# The highest-paying domain experts platforms, ranked by live rates

Ranked by the median top hourly rate in domain experts listings, counted as distinct listed rates at the top of each pay band. A platform re-posting one pay band across hundreds of country variants counts once. Full rules: https://aipaylist.com/methodology

## Ranked by typical top rate (live feeds), as of 2026-10-25

| Rank | Platform | Median top | Typical (P25 to P75) | Highest | Distinct rates | Listings |
| ---: | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 1 | [Mercor](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/mercor) | $120/hr | $85 to $170/hr | $450/hr | 43 | 90 |
| 2 | [micro1](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/micro1) | $110/hr | $70 to $140/hr | $400/hr | 67 | 157 |
| 3 | [Terac](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/terac) | $105/hr | $90 to $126/hr | $210/hr | 10 | 14 |
| 4 | [AfterQuery](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/afterquery) | $100/hr | $70 to $123/hr | $175/hr | 32 | 93 |
| 5 | [Turing](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/turing) | $100/hr | $30 to $100/hr | $150/hr | 5 | 8 |
| 6 | [Alignerr](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/alignerr) | $80/hr | $60 to $120/hr | $200/hr | 32 | 173 |
| 7 | [Handshake AI](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/handshake-ai) | $80/hr | $60 to $120/hr | $300/hr | 25 | 83 |
| 8 | [Braintrust](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/braintrust) | $75/hr | $23 to $105/hr | $150/hr | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | [Meridial (Invisible)](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/meridial) | $70/hr | $65 to $100/hr | $200/hr | 11 | 71 |
| 10 | [SME Careers](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/sme-careers) | $70/hr | $30 to $85/hr | $120/hr | 14 | 89 |
| 11 | [Rise Data Labs](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/rise-data-labs) | $50/hr | $45 to $150/hr | $150/hr | 7 | 13 |

- Mercor: One of the largest AI-work marketplaces; $10B valuation (Oct 2025). Rates and roles verified from their public listings.
- micro1: Fast-growing Scale AI challenger ($500M valuation). Apply once, AI interview, then matched to projects.
- Terac: AI-native expert panel blending market research with frontier-AI evaluation work. The public board at terac.com/opportunities is readable without an account. Its board showed 73 open opportunities on 2026-08-26. Only 17 of them pay by the hour, 46 pay a one-time fee and 10 pay per task.
- AfterQuery: YC-backed expert data platform. Its public board showed 126 open listings on 2026-08-26, each printing its own rate, no account needed.
- Turing: Checked 2026-09-19: San Francisco company that supplies coding, STEM and expert training data to frontier AI labs, according to its own help centre. Its public board at work.turing.com/jobs showed 226 roles, nearly all remote contract work. Its on-site and hybrid office roles are not carried here. Applying needs a Turing account
- Alignerr: Alignerr shows each job many times over. Its board showed 5,530 listings on 2026-08-26 but only 469 separate jobs. Some are copied once per city, with the city name dropped into a single sentence of an otherwise identical posting, and every listing still says Remote. Others are simply repeated, word for word or lightly reworded. This directory lists each job once. Listings carry no date, and some workers report slow payment resolution, so apply with that in mind.
- Handshake AI: PhD and graduate-focused AI training fellowship. Its own board showed 203 open roles on 2026-08-26, each on its own public page with a rate, no account needed.
- Braintrust: Checked 2026-09-12: Trustpilot reviewers describe long screening processes and unsolicited contact after applying. These are individual reports about the marketplace, not verified outcomes for every employer
- Meridial (Invisible): Invisible Technologies' expert-contractor network. 800+ open freelance AI-trainer projects.
- SME Careers: Checked 2026-10-04: SME Careers describes itself in its postings as an AI data services company and subsidiary of SuperAnnotate, and on 2026-10-03 its site footer named SME Solutions Inc. Its public board at sme.careers/jobs showed 261 roles to a signed-out visitor, each with its rate, behind 1,695 country postings, and 1,598 of those postings were remote contract work. 955 of the 1,695 said in their own text that there was no immediate project for the role, and this directory does not list them. On 2026-10-03 a role's own panel listed one application step, an AI interview for that role, and applying sent a signed-out visitor to sign in or sign up first. Some postings say selection then adds a domain task and a recruiter interview
- Rise Data Labs: Checked 2026-09-12: public roles cover annotation, coding, languages and domain expertise. The board remains the source of availability, including older listings that are still posted

## Frequently asked

**Which platforms pay the most for domain experts work?**

Mercor currently shows the highest median top rate in this field ($120/hr, n=43 distinct rates) among platforms with enough published rates to rank, as of 2026-10-25. The table on this page recomputes from live feeds.

**Are these rates real or marketing numbers?**

Every figure is the top of an posted band read from the platform's own public job feed, counted once per distinct rate. Per-task pay is never converted into an hourly equivalent. Full rules are on the methodology page.

**Where are the live domain experts roles?**

The domain experts job page lists every open role in this field with its listed rate. This ranking only covers platforms that publish enough distinct rates to support a median.

Live domain experts roles, each with its listed rate: https://aipaylist.com/jobs/domain-experts
Site-wide ranking: https://aipaylist.com/best/highest-paying-ai-training-platforms

Some outbound links on the HTML page are referral links, and they are never a ranking factor.

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Source: AIPayList (https://aipaylist.com/best/highest-paying-domain-experts-platforms)
Observed: 2026-10-25
Licence: CC BY 4.0. Reuse freely with a link to the source URL.
Method: rates are read from each platform's own public job feed. One vote per unique platform+rate band, counted at the top of the band (the most the role says it can pay). Per-task pay is never converted to hourly. No benchmark is published below 5 distinct listed rates. Population: since 2026-08-26 a role must show at least $10/hr (or $10 per task) to be listed, so these figures describe listed roles rather than all AI work; lower-paid rating work exists and is not represented. Full rules: https://aipaylist.com/methodology