Scope tool
Your job, in whichever unit the quote has to be in.
Most briefs arrive measured one way and have to be quoted another — whether the number is for you or for a client you quote onward. Enter the scope you have; take away the scope you need, plus what each quality tier includes and whether the deadline holds.
Unit conversion, inclusions and turnaround feasibility, worked out before anyone picks up the phone.
Proof scale
300+ languages 1,000+ brands served since 2015 across AI data, translation, localization, media, and interpretation.Scope and turnaround
Enter what you have. Take away a defensible scope.
Nothing you enter is sent anywhere until you choose to send it. The arithmetic runs in your browser.
How the conversions work
Every figure below is a planning assumption we publish so you can check the arithmetic, and stand behind it with whoever asks — a budget holder, procurement, or a client you quote onward. A firm quote refines all of them against your actual files.
- Speech to words
- Around 150 spoken words per minute for conversational content. Scripted and technical material runs slower; fast dialogue runs faster.
- Words to pages
- Around 250 words per page for ordinary document layouts. Dense or heavily formatted pages differ.
- Subtitles
- Reading speed capped at 17 characters per second for adult content and 13 for children's. Maximum two lines, around 42 characters per line, minimum one second and maximum seven seconds on screen.
- Recorded minute vs finished minute
- These are different quantities and are priced differently. Transcription is measured on the audio going in; voice, dubbing and subtitling are measured on the media coming out.
- Turnaround
- Planning throughput of roughly 2,000–2,500 source words per linguist per working day for the TEP chain, less for regulated content, more for post-edit. Review stages do not parallelise as cleanly as translation.
What each tier includes
Machine translation + post-edit
Machine output edited by a linguist for accuracy and clarity. Suited to high-volume internal or short-lived content.
- MT engine output
- Human post-edit against source
- Terminology check
- Final delivery QC
Translate, edit, proofread
The ISO 17100 chain. Three different people: a translator, an independent editor working bilingually against source, and a third linguist proofreading the target.
- Source and terminology prep
- Translation
- Independent bilingual edit — a different linguist
- Monolingual proofread — a third linguist
- Automated QA checks
- Final delivery QC
TEP + in-country subject review
Adds a reviewer with domain standing in the target market. For regulated, clinical, legal or high-consequence content.
- Everything in TEP
- In-country subject-matter review
- Domain terminology validation
- Recorded review trail
Quoted separately in every tier: desktop publishing and file engineering, glossary and style-guide creation, in-context review of built software or pages, and rush handling. If a scope needs them, they appear as named lines rather than being folded into a unit rate.
Why pricing is scoped, not listed
The same job prices differently by volume, translation-memory leverage, turnaround, language tier and domain. A number produced without those is a number we would have to withdraw — and anyone who has already taken it to a budget holder, or quoted it onward, deserves better than that.
Send the brief this tool produces and a named person returns a firm figure — in the unit you need it in — the same business day.
Buyer questions
Ask the questions weak vendors avoid.
Short answers for buyers checking fit, coverage, quality method, and next-step readiness.
Why does this tool not show a price?
Because the same job prices differently by volume, translation-memory leverage, turnaround, language tier and domain. A figure produced without those would have to be withdrawn once the real scope arrived — leaving you exposed if you have already taken it to a budget holder, or quoted it onward. What the tool does instead is remove every other unknown, so the firm number can come back the same business day.
Can you quote in a specific unit?
Yes. Work is frequently required to be quoted per audio hour, per weighted word, per approved hour or per finished minute, with nothing else accepted — whether that requirement comes from your own procurement or from a client you are quoting onward to. Tell us the unit and the quote arrives in it. The tool converts the scope into that unit first, so you can see what is actually being bought.
What is the difference between a recorded minute and a finished minute?
A recorded minute measures the audio going in; a finished minute measures the media coming out. Transcription is priced on the input, while voice-over, dubbing and subtitling are priced on the output. They are different quantities, and quoting one against the other is a common source of disputed invoices.
What is not included in a per-unit rate?
Desktop publishing and file engineering, glossary and style-guide creation, in-context review of built software or pages, and rush handling are quoted as named lines rather than folded into a unit rate. Anything a scope needs appears explicitly, so a rate comparison between vendors is comparing the same thing.
Does anything I enter get sent to you?
Not unless you choose to send it. The arithmetic runs in your browser, and the budget field in particular never leaves it. If you send the brief, what you entered travels with it so nobody has to ask you the same questions twice.
Next step
Send the details that decide the quote.
A useful brief names the language, content, deadline, review depth, and proof the buying team needs.
Production-ready brief
01Language pair, dialect, and script02Content or data type03Volume and deadline04QA and reviewer requirement05Security and access requirement06Proof needed for buyer approvalCapability at a glance
The answers most briefs open by asking for.
Buyers rarely start with who we are. They start with a list of fields to fill. Here are ours, so the first email can be about the work instead.
- Languages and locales
- 300+ languages and 4,500+ dialects, quoted per locale rather than per language — because the dialect decides whether a dataset is usable, whether a market accepts a release, and which specialist the work goes to.
- Specialist network
- 110,000+ verified language specialists — linguists, annotators, and reviewers — plus voice talent and subtitlers, matched to the language, domain and task before assignment.
- Capacity and mobilisation
- Named availability confirmed per pair before scoping. Coverage is reported as staffed today or needing a recruitment window, in writing, before a launch date or release window is agreed.
- Sourcing constraints
- Specialists can be sourced against geographic, residency, locale and demographic requirements — including native-only, in-country, and speaker-diversity quotas where a data programme demands them.
- Deliverables and specs
- Work is delivered to the receiving specification: structured formats and schemas for data and annotation work, and timed-text, audio and platform conformance for media — subtitle reading speed, line limits, cue timing, channel and sample-rate requirements included.
- Comparable work
- 62 documented case studies stating the scope, the constraint that made it difficult, and the measured result — across AI data programmes, partner overflow, and media releases. 2,000+ AI projects delivered and 1,000+ brands served since 2015.
- Certifications
- ISO 9001:2015 quality management, ISO 27001:2022 information security, and ISO 17100 translation services — scoped to translation specifically, and stated that way rather than implied across every line.
- Commercial basis
- Quoted in the unit the work is measured in — per word, per audio hour, per approved hour, per finished minute, per batch, per item — with what the unit includes stated alongside it, whether the quote is for you or for a client you quote onward.
Need this against your own template? Convert your scope between units and check the deadline, then send the brief with your language list, content type, volume and deadline, and the acceptance criteria you will judge the output against — those four decide feasibility, and the reply addresses them directly.