Understand Marketplace pre-payments

Smartcat Marketplace supports two payment models for Marketplace translation services: prepayment and post-payment. The model applied to your account depends on your subscription plan, your contractual agreement with Smartcat, and your account payment status, as outlined in the Customer Agreement (Section 3.1).

How prepayment works

• You add funds to your Smartcat balance before assigning a Marketplace linguist

• Smartcat calculates and reserves the expected job cost when you confirm the assignment

• When the linguist completes work and you mark the file as Done, Smartcat automatically generates and pays the invoice from the reserved funds

• If the final cost is lower than the reserved amount, the difference is credited back to your balance automatically

Benefits

• Linguists are guaranteed payment before work begins, supporting a reliable Marketplace

• You confirm the expected cost before any work starts — no billing surprises after delivery

• Unused reserved funds are returned to your balance automatically after job completion

Reference this article when you need to:

• Understand why your account requires prepayment

• Check your current prepayment balance before assigning a linguist

• Add funds to your balance before starting a Marketplace project

• Understand how funds are held, allocated, and released during a project

• Estimate how much to add before an upcoming project

• Understand what happens to funds if a job is cancelled or costs less than estimated

• Request a refund of unused balance funds

1. Go to Workspace → Payments

2. Select Balance from the navigation

3. Your current balance is shown for each currency you have funded

💡 Your balance may show multiple currencies. The currency used for a specific job matches the currency of the linguist's rate for that job.

You can see your available balance in each currency before assigning a linguist.

When you attempt to assign a Marketplace linguist and your balance is insufficient, Smartcat prompts you to top up before proceeding. You can also add funds proactively at any time.

1. Go to Workspace → Payments → Balance

2. Select the currency you want to fund

3. Click Top up balance

4. Enter the amount and select your payment method

5. Confirm the payment

⚠️ Bank transfers may take up to 5 business days to reflect in your balance. Card and PayPal payments are available immediately.

For full details on payment methods (credit/debit card, PayPal, bank transfer), supported currencies, and saving card details, see Top up your Smartcat balance (methods and currencies).

Your balance is increased and available for linguist assignments.

1. Open your project and navigate to the workflow stage where you want to assign a linguist

2. Click Assign linguist and select from the Marketplace

3. Review the cost breakdown — Smartcat shows the expected total based on job scope, the linguist's rate, and the applicable service fee

4. Confirm the assignment

⚠️ The expected cost is reserved from your balance immediately when you confirm. Your available balance decreases by this amount. You cannot confirm the assignment if your balance is insufficient.

Result: The linguist is assigned, the expected cost is reserved from your balance, and work can begin.

1. Review the linguist's completed work in the CAT editor

2. Set the file status to Done

3. Smartcat automatically generates an invoice for the final cost

4. The invoice is paid automatically from the reserved funds

   • If the final cost is lower than reserved, the difference is credited back to your balance

   • If the final cost in the customer's billing currency becomes higher than reserved, prepayment releases to balance and a job invoice is created as usual, but the prepayment is not enough to cover the invoice automatically. As a result:

     1. If the balance had any money before the prepayment release and it is enough to cover the cost difference, the invoice is paid automatically with these funds

     2. If there is not enough money on the balance, the invoice must be paid manually

5. Smartcat transfers the funds to the linguist's Smartcat balance

💡 Funds are transferred to the linguist's balance after Finance team verification. Linguists can typically withdraw within 5 days of funds arriving.

The job is invoiced, the linguist is paid, and any unused reserved funds are returned to your balance.

Use this when you want to top up proactively rather than waiting to be prompted.

1. Open your project or draft project

2. Go to the project statistics or cost breakdown section

3. Note the estimated word count

4. Check the linguist's rate per word — visible on their profile or during the assignment step

5. Calculate: estimated word count × linguist rate = base cost

6. Add Smartcat's service fee on top of the base cost

7. Add a 10–15% buffer to account for scope changes or additional segments

💡 If you regularly run projects of similar scope, your historical invoices in Payments → Supplier Payments are the most reliable guide to your typical per-project spend.

💡 If you share your project ID or URL with a support agent, they can walk you through the cost breakdown in your project dashboard and suggest a specific top-up amount.

You have a prepayment estimate and can top up your balance before the project begins.

Which accounts use prepayment

• Accounts without an active subscription plan

• Accounts on the Basic subscription plan, unless otherwise agreed with Smartcat

• Accounts on paid plans where advance payment is defined in the agreement

• Accounts transitioned to prepayment due to overdue Marketplace invoices

Post-payment (Enterprise)

Enterprise plan accounts may be set up for post-payment, where Marketplace services are invoiced after work is accepted according to the terms of the agreement. If you are not prompted to add funds when assigning a linguist, your account likely operates on post-payment terms. Contact your account manager to confirm.

⚠️ Accounts with overdue Marketplace invoices may be transitioned to prepayment automatically. If this happens, you will be notified and must fund your balance before assigning new linguists.

Balance and reservation constraints

• The expected cost is reserved from your balance at the moment of linguist assignment — not when work completes

• You cannot assign a linguist if your available balance is insufficient to cover the estimated cost

• Balance is workspace-specific — funds added to one workspace are not available in other workspaces, even within the same organization

• Bank transfers take up to 5 days to appear in your balance

Changing your payment model

• Moving from prepayment to post-payment requires Enterprise plan terms — this cannot be changed via self-service

• Contact Sales or your account manager to discuss plan options

Refunds and credit-backs

• If the final job cost is lower than the amount reserved, the difference is automatically credited back to your balance — no action required

• If a linguist assignment is cancelled before work begins, the reserved funds are released back to your balance

• If you have a surplus balance you wish to refund, contact Smartcat Support — refund eligibility and processing times depend on the original payment method and your agreement terms