How Much Does PDF to Word Conversion Cost?
A converted page can cost a little over a euro or several euros. The difference comes from two things: whether the PDF still contains real text, and how complex the page is.
In short: At Laydox, converting a live PDF to an editable Word file costs €1.20, €2.00 or €2.50 per page for Simple, Standard and Complex pages. A scanned PDF costs €2.00, €3.00 or €4.00 per page, because it goes through OCR first. Very difficult pages are priced after we see the file, and urgent jobs add 50%.
Price per page
Conversion is priced per page of the source PDF. The tier is set page by page, so a document with a few complex tables does not make every page expensive.
| Tier | Live PDF | Scanned PDF |
|---|---|---|
| Simple | €1.20 | €2.00 |
| Standard | €2.00 | €3.00 |
| Complex | €2.50 | €4.00 |
| Hard | Individual | Individual |
Prices per page. Simple: running text with headings and simple lists. Standard: tables, images, footnotes or multi-level lists. Complex: multi-column pages, nested tables, text boxes and charts with text. Hard: very dense, damaged or mixed-script pages.
Live or scanned: why it matters
A live PDF was exported from Word, InDesign or another program, so the text is still there and can be selected. A scanned PDF is a picture of a page. Its text has to be recognized by OCR before anything else can happen, and the result has to be checked, which is why every tier costs more for scans.
A quick test: try to select a sentence in the PDF. If you can, it is live. If the whole page highlights as one block, it is a scan.
What pushes a page into a higher tier
- Tables, especially nested tables or tables that run across pages
- Several columns, sidebars and text boxes
- Charts and diagrams with text that needs to be editable
- Footnotes, endnotes and multi-level numbered lists
- Poor scans: low resolution, stamps, handwriting over the text, skewed pages
- Several scripts on one page
Worked examples
A 50-page technical manual, live PDF, mostly complex pages. 50 × €2.50 = €125.
A 120-page scanned contract. 80 pages of running text at €2.00 and 40 pages with tables at €3.00: €160 + €120 = €280. Needed by tomorrow, with the 50% urgent surcharge: €420.
Text only, for a bilingual review. If you only need the text in a two-column table, without the layout, it costs €1.50 per live page and €2.00 per scanned page.
What the price includes
- Headers, footers and automatic page numbering rebuilt
- Footnotes, endnotes, captions and real Word lists
- Tables, columns and text boxes rebuilt to match the source
- Clean-up of section breaks, broken sentences and stray tags, so your CAT tool segments the text properly
- Delivery as DOCX or a translation-ready package for your CAT or TMS
How to keep the cost down
- Ask your client for the original Word or InDesign file first. If it exists, you may not need a conversion at all.
- Send the live PDF rather than a scan or a printout of it.
- Send all files of a project together, so we can price them in one go and keep them consistent.
- Give us a realistic deadline: the urgent surcharge is the easiest cost to avoid.
Questions
Is a free online converter good enough?
For a simple letter, often yes. For documents going into translation, automatic converters usually leave text boxes, broken lines and odd breaks that cost your translators time and inflate CAT tool counts. That clean-up is what the per-page price pays for.
Do you charge per page of the PDF or of the Word file?
Per page of the source PDF.
How do I get an exact price?
Send the files. A quote with the tier and the deadline usually comes back within 15 minutes; large batches of files take longer.
Key takeaways
- Live PDFs: €1.20–€2.50 per page; scans: €2.00–€4.00 per page
- The tier is set per page by complexity
- Scans cost more because OCR comes first
- Urgent jobs add 50%
- Asking for the original source file can make conversion unnecessary