Machine translation post-editing (MTPE)
Machine translation gives you a fast draft. Post-editing adds the missing piece: a human specialist who corrects it until it reads — and holds up — like professional translation.
What post-editing actually is
Machine translation produces a draft. Sometimes a good one. The problem is that its errors do not look like errors — the text reads smoothly while a negation is dropped, a technical term is swapped for a lookalike, or a number quietly changes.
Post-editing is the step that catches this. A professional translator — not a general proofreader — compares every machine-translated sentence against the source, corrects meaning, terminology and tone, and takes responsibility for the result. At Link Translation, post-editors come from the same sector practice groups as our translators: the person editing your maintenance manual has an engineering background, and every file gets an independent second review before delivery.
Light vs full post-editing
You choose the level based on what the text is for:
- Light post-editing fixes errors that affect meaning or readability, and nothing else. Style stays machine-flavored. Right for internal documents, gisting large volumes, or triaging content before deciding what deserves full treatment.
- Full post-editing brings the text to publication quality. The editor corrects meaning, applies your approved terminology, restores natural style and register, and follows your formatting rules. The result is meant to be indistinguishable from human translation.
If you are not sure which you need, the honest test is: will someone outside your company read this? If yes, light post-editing is almost never enough.
When MTPE is the right call — and when it is not
MTPE earns its keep on high-volume, repetitive, low-risk content: support articles, internal documentation, product catalogs, user-generated content, large reference archives that would otherwise never be translated at all.
It is the wrong tool for safety-critical instructions, regulated labeling, contracts where a single word carries liability, and marketing copy that has to persuade rather than inform. For those, humans translate from the start — and if you send us that kind of content for MTPE, we will say so in the quote rather than take the job as asked.
How a project runs
Send us your source content or your existing MT output — as documents, or as the XLIFF and TMX files translation tools exchange. We evaluate the raw machine quality on a sample first, because there is a threshold below which fixing MT costs more than retranslating, and you deserve to know which side of it your content sits on. Then you get a recommendation for light or full post-editing and a fixed quote with a deadline within 24 hours. During the project, editors work against your term base and translation memory, so approved terms stay consistent and repeated sentences are never paid for twice. Edit-distance reports — a measure of how much the editor had to change — show you exactly how hard the machine output was working, which makes the next quote sharper.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between light and full post-editing?
Light post-editing fixes only the errors that change meaning or block understanding — good for internal documents where you need accuracy, not polish. Full post-editing brings the text to publication quality: correct terminology, natural style, consistent formatting. The end result is comparable to human translation.
Can you post-edit output from DeepL, ChatGPT or our own MT engine?
Yes. We work with output from any engine, delivered as documents or as XLIFF/TMX files (the standard exchange formats translation tools use). We assess the raw quality first, because bad MT output can cost more to fix than to retranslate — and we tell you which it is before you commit.
How much does MTPE save compared to human translation?
It depends on how good the machine output is for your content type and language pair. The editor starts from a draft instead of a blank page, so well-suited content costs meaningfully less. You get a fixed quote within 24 hours, so you know the exact price before work starts.
Who does the post-editing?
Professional translators from our sector practice groups, editing into their native language. Post-editing is a translation skill, not a proofreading shortcut — the editor has to catch fluent-sounding sentences that say the wrong thing. Every file gets an independent second review.