TMS pricing for production teams

Compare the cost of a real translation workflow—not a trial account

A usable TMS needs enough capacity for source words, AI pre-translation, automated LQA, human review, memory, terminology, and delivery. Compare two representative annual workloads and see which costs still need a commercial quote.

Compare real workflows Price your workflow

Commercial evidence and public plan information reviewed 15 July 2026.

Choose a workload

One million or five million source words per year

The AI assumption deliberately processes the same volume twice: once for pre-translation and once for LQA. Actual token or unit usage varies by language, model, context, matches, and vendor rules.

Source volume5,000,000 words/year
AI workloadPre-translate + LQA the same 5M words
WorkflowCAT, TM, terminology, review, API, automation

LanguageOps

Transparent capacity

£12,000 / year

Team · £1,000 monthly

Volume fit
12M platform words/year, 20 users, API allowance, and the full suite cover the 5M-word workflow with operational headroom.
AI treatment
60M model tokens/year included and shared across pre-translation, LQA, content, audio, and video workflows.
Cost warning
Model token usage is workload-specific; representative files provide the most reliable forecast.

XTM Cloud

From $96,000 + API / capacity

$60,000 Business + AI Pack from $36,000

Volume fit
The published Business plan includes only 3M processed words/year. A 5M source-word workflow needs another 2M words of contracted capacity.
AI treatment
The Advanced AI Pack starts at $36,000/year; additional AI words start at $9,000/year. Price both pre-translation and Intelligent Score/LQA at the full required volume.
Cost warning
API use is a further five-figure add-on. The $96K subtotal excludes the extra 2M processed words, extra AI usage, implementation, and services.

Phrase

€26,000 / year

Supplied Phrase quote · 21M TMS words

Volume fit
The quoted TMS processed-word capacity exceeds the 5M scenario, but Strings and other product allowances were materially lower.
AI treatment
The quote must be checked for MTUs, AIUs, LQA usage, AI Translation Agent usage, and required top-ups.
Cost warning
A large TMS-word allowance does not mean every Phrase product or AI pool has matching 21M capacity.

Lokalise

€70,000 / year

Supplied commercial price at this volume

Volume fit
The supplied €70K annual figure represents the business-scale requirement around this level, rather than a small published self-service tier.
AI treatment
400K Pro AI words/year remains below a 5M-word pre-translation and LQA workload.
Cost warning
Confirm the exact processed-word capacity and price AI top-ups separately, along with advanced seats and integrations.

Smartling

TMS quote + from $300K AI

Enterprise workflow plus 5M AI Translation words

Volume fit
Enterprise platform pricing is quote-based, with extensive workflow and integration capabilities.
AI treatment
At the published $0.06 starting rate, 5M AI Translation words are $300K; LQA, AI Toolkit, or human review can add cost.
Cost warning
Request one cost model covering TMS, AI subscription, processed words, toolkit, review, and services. Supplied buying experience indicates a multi-year commitment is required.

Smartcat

Custom quote

Autonomous · 6M Smartwords

Volume fit
The 6M pool covers one 5M-word AI pass with limited headroom, but not two complete 5M-word AI passes.
AI treatment
Pre-translation plus equivalent AI review would require more than the included pool before other Smartword-consuming actions.
Cost warning
Anticipate starts at $60K/year but includes only 2M Smartwords, below this scenario.

Business is the default view because it better represents a team buying a TMS for ongoing operations. XTM’s base-plan and AI Pack prices are published in USD; its API figure, the Phrase quote, and the Lokalise figure are supplied commercial information. Check every proposal for term, implementation, and exact allowances. Smartling AI totals are simple calculations from its published starting per-word rate and exclude its unlisted TMS price.

Production feature comparison

What the business workflow still needs

A dash means the capability was not established as available in the compared plan or commercial information—not merely that the public description was vague.

CapabilityLanguageOpsXTMPhraseLokaliseSmartlingSmartcat
Translation operations
Browser CAT editorIncludedIncludedIncludedIncludedIncludedIncluded
Translation memory and terminologyIncludedIncludedIncludedGrowth+Enterprise for advanced TMIncluded
Translation, revision, and approval stagesIncludedConfigurableConfigurableAdvanced by tierEnterpriseHigher-tier coworkers/workflows
Parallel collaborationIncludedIncludedIncludedIncludedIncludedAdd-on or Autonomous
API accessTeam+Five-figure add-onAvailable; limits applyIncluded; limits applyEnterpriseAnticipate+
AI and quality
AI pre-translationToken poolAI Pack / model termsMTU poolStandard or Pro AI wordsPer-word AI subscriptionSmartwords
Automated AI LQAToken poolIntelligent Score / AI PackAIU poolLimited / tier-dependentLQA Agent / ToolkitReviewer coworker / Smartwords
Bring your own AI keyAgency+AvailableManaged-engine options—AI Hub—
One shared AI allowance across toolsYesConfirm quoteNo—MTUs and AIUsNo—Standard and Pro poolsPrepaid budget; service rates differSmartwords; multipliers differ
Beyond core TMS
Video, subtitles, and dubbingIncludedSeparate XTM ecosystemStudio add-on——Smartword-metered
OCR and editable complex-file recoveryIncludedFile filters / PDF conversionFile conversionDocument localisation—Smartword rules
Content research and transcreation workspaceIncluded——Limited marketing toolsTranscreation toolsContent Writer coworker
Live interpretingChannel-hour add-on—————
Managed translation serviceAvailableVendor/service ecosystemVendor workflowsPartner ecosystemPer-word servicesMarketplace experts
Indicative annual cost · 5M workflow£12,000$96,000+ plus API / capacity€26,000€70,000TMS quote + from $300K AICustom quote

Feature availability can depend on contract, tier, region, and add-ons. — means unavailable or not evidenced for this comparison. It is intentionally easier to scan than repeating ‘not stated on pricing page’.

More workflow for a lower platform cost

What the LanguageOps price already includes

The £12,000 Team plan is not a stripped-down licence. It combines the production TMS, API, a shared AI allowance, and specialist localisation tools in one platform—without forcing a multi-year contract.

API included

Team includes 10K API requests each month. Automate file intake, translation, QA/LQA, terminology, status tracking, and delivery without buying a separate API licence.

AI for multiple passes

The 60M annual token allowance is shared across translation, automated LQA, refinement, research, audio, and video—not split into small product-specific pools.

Low-cost extra usage

Team token top-ups cost £55 per 1M tokens and remain available without a forced plan upgrade. Bundles do not expire while the plan is active.

Built for unusually large files

Process multi-million-word files and split work across collaborators instead of breaking the source into fragile manual batches or relying on desktop limits.

Specialist tools included

CAT, TM, terminology, alignment, term extraction, OCR, AV dubbing and subtitles, transcreation, Content Studio, and automated QA/LQA are part of the suite.

Straightforward commitment

LanguageOps plans are billed monthly and can be cancelled monthly. Capacity can grow with actual usage instead of an enforced multi-year platform agreement.

AI tokens and vendor word-based units are not like-for-like. Run representative files to estimate the precise number of translation, LQA, and refinement passes your allowance supports.

See LanguageOps pricingTest your workload

Evidence and assumptions

Where the numbers came from

No competitor websites are linked from this page. The comparison records the commercial basis so readers can distinguish published capacity, supplied quotes, and calculated examples.

Published price + supplied API detail

XTM

Published XTM Cloud pricing is $16,500/year for Team with up to 2M processed words and $60,000/year for Business with up to 3M. Its Advanced AI Pack is an add-on from $36,000/year, additional AI words start at $9,000/year, and API access is a further five-figure add-on.

Supplied quote

Phrase

Approximately €26,000/year for 21M TMS processed words. Strings and other product allowances were much lower, so the headline word capacity must not be applied to every module.

Published plan arithmetic

Lokalise, Smartling, and Smartcat

The supplied Lokalise commercial price was €70,000/year around the business-scale requirement. Smartling’s $60K/$300K examples multiply its published $0.06/word starting AI Translation rate by 1M/5M words; its TMS remains additional and unlisted, and supplied buying experience indicates multi-year deals are required. Smartcat totals use its published Smartword plans.

Current LanguageOps plans

LanguageOps

Professional is £250/month with 200K platform words and 1M tokens monthly. Team is £1,000/month with 1M platform words and 5M tokens monthly. All advertised tools remain available across paid tiers.

All figures exclude tax unless stated. Treat supplied quotes as indicative until currency, billing term, implementation, support, AI usage, overages, contract length, and scope are confirmed. Product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Quote checklist

Ask every vendor to price the same two-pass workload

A large source-word allowance can hide a much smaller AI or quality pool. Put each cost on a separate line.

Count every target language

Confirm whether a source word processed into three target languages consumes one unit, three units, characters, tokens, or a vendor-specific multiplier.

Price pre-translation and LQA

Ask for the cost of translating the entire annual volume and then running automated LQA across that same volume—not merely importing it into the TMS.

Separate API and add-ons

Show API, connectors, AI packs, multimedia, implementation, support, seats, workflow actions, and managed services separately from the base licence.

Comparison FAQ

Reading the figures correctly

Why is the 5M-word business view selected first?

It represents an ongoing localisation operation that needs automation, API access, review stages, and enough AI capacity to process real annual volume. Trial and teaser tiers are not useful anchors for that buyer.

Why can AI capacity be lower than the TMS word allowance?

Many platforms meter imported or processed words separately from machine translation, generative AI, or AI quality checks. A plan may accept five million source words while including only a fraction of that volume for a particular AI feature.

Which figures are published prices and which are supplied quotes?

XTM's $16,500 Team plan, $60,000 Business plan, and AI Pack from $36,000 are published prices; its five-figure API detail is supplied commercial information. Phrase's €26,000 and Lokalise's €70,000 figures are supplied commercial quotes or prices. Confirm term, modules, usage allowances, implementation, and contractual scope before purchasing.

How should we compare model tokens with words or Smartwords?

Use representative files. Model tokens vary with source language, target language, prompts, context, output length, and repeated AI passes. Word-based units are easier to count but may use multipliers or separate pools for different actions.

Run the comparison on your actual workload

Send representative files, annual volume, languages, team size, and expected AI steps. We will map the workflow and give you a transparent LanguageOps capacity estimate.

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