Comparison
Phrase pricing, and the three meters behind it
Phrase does not have one unit, it has three, and each has its own yearly allowance. That is the part worth understanding before the plan price.
| Plan | Per month | Managed words | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | $27 | 200,000 | 0 |
| Software UI/UX | $525 | 1,000,000 | 15 |
| Professional | $525 | 300,000 | 15 |
| Team | $1,245 | 1,200,000 | 20 |
| Business | On request | 3,000,000 | 150 |
The unit
Managed words, MTUs and AIUs
Billed per word held in the system, with separate yearly allowances for machine translation and AI.
Managed words are the words held in the system, and every plan includes a fixed yearly number. MTUs are machine translation units, consumed when text goes through machine translation. AIUs are AI units, consumed by the AI features. A plan can therefore be comfortable on one meter and tight on another, and running out of AIUs in month eight is a different conversation from outgrowing your word count. When you model a Phrase plan, model all three against a year of releases rather than against the size of your current file.
Where the plans actually sit
The developer-oriented Software UI/UX plan lists at $525 a month with 15 seats, one million managed words, one million MTUs and 10,000 AIUs a year. Team is $1,245 a month with 20 seats, 1.2 million managed words, two million MTUs and 25,000 AIUs. Those are the annual-billing figures. Business and Enterprise are quoted rather than listed, with 150 seats and three million managed words as the published starting shape for Business. The step from Software UI/UX to Team is not primarily about words, it is about seats and AI allowance, so the trigger for the upgrade is usually team growth or heavier AI use rather than a bigger product.
What we charge instead
€19 per seat and month, incl. VAT, cancellable monthly. Ten seats cost €105 together, which is the 10-seat plan. On top of that €10 per million tokens, charged only for strings that are new or whose source changed. A string already in the translation memory costs nothing, not on the tenth release either. Bring your own model key and no token cost arises at all.
One language file in. 64 languages out.
No seat you forgot to cancel, no allowance that expires, no per-language multiplier. You pay for the strings that changed and nothing else.
€19 per month incl. VAT, cancellable monthly.
Questions
- Are these monthly or annual prices?
- The figures on Phrase's page are stated as monthly amounts billed annually. A true month-to-month price, if offered, is higher. Read the numbers here as the annual-commitment rate.
- What is the cheapest Phrase plan?
- Freelancer at $27 a month with 200,000 managed words. It includes no Strings seats, which makes it unsuitable for a team managing its own product. The cheapest plan that includes seats is Software UI/UX at $525.
- What happens when an allowance runs out?
- You move up a plan or buy more of the meter that ran out. Since there are three meters, check which one is actually binding before upgrading the whole plan; running out of AIUs does not necessarily mean you need more managed words.
- How does ShipGlobal meter the same work?
- One meter for the tool and one for the work. €19 per seat and month covers the tool. €10 per million tokens covers the translation, and tokens are spent only on strings that are new or changed. There is no separate AI allowance to run out of, because the AI is the thing you are paying tokens for.