Honest 2026 UK price ranges for interpreting and translation, with what actually moves the price. No login or call to get a number — send the assignment basics and we reply within one working hour.
UK interpreting is priced per assignment based on language, setting (NHS, court, corporate, private), duration, notice period and whether the delivery is face-to-face, telephone or video. UK translation is priced per source word for most projects and per page for short standard certificates. The honest ranges are below.
Public sector clients on NHS framework or Legal Aid Agency rates are quoted at the applicable rate for those frameworks. There is no sign-up fee, no retainer and no minimum spend.
| Delivery mode | Typical UK price | Minimum | Notice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telephone (OPI) | £1.10 – £2.50 per minute | No minimum on most calls | On demand 24/7 |
| Video remote (VRI) | £60 – £120 per 30-minute session | 30 minutes | Same day for common languages |
| Face-to-face (consecutive) | £40 – £75 per hour + travel | 2 hours (3 for court) | Few hours in major UK cities |
| Conference (simultaneous, with booth) | £500 – £900 per linguist per day | 1 day; team of 2 for full days | 2–3 weeks for kit + linguists |
| BSL face-to-face | £60 – £120 per hour + travel | 3 hours typical | 1–2 weeks ideally |
| Type of work | Typical UK price | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Standard business content | £0.09 – £0.14 per source word | 3–7 working days |
| Legal, medical, certified | £0.12 – £0.18 per source word | 3–10 working days |
| Rare languages / specialist technical | £0.15 – £0.22+ per word | 5–14 working days |
| Short certificates (birth, marriage, ID, licence) | £35 – £60 per page (certified) | Normally next working day |
| Same-day / urgent | +25–50% premium on standard | Subject to capacity |
| Sworn or apostilled (where required) | +£40 – £120 on top of certified | +1–3 working days for notary / apostille |
We supply NHS trusts at applicable framework rates and accept Legal Aid Agency funded matters from UK solicitors at the published LAA schedule. We're set up for PO invoicing, framework reporting and the audit trail that public sector instruction requires.
Send your framework code, LAA reference or supplier portal details at quote stage and we'll mirror the process you already use with other suppliers. No procurement onboarding paperwork is required for one-off jobs; for ongoing work we'll sign your standard supplier agreement.
A single hourly figure would be misleading. A 30-minute telephone call for the GP receptionist isn't the same product as a 6-hour Crown Court hearing with a court-experienced interpreter and travel. A short birth certificate translation isn't priced the same as a 40,000-word technical manual into a rare language. Lumping them under one rate would mean either over-charging the simple work or under-quoting the complex work, and we'd rather just quote each assignment honestly.
What stays the same regardless of the assignment: no sign-up fee, no monthly retainer, no minimum spend, no hidden charges. Pay per assignment, monthly, or to a purchase order.
Send the basics through the online quote form and you'll have a price within one working hour in UK office hours. For same-day or emergency work, call +44 (0) 20 3880 6688 — we triage immediately.
Where the comparison is genuinely like-for-like (same language, same setting, same delivery mode, same minimum, equivalent linguist credentials), yes — send us the other quote and we'll either match it, explain the difference, or recommend the other supplier if they're a better fit. Pricing transparency is a better long-term position than aggressive undercutting that leads to corner-cutting.
UK bank transfer (BACS), card payment via Stripe, or PO with monthly invoice for public sector and corporate accounts. For individual clients, we usually take card up-front for certified document translation and one-off appointments; for ongoing work we'll set up an invoiced account.
Quotes are stated net of VAT unless you ask otherwise. UK standard rate VAT (20%) is added to invoices for VAT-registered UK clients. For overseas clients and certain exempt UK public sector services, VAT treatment may differ — we apply the correct treatment at invoice stage.
Yes. For volume work (weekly clinics, rolling court lists, ongoing translation programmes, framework supply) we'll write a fixed-rate schedule covering the languages and settings in scope, with agreed turnaround times. This usually unlocks a per-assignment saving versus ad hoc rates because it gives us forecast volume to plan linguist capacity around.
Tell us the language, the setting and the deadline. We come back with the linguist and the price within one working hour.
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