Translation jobs appear to be in danger. With the rise of AI, anybody can translate into any language. Still, translations are complex and cannot be overtaken so easily by artificial intelligence. This means one thing: freelance writing translation jobs will remain in demand. If you ever thought of pitching for freelance writing translation jobs, or even making them your main source of revenue, we encourage you to try it.
Freelance Writing & Translation Jobs (in the AI Era)
Freelancing in general has become more popular, and freelance writing in particular is a field that many aspire to work and retire in. With more than half of the USA population becoming freelance workers or entrepreneurs by 2027, it is of no surprise that many industries are taking a freelancing turn.
Translations don’t make an exception to this rule. With the years going by and the advancement of the digitized era, more freelance writing translation jobs have become available for those who are looking to earn a living this way.
Of course, a danger has made its appearance. Ever since ChatGPT was launched in 2023, many have been concerned about AI taking their jobs. In translations, AI has become an even bigger danger. With the right prompt, a piece of English text can be translated into multiple languages quickly. What used to take an hour and a couple of people to do can now be finished by using ChatGPT.
Suppose that you receive a document from a multinational corporation. This document needs to be translated into five languages to be sent to five offices around the globe. You now need translations in Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Mandarin, and French. To do that, you would need five different people, proficient in English and one of these languages, to do the work. The work would have probably taken one hour for each document. With ChatGPT, you would only need five minutes for the AI bot to do these translations.
Viewed this way, freelance writing translation jobs are indeed in danger. Why would a company hire a freelance translator when a piece of AI software can do the job?
Many have wondered, and the answer may seem unintuitive at first.
The Market in 2025 of Freelance Writing Translation Jobs
We’ve already discussed on this blog the future of content writing and copywriting in the era of artificial intelligence. Large language models (LLM) seem to do the job of a person more rapidly and with a quality similar to that of a human.
Paradoxically, the demand for freelance writers has grown since the launch of ChatGPT in 2023, especially if you can master AI in your translation work. More companies are looking for freelancers to offer a human touch to their work.
Moreover, with predictions of freelancers making up more than half of the workforce by 2027, we can predict that the same situation will be with freelance writing translation jobs.
Why AI Will Not Replace Translators
Still, you may wonder why artificial intelligence will not replace human translators. You have tried in yourself. You have used ChatGPT to translate a piece of text or a document into various languages. It seems that it works. You cannot find errors in the newly translated text, other people being able to understand it.
The explanation for why AI will not replace humans is simple: artificial intelligence lacks humanity. It is prone to errors that can be detrimental, even fatal, to an organization. A person, even if he or she makes use of AI, can spot such errors in the process of translating.
Let’s work with an example. Suppose that someone needs to translate a technical document. That person will ask you to check if the translation is correct in your native language. You take the original text and the translated one, and compare them.
Overall, the translation is fine. You don’t notice any errors until you see a word incorrectly translated. You continue to read, and you spot typos made by the AI app. How does an AI piece of software commit typos? You continue reading the text just to notice that the artificial intelligence has added excerpts that have nothing to do with the original piece. At this point, AI is hallucinating. If it weren’t for your checking the document, it would have meant disaster for that company.
In this sense, the work of a freelance translator cannot be replaced by an AI tool. Freelance writing translation jobs will remain available for years to come.
A Full-Time Earning as a Translator
The impact of technology is present, and the viability and demand for freelance translation services are on the rise. Of course, a question that you may ask is if freelance writing translation jobs can be your main source of revenue. Maybe, you have considered becoming a full-time freelance translator, but you are unsure what to believe about its future on the free market.
Many have made a career as freelance translators. A quick search on LinkedIn for “freelance translator” will show you a large number of individuals who actively seek work as translators. If you go on UpWork.com, a popular site to find freelance writing translation jobs, you will stumble upon people who make a decent living by translating for various clients.
One freelance writing translation job that should tell you about the potential of the industry would be YouTube video scripts. Yes, in 2025, there are more podcasts than ever present on YouTube, and with a large, diversified crowd, owners of popular podcasts are looking to offer subtitles in various languages. For example, many podcasters from the USA offer subtitles in Spanish. If you are fluent in Spanish, then you are sure to find a job as a freelance translator on a platform such as UpWork.com
According to recent data, a freelance translator can earn at least $40,000, with some earning even $200,000. Of course, if you want to take it to the next level and create your own language agency, then you can earn even more money than that.
This shows that freelance writing translation jobs are in demand and that you can make a living by delivering such work to clients from all over the world.
Moreover, our research shows us an interesting trend. While artificial intelligence hasn’t made freelance writing translation jobs obsolete, it did change the dynamic between the seller and the buyer. A notable trend is the shift from agency-based work to direct client relationships. Freelancers working directly with clients often command higher rates and better work satisfaction, even as agency jobs decline.
You, as a freelance writer, can become independent. Once you have convinced yourself that freelance writing translation jobs are in demand and that you can make it your main source of income, it’s time to choose your niche.
In-Demand Translation Niches in 2025
Our lives are shaped by the Internet, so the most translation tasks you will receive come from domains that are highly searched on the Internet. We’ve given the example with translating subtitles for YouTube podcasts. As with podcasts, there are a variety of in-demand freelance writing translation jobs in 2025. Here is our list of recommendations.
Medical and Pharmaceutical Translation: High demand due to the ongoing importance of healthcare communication, clinical trials, regulatory documents, and patient information requiring accurate, specialized translation.
Legal and Financial Translation: Increasing globalization drives a need for precise translation of contracts, financial reports, regulatory documents, and compliance materials.
E-learning and Online Education: Rapid growth in online learning has created a sustained demand for translating course materials, instructional videos, and educational content across languages.
Software and IT Localization: The tech sector continues to expand, with strong demand for translators skilled in localizing software, apps, websites, and user interfaces.
Marketing and Transcreation: Transcreation, combining translation with copywriting to adapt messages culturally and emotionally, is vital, especially for marketing content that needs regional resonance and brand consistency.
E-commerce and Retail: Businesses targeting global markets require website localization, product descriptions, and multilingual customer support to succeed internationally.
Entertainment and Video Game Localization: The growing gaming and multimedia industries require cultural adaptation to attract diverse audiences.
Despite advances in machine translation, human expertise remains essential for quality and nuance. The use of AI also enables higher efficiency, particularly in repetitive tasks, helping human translators focus where it matters most.
Our verdict in this regard is that freelance writing translation jobs are here to stay, and you can make a living as a freelance translator. As you can see from our list, you have a wide variety to choose from. The question remains, where can you find clients?
Where to Find Freelance Writing Translation Jobs
There are many places on the world-wide web in which you can fish and hunt for translation clients. Of course, you won’t use every possible source for finding translation jobs, but you should keep in mind two main sources.
- Cold outreach
- Freelance writing platforms
By cold outreach, you are asking a prospect for a potential job. How can you do that? You can recommend yourself as a freelance writer translator on LinkedIn. Search for international companies and send them messages telling them about the importance of translating their content into various languages. Many have used LinkedIn successfully in their job hunts, and we recommend you do the same for translation work.
Facebook and X.com are two other social media platforms on which you can go hunting for clients. Research and track companies that you want to work with and approach them without fear. Many freelancers have claimed success by approaching clients following this method.
Of course, the king of cold outreach remains directly emailing the company. In a brief email, you must present who you are, what your expertise is, and why the company should be interested in your services.
As mentioned, more clients are looking for a direct relationship with a freelance translator. This means that your rates of success are high enough to present your authentic self (as an individual, not a company) to a company interested in translation services.
The second approach requires creating accounts on freelance writing platforms. We consider that this should be a backup plan, since a direct, cold outreach brings better payment and more opportunities.
Nevertheless, freelance writing translation jobs can be found on popular freelancing platforms such as Fiverr or Upwork. Another platform that we recommend is Proz.com.
This is a platform specialized for translation work. If you have expertise in a specific type of translation, you should create an account on this website. The payment is better, and the clients know what they want.
Is Freelance Translation Work Worth It?
Freelancing is taking over the work market, and the translation field makes no exception. You should not be intimidated by freelance work. As we hope to have convinced you in this article, freelance writing translation jobs are in demand, with more companies looking for authentic voices in a world in which artificial intelligence makes more noise than ever before.
Remember! Soon freelancers will make up more than half of the workforce in the USA, and the translation industry will not make an exception to this rule. More than that, AI cannot replace real humans, given AI’s proneness to error. Even if you use AI tools to make your work easier, it is you, the human translator, that will have to finish the work and present it to the client.
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