STIB does not publish a rate card, and that is a deliberate choice rather than an evasion. An assignment is priced from what it actually is — the room, the hours, the languages, the sensitivity of the material — and you get an itemised proposal before anyone talks about a number.
The same words on an invoice — "simultaneous interpreting, one day" — can describe two completely different pieces of work. One is a seated bilateral meeting with a single language pair. The other is a multilingual board session with a relay setup, a signed NDA, four hundred pages of board pack to absorb beforehand and a hybrid audio chain to test.
A single published price can only do one of two things with that gap: overcharge the simple assignment, or under-resource the complex one. The second is the expensive failure — it is the one where a pair becomes a single exhausted interpreter, or where nobody read the contract before the meeting. So we scope first, and quote what the assignment genuinely needs.
What you can expect instead: a written proposal that names the interpreter profile, the mode and number of professionals per language, the equipment, the preparation included and the delivery dates — itemised, so you can see what each part of it is for.
None of these is a surprise at the end. They are the questions we ask at the start, which is why the brief and the proposal usually take one exchange rather than four.
The single biggest factor. Simultaneous interpreting beyond about an hour needs two interpreters per language, because accuracy falls measurably after roughly 30 minutes of unrelieved work. Consecutive uses one professional but roughly doubles the meeting's clock time.
A seated conference, a mobile site visit, a boardroom, a hearing or a video call are different assignments. The setting decides the mode, the equipment and whether the interpreter is standing for six hours.
Working into and out of a language is not the same as one direction only. Rare pairs may need a relay setup with a pivot language, which is planned in advance rather than improvised.
Interpreters are matched by sector, not only by language. A regulatory inspection and a licensing negotiation are different vocabularies before they are different languages.
On the ground in São Paulo, Brasília, New York, Miami or Los Angeles costs differently from an interpreter travelling with a delegation — and both are cheaper than discovering on the day that nobody is there.
Rush work reorganises other people's schedules. Confidential material means an NDA, named linguists and a closed handling chain — standard practice here, and scoped explicitly.
Hours per session and how many sessions · on site or remote · mode (simultaneous, consecutive, whispered) · language pairs · number of participants · equipment and streaming.
InterpretingVolume and document type · certification required · repeated terminology across a set · deadline · whether the same terms must match what is said in the room.
TranslationPlatform and content volume · one-off project or ongoing · metadata and SEO adaptation · how many markets the content has to work in.
LocalizationRuntime and number of speakers · dubbing, voiceover or subtitles only · voice talent · delivery formats and platforms.
VideoYou send dates, city or platform, languages and what each session actually is.
We size the team, the mode and the preparation the assignment needs — and say so plainly if it needs less than you asked for.
Itemised and written: interpreter profile, staffing per language, equipment, preparation, dates.
You approve the scope. NDA first if the material is confidential, before anything is sent.
Because the same nominal service costs very different amounts depending on the assignment. A three-hour board session and a full day of technical meetings need different interpreter teams; a contract and a regulatory dossier of the same length are different work. A published rate would either overcharge the simple assignment or under-resource the complex one, and the second failure is the expensive one.
Dates and the hours of each session, the city or the video platform, the language pair in both directions, the setting — seated conference, mobile site visit, board meeting, hearing — and the number of participants. Whether an NDA is required, and whether equipment is needed, complete the picture.
Session length and mode. Simultaneous interpreting beyond about an hour requires two interpreters per language, because accuracy declines measurably after roughly 30 minutes of unrelieved work, so a full day is staffed as a pair. Consecutive interpreting uses one professional but roughly doubles the clock time of the meeting itself.
By volume, subject matter, the certification the document needs and the turnaround. A contract with defined terms that must stay consistent across a whole transaction is scoped differently from a standalone document, and repeated terminology across a set of files is accounted for rather than charged again each time.
Preparation is part of the assignment, not an extra line. Studying decks, contracts and glossaries before the day is what separates a fluent session from a hesitant one, and it is built into the quote rather than billed separately.
Normally within one business day of receiving the brief. Complex multi-city or multi-language programmes may take longer, because interpreter teams and equipment are checked for availability before anything is promised.
Dates, languages, city or platform, and what happens in the room. One business day, normally.