What does a 1,000-chapter translation cost? Work it out first

A question keeps coming back from translators and from readers who translate web novels themselves (Chinese→Vietnamese): what does it cost to translate a full 1,000-chapter series? Close behind it: can it be automated through an API, and how good is the result?

There is no single number that fits every series, so this post does not give one. It gives the formula, a worked example, and a way to count the real characters of the series you plan to translate, so you can work it out before you press translate.

> Prices and limits below come from 2novel's pricing and API pages: pricing, API. Prices can change; check the official pages before you decide.

The formula

translation fee = source characters × price per character

Source characters include punctuation and spaces, not just letters. Price per character with the built-in AI (paid from the wallet), by plan:

| Plan | Price | | --- | --- | | Pro, Pro Max | 1 ₫ / character | | Free | 3 ₫ / character | | Your own AI provider (on plans that support it) | 0 ₫ / character 2Novel fee (provider fees are billed separately) |

This post only covers the per-character fee. For anything else, see the pricing page.

Worked example: a 3,000-character chapter

This is an example calculation, not a measurement of any particular novel. Assume every chapter has 3,000 source characters:

| Chapters | Pro / Pro Max (1 ₫) | Free (3 ₫) | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | 3,000 ₫ | 9,000 ₫ | | 100 | 300,000 ₫ | 900,000 ₫ | | 1,000 | 3,000,000 ₫ | 9,000,000 ₫ |

The 100-chapter row is straight multiplication from the example; the 1,000-chapter row just multiplies on, assuming every chapter is exactly 3,000 characters. In practice chapter length differs from novel to novel, and even inside one series early and late chapters vary. If your average chapter is twice as long, the fee doubles.

Count the real source characters

Before you calculate, count the raw text you will actually send. If you keep one UTF-8 text file per chapter in a raw/ folder, a few lines of Python give you the total:

from pathlib import Path

total = 0
for f in sorted(Path("raw").glob("*.txt")):
    total += len(f.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))

print(total, "characters")
print("Pro / Pro Max:", total * 1, "VND")
print("Free:", total * 3, "VND")

len() counts each Unicode character, punctuation and spaces included. It may not match the system's count character for character, so treat the result as an estimate. Try a few chapters first, compare with the amount actually charged, and only then scale up to the whole series.

Free plan: credit may not cover one chapter

A new workspace gets a 30,000 ₫ welcome credit and a 5,000 ₫ monthly allowance; the pricing page says the credit is limited and may not cover a whole chapter. At 3 ₫ per character, 5,000 ₫ is about 1,666 characters, less than one 3,000-character chapter from the example; 30,000 ₫ is about 10,000 characters, a few chapters of that length. So Free is for trying a few chapters to see whether the output is usable for your series, not for translating a long one.

Translating a whole series through the API

If you run a translation group and want to work in bulk, this part matters:

• API keys and webhooks belong to the Pro Max plan.
• One translate call accepts up to 1,000 chapters.
• Results come back asynchronously: you submit the job, the translation finishes later.
• A webhook batches a whole job into one call, so a 1,000-chapter batch does not fire 1,000 times.

See the API docs for the exact calls and parameters. Because one call can cover a whole series, do not send all 1,000 chapters on the first run. Run a small batch, read the output, then scale.

Using your own AI provider

If you use your own AI provider (on plans that support it), the 2Novel fee is 0 ₫ per character, but the provider's fee is still billed separately under their terms. Your calculation then has two parts: the 2Novel part (0 ₫) and the provider part. Work out both before comparing against Pro.

Book Bible: names and forms of address across 1,000 chapters

Long series tend to break on character names and forms of address. 2novel has a Book Bible that keeps names and address terms consistent across the series. Build it from the first few chapters and correct it when you spot mistakes, before you run a large batch.

Limits, plainly

• AI output is a draft. Quality depends on the source text, the model used, and your editing. This post does not promise quality by plan name; translate a few chapters of your own series and read them next to the source.
• The numbers here are example calculations. Your real cost depends on the real source character count of your series.
• 2novel does not find or recommend novels. It only works on the text you put in, and you need the right to use that text.
• Payment depends on the market. The pricing page lists each market separately: plans priced in USD currently say international payment is not yet open, while the VND plans say payment is open. Check the pricing page before you decide.

One next step

Pick a few representative chapters, run the counter above, multiply by the price per character of the plan you have in mind, then scale to the total chapter count. If the number fits your budget, translate those chapters as a test and read them closely. Check the pricing page and the API docs for the latest figures.