved, a final layer of QA helps catch:
- Formatting mistakes
- Missing characters
- Mistranslations
- Broken links
- And more
A QA tester reviews the content in context within a product or page. They also make sure the translated content loads correctly and looks neat. This is where you have to pay for specialized linguists to do a foolproof review.
🔍 Learn more about testing
Not sure what goes into reviewing the quality of your localized content? Check out our in-depth guide on localization testing to plan ahead.
Project management
Localization projects are rarely linear.
You’re always juggling multiple languages, contributors, reviewers, file formats, and deadlines. Things can quickly go off track and derail your project.
A project manager or assistant steps into this equation to coordinate timelines and communication. This fee is necessary for big projects where you need a dedicated person or team to create workflows, handle queries, and maintain team alignment.
🧠 Hear from experts
Want to learn more about project management for localization? Read our in-depth guide to plan your workflow, account for costs involved, and get expert advice to set yourself up for success.
How localization is priced: 3 key pricing models
Localization experts follow three main pricing models: per word, per hour, and per project. How much will each cost you? And which one is better?
Here’s how each pricing model works and the costs to help you pick the right one.
Per-word pricing
Best for: Localizing straightforward content like blog posts, product descriptions, or help center articles with predictable pricing
Per-word is the most common pricing model. Translators charge you for each word with editing and basic quality checks baked in.
Per-word translation rates vary by region:
- Eastern Europe/LATAM: $0.06–$0.12/word
- Western Europe: $0.10–$0.18/word
- Asia and Africa: $0.05–$0.10/word
- North America: $0.12–$0.20/word
Plus, if you want to localize specialized content for legal, medical, or technical themes, expect to pay a premium of 20-40% over these general rates.
| Pros | Cons |
| → Easy to estimate total costs upfront → Scales predictably with content volume → Use translation memory to save costs | → Doesn’t account for complexity or formatting effort → Can lead to over-translation because more words = more pay |
Per-hour pricing
Best for: Adapting visual assets, testing a localized UI, rewriting marketing copy, or setting up multilingual CMS workflows
Per-hour pricing means you get billed for the number of hours spent on each task. This model is more suited for tasks like editing, transcreation, quality reviews, design projects, and more. It works when tasks don’t have a fixed element to charge for (like a number of words).
Average per-hour rates for localization and translation vary by country and region.
As per Indeed, localization experts charge an hourly base rate of:
- £17.89 in the United Kingdom
- $30.81 in Australia
- $21.08 in Peru
ZipRecruiter suggests that US-based experts charge $46/hour for localizing content.
And freelance translators charge between $15-$25 per hour on platforms like UpWork.
| Pros | Cons |
| → Great for tasks that don’t involve translation volume → Allows for custom work like UI fixes, design tweaks, CMS integration → Helps with better prioritization, focusing on quality, not quantity | → Harder to predict the total cost upfront unless you tightly scope the hours → Reliance on the vendor’s time tracking and transparency |
Per-project pricing
Best for: Getting end-to-end management and delivery of a big campaign, like a game or app localization
You get a fixed quote from a vendor to complete the entire project. This is an all-inclusive pricing for translation, editing, project management, and other factors.
Use the per-project model when you have a clear, well-defined scope for your project, like rolling out a marketing campaign.
Project fees depend on the kind of vendor you choose to work with. The pricing will come down to their years of experience, service benchmarks, turnaround time, your project requirements, and more.
To give you an estimate, typical project fees are:
- Software UI and help docs: $15,000+
- Small app (5–10 languages): $3,000 – $8,000
- Game localization: $20,000 – $100,000 (depending on scope)
| Pros | Cons |
| → Fixed pricing provides clarity for budgeting and approvals → Simplifies vendor management with one quote and one invoice → Get an efficient and reliable partner for long-term collaboration | → Less flexibility; any midway changes can trigger new fees → May overcharge for smaller jobs if the vendor builds in buffers |
4 factors that shape your localization bill
Investing in localization doesn’t have to break the bank.
Your budget can go as high or low as you want. You have to strategically plan for a few factors to create a realistically affordable budget.
Here’s what to consider when weighing localization rates:
1. Language pair complexity
Language pairs are priced based on how common (or less common) they are. It’s a simple demand-supply equation.
Localizing from English to Spanish, French, German, and Hindi is relatively cheaper. That’s because these are popular language combinations with qualified translators available in ample supply.
But translating to Finnish, Japanese, and Bengali can increase your bill because it’s difficult to find translators well-versed in these languages. You’ll have to pay even more if you’re localizing from one non-English language to another, like Japanese to Vietnamese.
Look at some average price points for popular language pairs:
| Language pair | Average price |
| English -> Mandarin Chinese | $0.23 |
| English -> Spanish | $0.18 |
| English -> Arabic | $0.24 |
| English -> Russian | $0.22 |
| English -> Bengali | $0.22 |
| English -> Portuguese | $0.21 |
| English -> French | $0.20 |
| English -> Japanese | $0.25 |
| English -> German | $0.21 |
2. Type of asset and pricing model
Localizing a landing page isn’t the same as a full-fledged e-commerce store.
The complexity and type of asset are one of the decisive factors for your localization costs. The final budget can vary dramatically depending on the type of content you’re working with.
This cost will also factor in the varying pricing models required for your project. For example, if translators and designers have to partner with developers to localize your website copy, it’s more than just per-word pricing.
But if you’re simply localizing blog posts, that can work on a predictable per-word pricing plan.
3. Turnaround time
Need your localized content in two days? Expect to pay more.
As with any service, translation projects come with rush fees when timelines are compressed. Plus, tight deadlines can increase project management overhead.
Plan ahead of time to avoid working in such a time crunch where you pay extra for a rushed job. Give every contributor time and space to work at a sustainable pace and deliver their best output. You can also get discounts for flexible timelines.
4. Volume, repetition, and reusability
Translation agencies and language service providers often offer volume discounts for large projects.
This volume discount is particularly true when you use a translation memory (TM) system. With translation memories, you can store previously translated content. So, you don’t have to translate repeated strings (like buttons) from scratch every time.
Volume and reusability a big cost-cutters for e-commerce sites and support content with recurring elements.
💻 Read more: Find your translation memory software with our in-depth guide on what to look for in the right tool and top recommendations.
Smart budgeting ideas: How to cut costs without cutting corners
If your localization budget comes out to be way more than you can afford, there is a way out.
Instead of cutting corners, you can follow our recommended practices to reduce your expenses without compromising on quality.
But first, let’s look at what happens when you choose cost over quality.
Breaking down low-cost vs. premium localization
When working with a tight budget, it may seem tempting to choose a low-cost option. But these options come with hidden risks that can damage your entire campaign.
Cheap translation services often include:
- Vague messaging
- Inconsistent terminology
- Clunky translated phrases
- Misaligned layouts and copy
- Untranslated UI strings for key elements
More importantly, these service providers can’t bring out your brand tone of voice in the best way possible.
In contrast, premium localization experts include native linguists, thorough testing, style consistency, and more. So, your content fits right in and doesn’t feel translated.
Prioritize and phase your content
Trying to localize everything at once is a recipe for disaster. It can be overwhelming, expensive, and too difficult to manage. A more effective approach is dynamic content localization, which lets you prioritize and adapt content gradually, avoiding high costs and subpar performance.
The better way is to take a phased approach to localization.
Start with high-traffic, revenue-generating assets like landing pages and marketing campaigns. And table the low-priority content for later.
You can use real user data and heatmaps to prioritize the most important assets with a high influence on your audience.
Maintain translation memory and glossaries
One of the most effective ways to cut long-term localization costs is to set up a strong translation memory (TM) and glossary from day one.
With translation memories, you don’t have to pay for translating repeated content. Learning how to translate a website efficiently includes leveraging tools like TM systems, which allow translators to reuse phrases and spend less time and effort on a project.
At the same time, a glossary ensures consistent use of branded terms and key messaging, regardless of the language.
That’s exactly how Fetch, a rewards app, launched and scaled its app for Spanish-speaking users. By using Lokalise’s TM and automation tools, the team reduced translation turnaround from six days to one. This speed and consistency helped them increase active users by 73%, all without overspending.
Fetch’s story proves how efficient translation workflows can directly support business growth within a budget.
Choose the right content creation workflows
A lot of localization waste happens before translation even begins. That’s because the source content isn’t written with a multilingual website in mind.
Complex sentence structures, idioms, and messy file formats — all of these lead to delays and costly revisions. You can skip this hassle and save costs on constant back-and-forth by streamlining your content creation workflows.
Follow best practices to simplify language, use structured/compatible file formats, and organize content for seamless translation.
Ding, a mobile recharge platform, presents a strong case in point.
The team moved away from the chaos of multiple spreadsheets and started embedding localization directly into their design and dev workflows.
How? With Lokalise.
Writers and designers entered content into Lokalise, making it immediately accessible to developers. This improved translation quality and consistency while cutting costs and time for each product release cycle.
Blend automation with human oversight
Machine translation (MT) has come a long way with many advancements in recent years. However, it still requires human oversight to get the best quality output.
Avoid relying solely on MT tools to produce accurate content. Instead, add a layer of human editing and fine-tuning to improve this machine translation output. This will save you the cost of hiring translators for localizing content from scratch. Instead, you can simply work with editors.
Think about localization ROI, not just cost
When evaluating localization costs, it’s easy to fixate on cost per word, hour, or project.
But the real question is: what are you getting in return?
A strong localization strategy is based on clear goals and progress metrics. Work backwards from your objectives to determine the ideal budget and estimate your expected ROI.
And if you’re ready to approach localization as a long-term growth driver rather than just a line item, try Lokalise. Get the power to localize faster, collaborate better, and scale without sacrificing quality. Take Lokalise for a spin for 14 days at no cost.
