Editing & Proofreading.
With or without AI?
Proofreading or editing, on your original or on an AI translation. Both to ISO 18587 and ISO 27001.
Editing an original text
Your text is in German or English, written by a person, not a machine. We check language, style and consistency in the original.
- Billed by the hour, not per word
- Marketing, AI drafts, quick turnarounds
- Delivered in 24 to 48 hours
Editing an AI translation
You have output from DeepL, Google Translate, ChatGPT or Claude. We post-edit it to ISO 18587.
- Light or Full post-editing
- Hallucinations, terminology, style
- 220+ languages, native-speaker editors
Amira Zohbi is your contact · service@tolingo.com
Translation partner for companies with high standards
Estimate price & timing
Five quick questions on languages, post-editing level and volume. We work out a price range on the spot and send your answers straight to the request form with one click.
- For DeepL, Google Translate, ChatGPT, Claude
- Light or Full post-editing to ISO 18587
- 220+ languages, native-speaker specialist editors
- Reply within 1 hour, in business hours
Request AI editing now.
Send us your request, with or without a file. We come back with a fixed price and delivery date. No obligation.
- Encrypted upload, ISO 27001
- NDA on request before upload
- Reply within 1 hour, in business hours
Quick request.
From brief to delivery in four steps.
01
Send a quick request
A quick request with or without a file: language pair, level and preferred date are enough.
02
Get a quote
Within an hour, in business hours: per-word price, delivery date, a dedicated contact.
03
Editing & quality check
Native-speaker specialist editors check language, style and terminology. With an additional four-eyes check on request.
04
Delivery & billing
Clean versioning with tracked changes. Any additions billed at the agreed hourly rate or per-word price.
What editing does for your text.
A specialist checks language, style, consistency and terminology. What comes in as a rough draft with loose ends, or as machine output, goes back as a publication-ready file, with every change tracked and a short note.
Here is what that looks like in practice, using a business text as an example:
Editing & proofreading at tolingo: two routes, one quality standard
- Original text (DE or EN): editing at an hourly rate, from €65/hr. You pay for the actual work, not a theoretical word count. Open the hourly option.
- AI translation: post-editing to ISO 18587 from €0.05/word. For DeepL, Google Translate, ChatGPT or Claude output.
- Light vs. Full: Light for internal texts, Full for anything you publish. Light from €0.05/word, Full from €0.08/word.
- Languages: DE and EN in the hourly model, 220+ other languages in the per-word model.
- Need the translation itself? See our specialist translation page (ISO 17100).
Which route suits which text?
A quick decision guide
The question isn't which service is better. Both run to the same quality standards. The question is: what form is your text in?
Case 1: you have a written text in German or English. A press release, a draft annual report, a marketing text, an AI draft that has already been through one round of edits. Then the hourly option fits. You pay for the actual work, not a theoretical word count. Delivered in 24 to 48 hours.
Case 2: you have a machine translation. Output from DeepL, Google Translate or a language model that no one has checked yet. Then post-editing to ISO 18587 fits. Light for internal texts (from €0.05/word), Full for anything you publish (from €0.08/word). A native-speaker specialist checks fidelity to the source, terminology, hallucinations and style.
Proofreading or editing?
What the terms actually mean
Proofreading looks only at the formal level: spelling, grammar, punctuation. It answers one question: is the text formally clean? Editing goes further. It looks at style, tone, the logic of the argument and specialist terminology. It answers a different question: is the text good, in the sense that it says the right thing?
| Criterion | Proofreading | Editing |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Spelling, grammar, punctuation, typos | Everything in proofreading plus style, logic, terminology, tone |
| Suitable for | Texts that are finished in substance and just need an error check | Texts that need their style raised to publication standard |
| Typical documents | Internal reports, pre-edited texts before print sign-off | Annual reports, marketing campaigns, whitepapers, websites |
| Per-word price | from €0.04/word | from €0.06/word |
| For AI translation | Light post-editing from €0.05/word (ISO 18587) | Full post-editing from €0.08/word (ISO 18587) |
If your text is going out into the world, onto a website, into a brochure or an annual report, we recommend editing. If it has already been edited once and only needs a final error check before print sign-off, proofreading is enough.
How editing works at tolingo
One specialist by default, two on request
Editing means a specialist works through your text and checks language, style, consistency and terminology. For publication-ready texts we can add a second pass, the four-eyes principle (familiar from the translation standard ISO 17100). For post-editing jobs, the ISO 18587 standard is a single pass; Full post-editing can also be combined with a second check on request.
Editor with industry expertise
A native-speaker specialist with relevant industry expertise (legal, technical, marketing). For AI translations, additionally trained in post-editing to ISO 18587. Works on language, style, terminology and consistency.
Four-eyes check
A second specialist with the same industry expertise reviews the edit. For publication-ready texts, annual reports, regulated content. A classic from ISO 17100, carried over to editing.
Result A publication-ready delivery with tracked changes. On request, with an audit trail and four-eyes sign-off.
Actually need the translation itself, not editing? With specialist translation to ISO 17100, a native-speaker specialist translates, a second revises, and it all runs as one job with a shared translation memory. Just ask.
Getting AI translations checked
DeepL, Google Translate and language-model output
More and more companies run their texts through DeepL, Google Translate or an in-house language model first, and only then commission the editing. This workflow is called post-editing, and it's governed by the ISO 18587 standard. Two levels have become established:
Light post-editing
Fixes only what makes the text hard to understand.
- Language and style stay largely as the machine produced them
- Terminology gets a rough check
- Hallucinations are removed
Full post-editing
Revised until the result is hard to tell from a translation done entirely by a human.
- Language and style are fully reworked
- Terminology is adjusted in detail
- Tone of voice is tuned to the target market
At tolingo, both run to ISO 18587, from €0.05/word. For more on where machine translation typically falls short, see our glossary entry on machine translation in a business context. For AI-generated originals with no translation involved, we have a dedicated guide as well as our correction service for AI translations.
Costs & turnaround
Transparent per-word prices, dates you can plan around
In the translation market we bill by the word, because it's the only measure that stays comparable across languages. A standard page of French holds more words on average than a standard page of German. Pricing by the word keeps the comparison fair.
| Service | Price from | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|
| Proofreading in the original (DE/EN) | €65/hr | Pure error check before print sign-off, quick turnarounds |
| Editing in the original (DE/EN) | €65/hr | Marketing, AI drafts, press releases, website content |
| Light post-editing (ISO 18587) | €0.05/word | Internal texts, knowledge bases, staff communications |
| Full post-editing (ISO 18587) | €0.08/word | Website content, marketing copy, annual reports from DeepL or Claude output |
| Four-eyes check (on request) | on request | Publication-ready texts, regulated content, audit trail |
| Express (24 hrs) | +30% to 50% | Deadline-critical deliveries, campaign launches |
A worked example. A 15,000-word annual report whose English DeepL translation needs Full post-editing: from approx. €1,200. As Light post-editing for the internal version: from approx. €750. A German edit of an 8-page marketing whitepaper at the hourly rate: about 4 to 6 hours, from approx. €260. For recurring projects, we agree framework terms with tiered volume discounts.
Common questions
What companies want to know before they brief us
When does the hourly rate make sense, and when the per-word price?
The hourly rate makes sense for editing an original text in German or English, because effort and word count don't rise in step. For post-editing an AI translation, we bill by the word, because the effort grows with the volume. For more on the hourly option, see our editing-per-hour page.
What does post-editing an AI translation cost per word?
Light post-editing from €0.05/word, Full post-editing from €0.08/word. Both to ISO 18587. Light keeps the text understandable; Full brings it up to publication standard. Express surcharges run between 30% and 50%.
Which languages do you offer?
In the hourly model, currently German and English. For post-editing, 220+ languages, in both directions. Every language variant is checked by a native-speaker specialist, so British versus US English, say, or Continental versus Brazilian Portuguese. Common language pairs like German and English have their own service pages.
What is the difference between Light and Full post-editing?
Light post-editing fixes only what makes the text hard to understand. Language and style stay largely as the machine produced them. Suitable for internal documents. Full post-editing works the text up to the point where it's hard to tell from a translation done entirely by a human. Suitable for websites, marketing, annual reports.
Can you check DeepL or ChatGPT translations too?
Yes. For machine and AI translations, the service runs as post-editing to ISO 18587. We check fidelity to the source, terminology, hallucinations and flow. Either at a light level (Light post-editing) or a publication-ready level (Full post-editing), as you prefer.
How fast is standard delivery?
For hourly editing, usually 24 to 48 hours within business hours. For post-editing, we reckon on about 4,000 to 5,000 words per working day, depending on the level. A 15,000-word annual report is realistic as Full post-editing in three to four working days. Express in 24 hours is possible, with a 30% to 50% surcharge.
How do you protect confidential documents?
tolingo is ISO 27001 certified. Editors sign NDAs. Documents are processed on European servers and sent encrypted. For M&A contracts and annual reports, we set up dedicated project environments with restricted access on request.
No translation yet?
Translate first, then edit, all in one job.
If you only have the source text, our Machine Translation handles both: the AI translates on EU servers, then a specialist edits to ISO 18587. Cheaper and faster than commissioning the two separately.
Ready to find the right setup?
Send us the document or start the brief. We recommend the right service and give you a firm price.
Glossary
Key terms for editing and post-editing
- Four-eyes principle
- Quality assurance to ISO 17100. One specialist translates, a second, also a native speaker, revises. Documented so it can be audited.
- ISO 17100
- The international standard for translation services. It governs linguist qualifications, workflow, revision and technical requirements.
- ISO 18587
- The standard for post-editing machine translations. It defines Light and Full post-editing as two levels with different requirements.
- Post-editing (MTPE)
- A specialist reviewing and correcting machine-translated text. Increasingly used for AI-generated translations from language models like Claude or GPT too.
- Translation memory
- A database that stores segments you have already had translated. On follow-up jobs, repeats are suggested automatically, which keeps things consistent and brings costs down.