US$5 per hour, per language someone is listening to

• Speech, not stream time. The meter counts the duration of the sentences that were recognised and translated. Long pauses, silence and time before the sermon starts are not counted.
• Only languages with an active listener. A language is translated, and billed, only while at least one phone has it selected and playing. Offering more languages costs nothing until someone uses them.
• Per language, rounded up to the minute. Each language's speech time for a service is rounded up to the next whole minute, at US$5 per hour (about 8 cents per minute).
• Unlimited listeners. Ten people listening in Spanish cost the same as one.
• Failed translations are free. If a sentence cannot be translated, listeners get the original text and that sentence is not billed.

Worship songs: if the microphone picks up sung lyrics, they may be recognised as speech and counted. Muting the translation feed during music, or starting the stream at the sermon, avoids that.

The free US$20 credit will cover 4 hours of speech in one language, or two hours in two languages: enough to try PewTranslate for a few Sundays before deciding.

• Your balance is shown on the dashboard and on your account page, which also lists every top-up and breaks down translated time by month.
• Once accounts open (they are not open yet), add credit from the Account page in steps of US$20, US$50, US$100 or US$200.
• A stream cannot start when the balance is empty, and a running stream stops if the balance runs out, so you can never be charged more than you have added.
• Each service's report shows its billable duration and exact cost, so the treasurer can match every charge to a date.

Most churches weigh live translation against two familiar options. We compare them honestly, including where they are the better choice:

• Volunteer or paid interpreters: the best quality for one language, but hard to staff every week and for several languages at once.
• Headset interpretation systems: they work without phones or internet, but need receivers and still need an interpreter.

For a budgeting worksheet that covers all the options, see what church interpretation costs.