A certified business translation in the UK is priced by multiplying the document’s word count by a per-word rate, then adding a fixed certification fee. The final number moves up or down depending on the language pair, how technical the document is, and how fast you need it back.
That’s the answer in one line. But if you’re reading this, you probably already have two or three quotes sitting in your inbox, and they don’t agree with each other. One says £180. Another says £310 for what looks like the exact same document. We see this every week at Business Translations UK , and it almost never means one agency is trying to overcharge you — it usually means the two quotes were built differently, using different rules. Once you know the rules, you can read any quote in front of you and know exactly what you’re paying for.
How Certified Business Translation Is Priced in the UK
Here’s the part most companies never get told plainly: certified business translation isn’t one price model, it’s two, and which one applies depends on your document.
Word count × rate per word + certification fee = total
Longer business documents — contracts, reports, manuals — are priced per word using that formula. Shorter certified documents, like a single company certificate, are often priced as a flat fee instead, because per-word pricing on 40 words doesn’t make sense for anyone. Our own published rates start at €0.10 per word for standard business translation, with certified document translation starting from €65 per document.
Before you accept any quote, check it against these three things:
- Is it priced per word or as a flat fee — and does that match your document’s length?
- Does the quote state the exact word count it’s based on?
- Is the certification fee shown separately, or buried inside a single number?
Why Two Quotes for the Same Document Can Differ
This is the one nobody tells you, and it’s the most common reason two quotes for the same file land nowhere near each other.
Some agencies count the words in your original document. Others count the words in the finished translation. Those two numbers are rarely the same:
- Source word count — the words in the document you send us. This is what we base every quote on.
- Target word count — the words in the finished translation, which runs 20–30% longer for languages like Spanish, French, or German.
If an agency is quietly charging on that longer, translated word count, your bill can climb by a quarter or more — and nothing about the actual work has changed. Before you accept any quote, ask one question: is this priced on my original document, or the translated one?
How Language and Document Type Change the Price
Two things move your rate, and they’re easy to check for yourself.
Language pair sits at the top of the list:
- French, German, Spanish, Italian → toward the lower end of most rate cards, because a large pool of qualified business translators works in these languages
- Korean, Japanese, Arabic → sit higher, not because the work is harder, but because fewer translators are qualified to handle business and legal content in these pairs to the standard UK authorities expect
Document type matters just as much. We price a general company email differently from a partnership agreement, even in the same language pair, because a partnership agreement needs a translator who has actually worked with legal or financial terminology before. Handing that same contract to a generalist translator is exactly how mistranslated clauses end up in a signed agreement — a far more expensive problem than paying the right rate the first time.
How Certification and Delivery Speed Add to Your Cost
Certification is a fixed add-on, not a percentage — the signed statement confirming the translation is accurate, which Companies House, HMRC, UK courts, and banks ask to see before accepting a foreign-language filing. Notarisation, if required, is a further, separate step, since it involves a notary independently verifying the certification itself.
Delivery speed changes the price the way it does with any time-sensitive service:
| Delivery Speed | Typical Turnaround | Approx. Cost Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 2–3 working days | Base rate |
| Express | 24 hours | ~50% above base rate |
| Same-day (urgent) | 6–12 hours | Highest rate — translator clears their full day |
If your board meeting or filing deadline is more than three days out, standard delivery will always be the better value — we tell clients this even when it means a smaller invoice for us.
Do You Need to Pay VAT on Business Translation?
Yes. Translation services supplied to a UK business are standard-rated at 20% VAT. Quotes are usually shown excluding VAT, so it’s added at invoicing. If your company is VAT-registered, this is normally reclaimable as input tax, the same as any other business expense.
It’s a small detail, but it matters for whoever signs off your expense claim — so ask for a proper VAT invoice with your company details on it before you approve any quote, not after.
How Translating Multiple Documents Together Saves Money
If you’re sitting on more than one document — say, a supplier contract, last year’s financial statements, and a product manual — sending them through as one project rather than three separate requests almost always brings your per-word rate down:
- Single documents → standard starting rates apply
- Bulk or ongoing projects → typically priced from €0.08 per word, because setup cost is spread across more pages instead of being charged three separate times
- Repeat clients → keep the same translator on their account, so terminology stays consistent without re-explaining it each time
A Real Example — Cost Breakdown for a Business Contract
Take a 2,000-word partnership agreement, German into English, needed for a UK regulator. As a legal document, it’s priced at the standard business rate, plus the certification fee for the signed declaration.
| Item | Calculation | Cost (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Translation (2,000 words) | 2,000 × €0.10/word | €200 |
| Certification fee | Flat fee | €65 |
| Subtotal (standard delivery) | €265 | |
| VAT (20%) | On subtotal | €53 |
| Total | €318 |
Choosing express delivery instead adds roughly 50% to the translation portion of this figure. These numbers are illustrative, based on our published rates — the exact price we send you is always confirmed in writing after we’ve actually seen your document, not guessed from a description of it.
Why UK Businesses Choose BusinessTranslationsUK.co.uk for Transparent and Fair Pricing
We’ve built our pricing the way we’d want to see it if we were the ones buying:
✓ Published starting rates — no need to ask before you can compare us ✓ Certification included in the quoted price, not billed separately afterwards ✓ No project management fee added quietly at invoice stage ✓ Every quote checked by a UK-based project lead before it reaches you ✓ Nothing charged until you’ve approved the final figure
That approach is why we’ve handled over 12,000 documents for more than 5,000 UK companies without a single certified translation being turned away by an authority. When a client asks us which service fits their document, we tell them honestly, even if it’s the cheaper option — because a client who trusts our pricing on a small NDA is the client who comes back with their next ten contracts.
FAQ’s
Does it cost more to translate into English or out of English?
The direction doesn’t set the price — the language does. What decides the rate is how many qualified translators work in that pair, so a less common language usually costs more regardless of which way you’re translating.
Is there a minimum charge for a very short document, like a one-page NDA?
Yes. Most agencies, including us, apply a minimum charge on very short documents, because a signed certification still has to be prepared even for a single page. Worth asking for this figure upfront if your document runs under a few hundred words.
Does the price change if tables, logos, or formatting need to match the original exactly?
Sometimes. Rebuilding tables, headers, and layouts to match your source file — known as DTP work — can be priced separately from plain text translation, especially on reports or manuals with heavy formatting.
Can I lock in a fixed price instead of a per-word estimate for a large project?
Yes. On bulk or enterprise work, we’ll confirm one fixed total once we’ve reviewed the full set of documents, rather than leaving you with a per-word figure that shifts as files get added.
How much notice should I give to avoid paying urgent delivery rates?
Two to three working days is usually enough to secure the standard rate. If you know a filing or board meeting is coming up, sending the document across early is the simplest way to avoid paying an express or same-day premium later.
Get an Exact Price for Your Document
You now know what actually sits inside a certified business translation quote — word count, language pair, document type, certification, and delivery speed. Here’s how to turn that into your exact number:
- Fill in the quote form above with your document type, language pair, and deadline
- We review your actual document — not just a description of it
- You get a fixed, certified quote within 60 minutes, checked by a UK-based project lead
- No payment is taken until you approve the figure