Research · The Edit Distance Report · 2026

Where your translation team's time matters most

We measured 27 million translated sentences. People change about 8% of AI suggestions and 15% of machine translation.

27 million sentences · August 2024 to September 2026 · No customer text was read

Four numbers from the report

42% to 16%

editing, month one to month ten

47%

less editing than machine translation

84 of 100

AI suggestions go out unchanged

98 of 100

sentences pass review unchanged

Months since the account startedAverage share of words changed in new accounts.

Context-sensitive AI suggestions8%

Plain machine translation15%

Context-sensitive suggestions draw on your translation memory, glossary and past corrections.

The person who runs localisation

Editing a suggestion is only 7% faster per word. The time comes back in the reading, because most of it is already right.

So the work moves to deciding what gets read, what goes to review, and what the memory keeps. Whoever runs that flow decides how much time AI saves.

You run the flow

1SuggestAI suggests from your memory and glossary. 84 of 100 go out as written.
2ReadYou choose what gets a full read. Smells flags where meaning may have drifted.
3ReviewYou choose which passes run. Keep them where the risk is.
4KeepYou decide what the memory and glossary keep. As they fill up, editing falls.

Half of all sentences go out untouched. The editing that's left is where a person's judgement changes the result.

How much people change, per 100 sentences

Average share of words changed, by language pair, from English.

Data: 27 million sentences on the wxrks platform, August 2024 to September 2026.
Measure: Edit distance, the share of words a person changes before a sentence ships.
Privacy: Group numbers only. No client is named and no text was read.
Author: wxrks, formerly Bureau Works.

Is it free?: Yes. No form, no email.
What is edit distance?: The share of words a person changes in a suggestion before it ships. 0% means it was accepted as it came.
Can I share it?: Yes. Send the link or the PDF to anyone.

Free, no form.

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