Compared with
Hiring interpreters means booking people weeks ahead, in pairs, by the day, with a booth and receivers to go with them. This is captions in every language the audience wants, switched on when you like and charged by the hour. Here is what that looks like side by side.
When one person speaks to a room that needs more than one language, this does it by the hour instead of by the day: any of sixty languages at once, each person reading or listening on their own phone, with nothing to book and no booth or receivers to arrange. Interpreters are booked by the day, in pairs for simultaneous work, with equipment on top. Here, captions are A$1.05 per hour, per language, with no minimum and nothing per person. The table below goes through it side by side.
Side by side
Booked weeks ahead for a fixed date, and tied to that date.
Start when you like. Nothing is booked.
Two interpreters per language, taking turns every half hour, so the voice in the earpiece changes through the day.
One feed per language, the same from the first minute to the last.
One language pair per interpreting team. Each extra language is another team.
Any of the sixty, as many at once as people choose.
A person tires, pauses for a drink or a cough, hands over mid-sentence, and falls behind when the speaker speeds up.
Keeps pace for as long as you run. Never tires, never steps out, never hands over.
Rendered from memory in the interpreter’s own words; what was missed is gone.
Every line is written down as it is produced and kept for the period you choose, so it can be read back. It is machine-made; the accuracy notice says where it slips.
A day rate per interpreter, usually with a half-day minimum, plus travel and a daily allowance when they come from elsewhere.
The hours you run, per language. No minimum, nothing per person.
A booth or a whisper set, receivers for the audience, and often a technician.
The phones people already own, your screen and your stream.
Receives one language per channel, through a receiver handed out at the door.
Each person picks their own language on their own phone.
A cancellation window, and a late change to the programme is a conversation.
Pause, add a language, stop. Nothing to renegotiate.
Simultaneous interpreting is hard work, which is why it is done in pairs and in turns. Over a long day the voice changes, the pace drifts, a sentence is lost to a cough or a hand-over, and a speaker who gets excited leaves the interpreter a sentence behind. None of that is a failing of the person; it is what a person is.
This does not tire, does not swap over, and does not shorten a sentence to catch up. The last hour of the day reads like the first, in every language at once, and what was said is written down rather than carried in somebody’s head.
One person speaking to a room, and a room that needs to follow in more than one language: a talk, a briefing, a meeting with the public, a conference session, a gathering where the audience arrived speaking four languages and nobody knew which. Each person reads in the language they chose, on their own phone, and the screen at the front carries the one you picked for the room.
It runs the same for a room of fifty and a room of five hundred, it can be switched on for an event that was decided this morning, and it costs by the hour and by the language rather than by the person and by the day.
The professional body for conference interpreters puts the daily fee at roughly US$600 to US$1,200 per interpreter, with travel days and a daily allowance on top when they come from elsewhere. Simultaneous work is done in pairs, so one language for one day is two of those fees before the booth, the receivers and the technician. Published guides in the United States quote higher figures again.
Here, captions are A$1.05 per hour, per language. A full day in one language is A$8.40; in four languages, A$33.60. Spoken audio is optional and charged per minute on top. Price your event with anyone you like, then work the same event out here.
Interpreter figures: AIIC, How much will it cost?, and published rate guides, checked October 2026. Rates vary by country, language and season; get a quote for your own event.
Nothing recurring, and nothing to cancel. Buy the time you need, when you need it.
Run nothing this month and you pay nothing this month. There is no floor to clear.
Top up once and use it this month or next year. There is no billing period for it to lapse at the end of.
Price your event wherever you like, then work the same event out here. We are very comfortable being compared.
Before your event
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