How Much Does It Cost to Localize a Game? 2026 Price Guide

Localization is one of the few line items in game development you can estimate closely before the work starts. You have a word count, a list of target languages and a per-word rate. Multiply the three and you are most of the way to a number.

Budgets blow out on the lines around the translation: testing, voice, engineering and the updates you keep shipping after launch. This guide gives you the published figures, a budget table for your script size and language count, and the arithmetic behind every figure. To price your own word count language by language, use the localization cost calculator. It runs on the same figures.

How much does it cost to localize a game?

Localizing a game costs about $0.07 to $0.20 per source word for each target language, on the figures game localization vendors publish, for translation plus a second linguist's review. Linguistic QA (LQA) is billed on top at about $30 to $60 per tester hour. Voice is a separate line: Transphere's guide says actor fees often start around $15 per line, before studio rental, engineering and script adaptation.

So a 40,000-word game in eight languages, with our estimate of 25 LQA hours per language, comes to about $32,200 to $52,600 of translation and $6,000 to $12,000 of LQA, or $38,200 to $64,600 text-only. Recording all eight languages at Transphere's $15 a line adds about $96,000 more if 800 lines are voiced, before studio time.

These are vendor figures read on 2 November 2026, not measurements by this directory and not quotes from studios listed here. The sources are at the bottom of this page.

How much does it typically cost to localize a video game into multiple languages?

Find your script size and language count. Each row splits translation, LQA and voice so you can drop the lines you don't need.

Script	Languages	Translation	LQA	Text-only total	Voice at $15 a line
10,000 words	4	$4,100–$6,280	$1,200–$2,400	$5,300–$8,680	$12,000
10,000 words	8	$8,040–$13,200	$2,400–$4,800	$10,400–$18,000	$24,000
10,000 words	12	$11,100–$18,700	$3,600–$7,200	$14,700–$25,900	$36,000
40,000 words	4	$16,400–$25,100	$3,000–$6,000	$19,400–$31,100	$48,000
40,000 words	8	$32,200–$52,600	$6,000–$12,000	$38,200–$64,600	$96,000
40,000 words	12	$44,500–$75,000	$9,000–$18,000	$53,500–$93,000	$144,000
150,000 words	4	$61,500–$94,200	$6,000–$12,000	$67,500–$106,200	$180,000
150,000 words	8	$120,600–$197,300	$12,000–$24,000	$132,600–$221,300	$360,000
150,000 words	12	$166,700–$281,100	$18,000–$36,000	$184,700–$317,100	$540,000

Here is how to check any row.

Translation is words times the sum of each language's per-word rate. The low end takes the lower of Innovecs Games' figure and Allcorrect's lower price, converted at the ECB rate of 1.1216 dollars per euro. The high end takes the higher of the two.

• 4 languages are French, Italian, German and Spanish (Spain). The rates add up to $0.4100 low and $0.6281 high.
• 8 languages add Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese. The rates add up to $0.8040 low and $1.3151 high.
• 12 languages add Latin American Spanish, Russian, Polish and Turkish. The rates add up to $1.1113 low and $1.8738 high.

So 40,000 words in eight languages is 40,000 × $0.8040 = $32,160, and 40,000 × $1.3151 = $52,604.

LQA is hours per language × languages × $30 to $60. The hours are our estimate: 10 at 10,000 words, 25 at 40,000 and 50 at 150,000. Published examples run from 10 hours per language at Allcorrect to 50 at Transphere and 90 at Innovecs Games, whose 90 is for the same 150,000 words as our largest row, so treat our 50 as the low side at that size. A AAA shooter can need much more (see the LQA section below). So 25 hours × 8 languages × $30 = $6,000.

Voice is one vendor's starting rate times our assumption, not an estimate of the whole bill. We assume a quarter of the script is spoken, at 12.5 words per line (Transphere says 10 to 15), which gives 200, 800 or 3,000 lines. Then lines × $15 × languages: 800 × $15 × 8 = $96,000. On Transphere's numbers, studio time, direction, editing and script adaptation come on top. Innovecs Games publishes lower all-in figures per finished line (see the voice section below), so get this line quoted. If you record two languages out of eight, use two in that sum.

Figures are rounded to the nearest $10 under $10,000 and the nearest $100 above it, the same as the calculator.

How much does multi-language localization add to project cost?

Each language adds its own full bill, because every language is a fresh translation, review and test pass. Here is what one more language adds to a 40,000-word script:

Language added	Translation	LQA, 25 hours	Voice at $15 a line, 800 lines
French, Italian or Spanish (Spain)	$4,000–$6,280	$750–$1,500	$12,000
German	$4,400–$6,280	$750–$1,500	$12,000
Brazilian Portuguese	$3,200–$6,280	$750–$1,500	$12,000
Simplified Chinese	$4,040–$6,000	$750–$1,500	$12,000
Japanese	$4,490–$8,000	$750–$1,500	$12,000
Korean	$4,040–$7,200	$750–$1,500	$12,000
Russian	$2,690–$4,400	$750–$1,500	$12,000

As a share of the project, that depends entirely on your budget. A 40,000-word game in eight languages costs $38,200 to $64,600 text-only, which is about 4% to 6% of a $1 million budget and about 1% of a $5 million one. That is arithmetic for one example. We found no survey that publishes localization as a share of game budgets.

The straight-line sum overstates the bill somewhat on large jobs, because vendors discount volume. Allcorrect offers discounts for large and long-running projects, and Alconost says volume, translation memory and ongoing partnerships can bring per-word costs down. It understates the bill if your vendor adds project management on top: Transphere's example budgets about 20% of core costs for management and consulting.

Game localization cost per word, by language

These are the two sources behind the range, in each source's own currency, with the figure this guide uses for each language. Allcorrect's is a price list, and it covers translation and a quality check by a second linguist. Innovecs Games' figures aren't a price list. It publishes them from vendor quotes on projects it staffed in 2023 to 2026, for game text with editing included, and calls them a ballpark rather than a rate card.

Languages	Allcorrect, per word	Innovecs Games, per word	Range used
French, Italian	€0.10–€0.14	$0.10–$0.14	$0.10–$0.16
German	€0.10–€0.14	$0.11–$0.15	$0.11–$0.16
Spanish (Spain)	€0.10–€0.14	$0.10–$0.13	$0.10–$0.16
Spanish (Latin America)	€0.09–€0.14	$0.08–$0.12	$0.08–$0.16
Portuguese (Brazil)	€0.09–€0.14	$0.08–$0.13	$0.08–$0.16
Polish, Czech	€0.10–€0.14	$0.08–$0.12	$0.08–$0.16
Japanese	€0.10–€0.14	$0.14–$0.20	$0.11–$0.20
Korean	€0.09–€0.14	$0.13–$0.18	$0.10–$0.18
Chinese (Simplified)	€0.09–€0.12	$0.11–$0.15	$0.10–$0.15
Chinese (Traditional)	€0.09–€0.14	$0.12–$0.16	$0.10–$0.16
Dutch	€0.10–€0.17	$0.11–$0.15	$0.11–$0.19
Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian	€0.10–€0.17	$0.14–$0.20	$0.11–$0.20
Turkish, Vietnamese	€0.09–€0.12	$0.08–$0.12	$0.08–$0.13
Arabic	€0.09–€0.12	$0.12–$0.18	$0.10–$0.18
Indonesian	€0.09–€0.12	$0.07–$0.11	$0.07–$0.13
Russian	€0.06–€0.09	$0.07–$0.11	$0.07–$0.11
Portuguese (Portugal), Hungarian, Romanian, Greek	€0.10–€0.14	Not published	$0.11–$0.16, Allcorrect only
Hebrew	€0.10–€0.17	Not published	$0.11–$0.19, Allcorrect only
Hindi, Malay	€0.12–€0.13	Not published	$0.13–$0.15, Allcorrect only

The last three rows show one vendor's own band, because Innovecs has no figure for those languages. Allcorrect marks Arabic as "LQA required" at the price above and lists €0.14–€0.16 for Arabic with full translate-edit-proofread.

Overall the two sources span almost the same prices, though they differ on single languages. Converted at the ECB rate, Allcorrect's euro list runs about $0.07 to $0.19, and Innovecs runs $0.07 to $0.20. Japanese is about $0.11 to $0.16 at Allcorrect and $0.14 to $0.20 at Innovecs. Allcorrect's US site has its own dollar list at $0.07 to $0.18, which doesn't match the converted euros line by line. So a quote of $0.15 is ordinary, and a quote above $0.20 is worth questioning. An older list on OneSky's site goes as high as $0.30, but it no longer displays and conflicts with OneSky's own live pricing page, so we don't use it.

Two more published bands sit inside the range. Transphere's guide gives "typically $0.12–$0.18" per word for games. Alconost's averages across 3,200+ projects of all content types, not only games, run $0.07 to $0.14.

Check the numbers against published projects

A rate table is only useful if it matches real jobs. These are the project prices vendors publish, with word counts you can compare to the table above.

Project, as the vendor describes it	Words and languages	Published price
Allcorrect: tactical FPS, PC and console	10,000 words, 8 languages	€9,421.57 (about $10,570)
Allcorrect: Steam store description	319 words, 5 languages	€208.07 (about $230)
Allcorrect: small update	1,300 words, Chinese, Japanese, Korean	about €435 (about $490)
Alconost: mobile game, 15,000 words human and 10,000 post-edited	25,000 words, 15 languages	about $32,250, plus 20% to 40% for transcreation and voice
Transphere: worked example at $0.17 a word	50,000 words, 6 languages	$51,000 for translation

The Allcorrect FPS uses the same eight languages as our table, and it lands at about $10,570 against our $8,040 to $13,200. Transphere also publishes per-language tiers: $2,000 to $8,000 for text-only mobile or indie work, $8,000 to $30,000 for narrative games with editing and LQA, and $25,000 to $100,000 or more for AAA with voice.

Not sure which script size you are? Level Up Translation publishes word counts for games it worked on, and Altagram publishes one for a very large title.

Game	Words	Languages	Source
Vampire Survivors	2k	6	Level Up Translation
Streets of Rage 4	11k	8	Level Up Translation
Thronefall	18k	12	Level Up Translation
The Last Spell	30k	17	Level Up Translation
GigaBash	43k	19	Level Up Translation
DREDGE	52k	10	Level Up Translation
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe	66k	9	Level Up Translation
Democracy 4	221k	11	Level Up Translation
Black Myth: Wukong	More than 1 million	7, over 10 months	Altagram case study

Video game localization cost: a worked example

Say you have an RPG with a 40,000-word script and you want eight languages: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese. Text-only, no voice yet, 25 hours of LQA per language.

Group	Languages	Rate per word	Translation	LQA, 25 hours × $30–$60 each
French, Italian, German, Spanish	4	$0.10–$0.16	$16,400–$25,100	$3,000–$6,000
Brazilian Portuguese	1	$0.08–$0.16	$3,200–$6,280	$750–$1,500
Simplified Chinese	1	$0.10–$0.15	$4,040–$6,000	$750–$1,500
Japanese	1	$0.11–$0.20	$4,490–$8,000	$750–$1,500
Korean	1	$0.10–$0.18	$4,040–$7,200	$750–$1,500
Total	8		$32,200–$52,600	$6,000–$12,000

So the text-only base is $38,200 to $64,600. The rows are rounded one by one, so they add up to $32,170 and $52,580 rather than the rounded totals of $32,200 and $52,600.

The base leaves out three things:

• Localization engineering. Innovecs Games puts localization engineers at about $40 to $90 an hour, and its 150,000-word example uses 300 hours at $50. If your build is loc-ready it is small. If strings are baked into art and code, or Asian fonts have to be added, get it quoted before you commit to those languages. Transphere's example prices localized art at $10 per asset per language, so 200 assets in six languages is $12,000.
• Project management. Some vendors include it. Allcorrect says some companies charge extra, and Transphere's example adds about 20% for management and consulting.
• Voice-over. Recording 800 lines in all eight languages adds about $96,000 at Transphere's $15 a line, or $19,200 to $128,000 across Innovecs Games' per-line figures. That is why many teams ship text in many languages and voice in few.

For how localization sits next to art, programming and audio in a full project budget, see our complete guide to game outsourcing costs.

What LQA adds, and how many hours to plan

LQA is a native speaker playing the build and checking that strings read well in context, fit their UI boxes and aren't clipped. A translator working from a spreadsheet can't see that a string appears on a button, or after a character's name. Don't cut it to save a few thousand dollars on a project that cost tens of thousands to translate.

The hourly rate is easy to source. Transphere's guide says about $30 to $60, Alconost's averages run $31 to $48, Innovecs Games says $25 to $45, and Allcorrect lists €27 to €53 depending on the language. The hours are harder, because they follow playtime and screens rather than word count. Here is what vendors have published:

Example	Hours
Allcorrect: RPG with 100,000 English words	10 hours per target language, €833.45 for LQA
Transphere: 500 screens at 10 screens an hour	50 hours per language, $9,000 for six languages at $30
Innovecs Games: three worked budgets	12 hours per language at 20,000 words, 90 at 150,000, 400 at 800,000
INLINGO: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, a AAA shooter	"120 hours of testing across five fully dubbed languages" and "80 hours of testing across 10 languages" that were subtitled, with 15 testers over about a month

INLINGO's wording doesn't say whether those hours are per language or in total, and it reports finding 9,500 bugs across the 15 languages. If your game is that large, we'd plan on at least 50 hours per language and ask vendors to scope it from a playthrough.

Text-only versus voice-over

Recording voice is the biggest fork in a localization budget. Text-only means every language reads the game in its own words and hears the original voice acting, if any. Full localization records new voice in each language.

Large games often record far fewer languages than they translate. Here is what Steam lists for four of them:

Game	Languages on Steam	Full audio
Baldur's Gate 3	15	1: English
Elden Ring	15	1: English
Black Myth: Wukong	15	2: English, Simplified Chinese
Hi-Fi RUSH	14	9

What voice costs is less published than translation, and the published figures disagree. Transphere's guide says actor fees are "often starting around $15 per line", then studio rental, engineering and script adaptation. Its example of 500 lines at $15 plus $500 of editing comes to $8,000 per language. It also says audio production "can easily double" a localization budget compared with text-only. At $15 a line, voice costs more than the whole text-only line in every row of our table, so adding it more than doubles the bill.

Innovecs Games publishes lower all-in figures per finished line, from vendor quotes on its own projects in 2023 to 2026. It assumes a studio hour of $250 to $350 in Europe and Asia or $500 to $700 on US union terms, and says casting, prep and editing usually add another 15% to 25%. It also says barks and UI voice sometimes get a per-line price, while proper dubbing is booked by the studio hour.

Recording type	Europe or Asia, non-union	US union
Wild: barks and chatter, no timing to hit	$3–$4	$6–$8
Time-constrained: roughly the original's length	$4–$6	$8–$12
Lip-sync: matches mouth movements	$7–$10	$14–$20

So 800 lines in one language comes to $2,400 to $8,000 non-union in Europe or Asia, or $4,800 to $16,000 on US union terms, before that 15% to 25%. At Transphere's $15 a line it's $12,000 before studio time. Get this line quoted rather than trusting either figure.

Li & Ortega, a game audio company, published US line items in May 2025: studio with engineer at $200 an hour, editing at $80 an hour, a four-hour talent session at $1,570 union or $1,200 non-union, a director at $1,000 per session and integration at $100 an hour. Four hours of studio is $800, so one session comes to $3,370 union or $3,000 non-union before editing and integration.

Lock the script before you record. Voice recorded against a script that then changes is money spent twice.

Machine translation and where it fits

You will be offered a cheaper tier called MTPE, machine translation post-editing, where a machine translates and a human cleans it up. Alconost says it typically costs 15% to 30% less than human translation, with average rates of $0.06 to $0.12 per word across all content types.

MTPE suits menus, settings, store descriptions and patch notes, where the phrasing is plain and a mistake costs little. It suits character dialogue, jokes and lore much less, because machine output flattens tone and a light edit won't rescue a joke the machine didn't understand. A common approach is to split the script and pay for full human translation only where it earns it. Alconost's mobile game example does this, with 15,000 words of dialogue and store pages done by humans and 10,000 words of UI post-edited.

Be wary of a vendor selling raw machine translation with no human pass as localization. Players spot it in the first menu.

Localizing on a small budget

At 10,000 words, four languages cost $4,100 to $6,280 before LQA. If that is too much, you still have options:

• Translate the store page before the game. Allcorrect prices a 319-word Steam description in five languages at €208.07.
• Launch in fewer languages and add more when sales justify it.
• Post-edit machine translation on functional text, and keep human translation for what players read closely.
• Check minimum fees. Allcorrect says it applied its minimum to seven of 19,000 orders last year. Level Up Translation charges a €50 minimum project management fee and no other minimum.

Our game localization companies list covers which vendors publish rates or take small jobs.

What a localization quote should include

A quote that is only a per-word number will grow later. A complete one lists these lines:

• Translation, per source word and per language, and whether a second-linguist review is included.
• Repetitions, and how they are charged. Allcorrect translates them free. Level Up Translation discounts them only if you confirm they're used in the very same context, because a repeated English line may need a different translation elsewhere.
• LQA hours per language and the hourly rate.
• Localization engineering: string extraction, text expansion, fonts and layout.
• Project management, if it is charged separately.
• Minimum fees per language, if any.
• Voice-over, quoted separately by language.
• Updates: the rate for post-launch content, and whether the same linguists stay on.

If a line is missing, ask before you sign.

How to keep the bill sensible

You control most of the cost before a word is translated:

• Trim the English first. Fewer source words are paid for in every language, so this is the cheapest saving you have.
• Build loc-ready. Keep strings in external files, never in art or code.
• Tier your languages. Launch in the markets your wishlists point to, then add the rest when the data supports it.
• Own your translation memory. Repeated strings get reused, and you can change vendor without paying for the same text again.
• Keep the same team for updates. A live game keeps generating text, so price post-launch content as a per-word top-up and keep terminology consistent.
• Record voice only where it pays. Text everywhere, voice in the few markets that earn it back.

A clumsy translation reads as a broken game to the players living in it, and good art won't hide it. Doing this well means a tight source script, a loc-ready build, languages chosen by revenue and real LQA on each one.

To line up quotes, start with the game localization companies list and send two or three of them your word count, your languages and a sample of the text.

Sources

Read on 2 November 2026 unless marked. These are vendor and trade figures, not a market survey, and none is a quote for your project.

• Allcorrect Games, localization pricing, per-word rates, LQA rates, project examples and minimum fees.
• Allcorrect Games, how much does game localization cost, the 1,300-word update example.
• Allcorrect Games, US site, dollar price list, including transcreation.
• Transphere, game localization costs, published 20 January 2026: per-word band, LQA band, voice floor, tiers and the worked example.
• Alconost, translation and localization cost, published 17 April 2026: averages over all content types, MTPE, LQA and the mobile game example.
• Innovecs Games, game localization cost, published 20 October 2026: per-language figures, hourly LQA and engineering, voice per finished line and worked budgets, all from vendor quotes on its own projects. Not a price list.
• Level Up Translation, word and language counts by game, and its FAQ on minimum fees and repetitions.
• INLINGO, Space Marine 2 LQA case study.
• Altagram, Black Myth: Wukong case study.
• Li & Ortega, budgeting for an outsource game audio team, May 2025, US prices.
• European Central Bank reference rate, 1.1216 dollars per euro on 2 November 2026.
• Steam store pages for the four games above, language tables.
• OneSky pricing page and its older price list, named above and not used for any figure here.