Free tool
How long will this translation actually take?
Enter the word count, the number of documents, and your team's throughput. Compare pure human translation against machine translation with human review, and against machine-only output that lands the same hour.
Across all documents in the job. Unsure? Paste text into the word counter first.
A common industry rule of thumb per professional translator.
Reviewing and correcting machine output goes much faster than translating from scratch.
People working in parallel. Splitting one document across people adds coordination cost this model ignores.
Human vs machine + review
–
| Pure human translation | – |
| Machine translation + human review | – |
| Machine only | – |
Turnaround, three ways (business days)
When each mode is the right call
There is no single correct way to translate a document set; there are three, and the deadline usually picks for you.
- Pure human translation earns its days on high-stakes text where nuance is the product: contracts headed to court, legislation, brand copy. Budget roughly 2,000 to 3,000 words per translator per day, plus review.
- Machine translation plus human review (post-editing) is the workhorse for institutional volume: reports, correspondence, tenders, internal policies. The machine produces a complete draft in minutes and reviewers correct rather than create, so throughput per person often doubles or triples.
- Machine only fits gisting and time-critical triage: understanding what arrived, routing it, deciding what deserves a human pass. Output lands the same hour it went in.
Worked example (hypothetical)
Al Dana Holdings needs 20,000 words across four documents in English and Arabic. One translator at 2,500 words a day needs 8 business days. The same person post-editing machine output at 6,000 words a day finishes in about 3.3 days. TranslateX turns the four files into translated, layout-preserved copies within the hour, ready for that review pass.
Where the review happens matters too
Post-editing is only faster when reviewers are not fighting the format. TranslateX pairs one-click document translation with a side-by-side CAT editor: source, machine translation, and edited target per segment, with statuses, QA checks, and a final document that merges edits back into the original layout. For legal teams, where the human pass is non-negotiable, see the legal use case.
Deadlines are half the picture. The word count and quote estimator covers what the same job costs.
Frequently asked questions
Where do the default throughput numbers come from?
They are industry rules of thumb: roughly 2,500 words per day for professional human translation and 6,000 words per day for post-editing machine output. Real throughput depends on the language pair, subject matter, and the person; adjust the fields to match your team.
What is post-editing?
Machine translation plus human review: the machine produces a complete draft and a human corrects it segment by segment instead of translating from scratch. TranslateX includes a side-by-side CAT editor with segment statuses and QA checks for exactly this workflow; see document translation.
Does adding people cut the time linearly?
Only roughly. The model divides throughput by team size, which works when documents split cleanly across people. Splitting a single document adds coordination and consistency overhead the estimate ignores, so treat results for large teams as optimistic.
Is anything I enter uploaded?
No. The estimator is plain JavaScript running in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Translate the document. Keep the design.
Right-click a file, work inside Office, or press F6 on anything on screen. TranslateX returns the same document in the other language: fonts, tables, and layout intact, terminology on brand.
Arabic, English & more · Layout preserved · On-premises available