Almost every page answering this question is written by someone who sells interpreting or rents the equipment, and almost none of them print a number. So here is where the money goes at a multilingual event — interpreters, booths, per-delegate receivers, and the platforms that will not quote without a call — and what the live translation cost looks like when software does the work instead. Our own prices are on the pricing page.
Simultaneous interpretation — delivered while the speaker is still talking — is engaged by the hour, the half day or the day, and always per language. The multiplier is what surprises first-time buyers: a session of any real length needs two interpreters per language, working as a pair and swapping at short intervals. Two languages means four people.
Around the fee sit the lines that get left out of a first budget: travel and accommodation, preparation time — real work if your event has its own terminology — and an agency margin if you book through one. Rates differ so much by country and by language pair that any figure quoted here would be wrong somewhere, so we are not going to invent one. Ask a supplier for the structure: per interpreter, per language, per session, plus travel, plus prep.
Simultaneous interpretation equipment rental cost is usually quoted separately and has a logic of its own: a soundproof booth per language, delivered, built and taking up floor space you may also be paying for; a transmitter and antenna; and one receiver with a headset for every person who wants to listen. Receivers are priced per unit, per day.
That last line makes the size of your audience a cost variable. Four hundred delegates who might want a translation means four hundred receivers to rent, hand out against a deposit, collect, count and clean before they go back; losses are charged for. Add a technician if the venue does not include one, and at a large event the equipment can rival the interpreting fee.
Between the human setup and cheap software sits a tier of remote interpretation platforms, and most of it is quote-gated. Checked on 15 September 2026: Interprefy, KUDO and Boostlingo each publish a pricing page that carries no prices, and Interactio's pricing URL returns a 404. You cannot draft a budget line from any of them without booking a call.
Wordly is the exception. Its own pricing page states that pricing starts at about 1,500 US dollars for a 10-hour package, usable in any increment for up to 12 months (checked 15 September 2026); it publishes no per-hour rate. If you find a per-hour figure for Wordly in a comparison article, check who wrote it: several of the numbers in circulation come from competitors rather than the vendor, and some contradict the vendor's own package price.
The honest argument for AI translation is not that it undercuts an interpreter's fee. It is that several of the lines above stop existing.
There is no booth, because nobody is sitting in it. There are no receivers, so nothing to hand out, collect, count or replace: the audience scans a QR code and reads the captions on their own phone, or taps Listen and hears the translation in an AI voice through their own headphones. Readers and listeners are unlimited and free, so a room of forty and a room of four hundred cost the same.
One subscription covers the outputs an event needs: the projector full screen, ProPresenter on both the audience screen and a separate stage display, an OBS browser source for the livestream, the audience's phones, and the spoken voice into headphones or a PA zone. Up to five target languages run in parallel out of 75+, each with its own permanent link and QR code. Adding a language costs hours, not hardware; the step-by-step guide covers each output.
Tolka Live is sold as translation hours: €42 (449 kr) one-time for a 10-hour Event pack valid 12 months, or €55 (595 kr) a month for 15 hours, €90 (995 kr) for 30 and €220 (2 395 kr) for 75. Ten extra hours are €33 (349 kr). Every plan includes every feature; hours are the only variable. Prices exclude VAT, and the first month of a subscription is half price.
Dividing price by hours gives a per-hour figure, and this is where most vendor pages stop. It is only true if you use the hours:
| Plan | Price | Hours | Per hour, all used | Per hour at 6 h a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | €42 one-time | 10 h / 12 months | €4.20 | — |
| Basic | €55 per month | 15 h per month | €3.67 | €9.17 |
| Standard | €90 per month | 30 h per month | €3.00 | €15.00 |
| Pro | €220 per month | 75 h per month | €2.93 | €36.67 |
Read the last column first. A church running one 90-minute service a week uses about six hours a month: on the 15-hour plan that is €55 divided by six — roughly €9 an hour, not €3.67. The lowest rate per hour belongs to the largest plan, which is useless advice if you cannot fill it, so start on the smallest plan that covers a normal month, or on the Event pack, which has no monthly floor. Monthly plan hours do not carry over; extra hours you buy do. And each target language counts its own time, so an hour of speech into three languages spends three hours.
Honesty has to cut both ways. Against interpreters, booths, receivers and quote-gated platforms, this changes the shape of a budget. Against the small cohort of AI caption tools it does not win on price: several charge less per month than our smallest plan, and anyone comparing monthly fees alone will find them in one search. What is worth comparing there is capability, and that is a decision for the free 15-minute trial rather than a table.
For legal proceedings, medical consultations and any regulated setting where a person's rights, health or money depend on the exact words, a qualified human interpreter is the correct answer and the cost is simply the cost. A certified professional is accountable for the rendering, hears the idiom and finds the equivalent, and can follow a speaker who leaves the script. AI can translate incorrectly — names, numbers, unusual expressions — and nobody is answerable for it. The FAQ is candid about where the accuracy sits.
Plenty of organisations pay for both: an interpreter for the session that has to be exact, Tolka Live for the rest of the programme, where the realistic alternative was never a second interpreter — it was part of the audience not following at all. The home page shows what it looks like on screen.
Nobody can answer that without your languages, your city and the date. Build the estimate from the structure: two interpreters per language for a full day, plus travel and preparation, plus a booth per language, plus one receiver and headset per listener per day, plus a technician if the venue does not provide one. Asking for each line separately is also how you find the ones you can drop.
The one-time Event pack is €42 (449 kr) for 10 translation hours, valid 12 months, with no subscription. For regular events, subscriptions start at €55 (595 kr) a month for 15 hours, with the first month half price. Nothing is charged per reader or listener. Prices exclude VAT.
No. Readers and listeners are unlimited and included, on their own phones, on the projector, on the ProPresenter stage display or in the livestream. There is no hardware to rent or hand out and nothing per seat, so audience size does not change the invoice.
Yes, in hours rather than hardware. Up to five target languages run in parallel from one microphone and each counts its own time: an hour of speech into three languages spends three plan hours. Each language gets its own permanent link and QR code at no extra cost, and none of them needs a booth or an interpreter pair.
Every new account gets 15 minutes of translation free, with no card and no sales call (one trial per computer). That is enough to hear your own microphone come back as captions on a phone, put the overlay into ProPresenter or OBS, and see how many minutes a normal session of yours actually uses.
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