Updated September 27, 2024.
If you are fluent in another language and are interested in work from home translator jobs, you may be interested to learn about Gengo.
It's a big site with many small scale translation jobs available. After you sign up and get accepted, you can just browse through the jobs, pick out ones you want to start, begin work, and then get paid!
How much does Gengo pay?
In the past they had the following information posted on their site:
You will be paid via PayPal in US dollars ($ USD) according to the character or word count of the source language. We are only able to make payments in USD. Here's the breakdown:
Standard: $.03 per word/$.018 per character (e.g. Japanese, Chinese)
Pro: $.08 per word/$.048 per character
Proofread/Ultra: $.04 per word/$.024 per character
This information doesn't appear to be there any longer. Instead they apparently have an online tool that translators can use to determine the pay rate for any given project.
The pay varies according to a range of different factors, and might (or might not) still be in line with the numbers mentioned above.
Please note: from what I've read online, those numbers are on the low side, so it might be best to just consider this extra money online until you try it and see how well you actually do with it. It seems like this might be an extra money “side job” to take on.
How and when is payment made?
You can get paid twice a month through Paypal or Payoneer, on the 10th and 25th of the month. You do have to request payout before the payment dates to ensure you get your money.
They also charge a flat $1.50 fee when you request your payout — according to MyGengo, this is to cover Paypal fees and other transaction costs.
What are “Standard,” “Pro,” and “Proofread?”
These are different levels you can achieve depending on how you do on translation tests you take. There are different projects available for each level and the pay is also different for each level.
What languages can you sign up to translate?
Languages include Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish, and others. There are more than 35 different languages!
Please note that if you do English to Spanish translation, there may or may not be work available due to the plentiful number of people who are English/Spanish bilingual.
What kinds of texts do you translate?
A lot of the texts are very short — emails, short articles, blog posts, stuff on Twitter, etc., but there are occasionally longer texts to translate.
What if your work is rejected?
Gengo claims to have a very low one percent rejection rate from their clients, so rejections are rare. If you receive a rejection, Gengo's quality control team double checks your work.
If they think it wasn't, they will ask the client to either allow you to make some corrections or approve the translation as is.
Is Gengo open to people outside the US?
Yes, the company considers all people who sign up. They have translators located in every part of the world.
If you are not a U.S. citizen, you will have to fill out a W8-BEN tax form.
What is the application process like?
You have to create an account at Gengo and then take their translation tests. Your results will be reviewed and if your translation skills are up to par, you can log in and begin work.
If you fail the test, you can retest. They will let you take the test up to three times.
Do you want to sign up?
Go here to register at Gengo.
Looking For Even More Legit Remote Jobs?
FlexJobs is one of my favorite sites to use for finding remote jobs and learning about new companies that hire remotely.
Most of what I see there when I check the listings pays well above minimum wage and are known companies.
The great thing about FlexJobs is that they guarantee ALL listings are scam-free. They list hundreds of jobs — all of which are either remote or flexible in nature — five days per week.
There are also no ads on the site!
Because there are no ads, they do charge a membership fee since that is the only way they can see a return on their job-searching efforts.
But it's cheap — you can get access for a few weeks for just $2.95 for 14 full days!
If you sign up and don't like it, it's very easy to cancel right away so you are not billed again. You can do it any point during your 14 days of checking things out.
Go here to check out FlexJobs.
Good luck to you!
Anna Thurman is a work at home blogger and mom of two. She has been researching and reviewing remote jobs for over 13 years. Her findings are published weekly here at Real Ways to Earn.
Hi, I was wondering if there are any other companies similar to this one? I would like to get another translation job where I can log in and work any time but I have not been able to find anything similar to this. Thanks! 🙂
The translation page in my directory has about all the ones I’m aware of … I think the most recent one I reviewed was Translators Town, and I think that’s kind of like a freelance bidding site for translators. But it may be worth checking into. I will let you know if I come across one similar to MyGengo.
hey anna !
i really did apply for them , and finished their exam , but they will let me know IF i’m accepted or not after 14-30 days ! this is so long time .
so please if you know other translating websites tell us about , and BTW thank you so much for your great website .
Yes, I’m not sure either. I just assumed it because they asked for the SSN.
They did finally reply to my email. This is what they said regarding not being a U.S. citizen and working for MyGengo:
“Thanks for writing in and we apologize for not getting back to you sooner.
In regards to your inquiry, yes, we do have freelance translators working for us outside
of the US who are not US citizens.
In these cases our translators are required to fill out a W8-BEN tax form. “
I took the Spanish-English test a few months ago and didn’t pass it (these tests are very hard to pass) however, I re-took it recently and did pass it. There are some jobs in this language pairs and it is not hard for me to make $20 a day working for a couple of hours. How much you make per hour depends on how fast you are translating.
A few months ago when I signed up at MyGengo they asked my for my SSN so I’m pretty sure this job is only for people who are US citizens or have a US working permit. You can work from any part of the world though (I’m a US citizen but I live in Mexico).
Thanks Stephanie. The FAQ said their translators work all over the world, so I assumed it was open worldwide. I will send them an email and ask if they can clarify and then update my info if need be.