Typing Services: Rates and Pricing Structures

What do professional typists charge for their services?

After some digging, I’ve come up with some typical pricing ranges and structures for document typing, audio transcription, and data entry services.

Keep in mind that price ranges for typing services vary based on geographic location and experience level. The rates listed here are standard for North America-based professional typists.

This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure for more info.

Document typing rates

Document typing, also known as copy typing, is the conversion of one text format (such as handwritten notes or a PDF document) to another (usually a Microsoft Word document or other editable file).

The most common pricing structure for document typing is per typed page. Standard per-page rates range from $4-15 USD per typed page, depending on turnaround and other requirements. A page is commonly defined as 350 words in length.

Alternately, the typist may charge per hour. For North America-based typists, standard hourly rates range from $25-40 USD for straight typing.

Finally, some typists charge per word. During my research, I noted rates of up to 5 cents per word for straight typing.

Not all document typing jobs are the same. Factors that may affect the price include:

• Legibility of the source document (handwriting takes the typist longer to read)
• Extra requirements, such as editing or proofreading
• Special formatting requests
• Turnaround time

Projects with specialized subject matter, such as medical and legal typing, typically cost more.

Audio typing rates

Audio typing, more commonly known as audio transcription, is the conversion of an audio or video file to a text format, such as a Microsoft Word document.

Audio transcription is typically billed per audio minute or per audio hour. This fixed-price structure is convenient for the client, because they know up front what they’ll pay.

For a professional North American transcriptionist, standard rates range from $1.50-3 USD per audio minute ($90-180 per audio hour). For projects with additional requirements or specialized subject matter, this rate may go up.

There are several factors that affect transcription costs per audio minute:

• Audio quality
• Subject matter
• Number of speakers
• Turnaround time
• Extra requirements, such as true verbatim transcription or timestamps

Some transcriptionists charge an hourly rate. According to Writer’s Market, the average hourly rate for transcribing interviews is $50 USD – that’s per hour of the transcriptionist’s time, not per audio hour. During my own research, I typically see hourly rates of $25-40.

In some cases, transcription is billed per typed page or per line. Per-line pricing is standard in the medical transcription industry, where typical costs are 7-14 cents per line. AAMT previously defined a line as 65 characters including spaces.

I’ve written in more detail about rates for audio transcription here.

Data entry rates

Data entry is the act of entering or updating information into a computer system or database.

“Data” can take many forms. The following are examples of typical data entry projects:

• Updating e-commerce or real estate listings
• Inputting data from business cards or websites into a spreadsheet
• Using LinkedIn to compile a list of sales leads and contact information
• Creating mailing labels from a database of contacts

Some of the project examples listed above involve simple data entry using a standard spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

However, others may require additional skills, such as online research or data mining. They may also call for familiarity with other tools, like email finding and verification software.

Like typing services and audio transcription, data entry can be billed at either a fixed price or an hourly rate.

Hourly rates for data entry are similar to those for document typing above.

Many data entry keyers bill a piece rate, such as per record or row on a spreadsheet or per keystroke – for example, 11 cents per record.

Factors that may affect the cost of data entry services include:

• Format of the source material (paper or digital)
• Legibility of the source material (handwriting takes longer to read)
• Turnaround time
• Complexity of the project

Due to the variety of skills and tools required for different types of data entry work, rates can vary widely from project to project. It’s advisable to provide a detailed project brief for the typist or keyer before getting started.

Need an affordably priced North American typing service?

We provide professional document typing services by U.S. and Canadian typists. We can take your digital document files, such as scanned handwriting, image files, or PDFs, and type them up into an easily editable format, such as a Microsoft Word document or TXT file. We’re also experts at audio transcription.

We offer friendly service, competitive rates, secure file transfer, and high-quality work. Send us a message via the contact page, and we’ll get back to you shortly!