Guide · trust
Is getting paid to train AI legit?
By Alex. First published 2026-09-01. Pay figures as of 2026-09-09, from live platform feeds.
Yes. Mercor, micro1, xAI, Alignerr, AfterQuery and Invisible (Meridial) are real companies with public job boards. This site reads those boards. As of 2026-09-09 that is 2,581 open roles, with typical advertised top rates of $55–$120/hr (median $85/hr, from 449 distinct advertised rates across 8 platforms). You apply on the platform's own site. There is nothing to buy here.
"Legit" is not the same as "pleasant" or "steady". Queues go empty. Assessments are unpaid. A project rate can sit below the headline. Some platforms advertise a ceiling their own contributors never see, which is why this directory has also delisted feeds. None of that makes the whole category a scam.
What a real platform looks like
- A company you can look up, with a jobs board or an application that does not ask you to pay.
- A rate stated in the posting, or an honest "rate set after evaluation" plus a band.
- Payout through a normal processor (PayPal, Deel, Wise, bank) after identity checks.
- No telegram stranger asking you to "train a bot" after you reply to a Facebook ad.
What is not legit
- Anyone who charges you a fee to get the work, to unlock a dashboard, or to "verify your wallet".
- A listing whose only contact method is a personal chat app and a promise of a fortune by tomorrow.
- A site that will not name the company paying you.
- A task that wants your employer's confidential data as "training material".
Outlier and DataAnnotation are real and widely used. They are also profile-only here: they do not publish a public feed we can measure, so this site will not invent an hourly median for them. The alternatives pages list feed platforms that do publish rates.
Outlier alternatives with published rates →Sites like DataAnnotation →How we read rates →Referral disclosure →
How this directory stays honest
- Every listed rate is copied from a platform's own feed, as the top of the advertised band.
- A copied band across many countries counts once.
- Per-task pay stays per-task.
- Feeds that advertised rates contributors did not see were taken down, with the reasons left on the profile page.
- Referral links are labelled and never change the sort.
Common questions
- Is DataAnnotation a scam?
- No. It is a real contractor marketplace (Surge AI). People are paid. The common complaints are a hard starter assessment, a long wait, and a gap between advertised and effective pay. We cannot publish a live median for it because it has no public feed.
- Is Outlier a scam?
- No. It is operated by a Scale AI company. People are paid. The common complaints are empty queues, sudden project pauses, and a rate you only see after onboarding. Same feed limitation as DataAnnotation.
- How do I know a rate on this site is real?
- It was read from the platform's own job feed. The index currently uses 449 distinct advertised rates. Click through to the source listing from any job page. If we cannot read a rate, we say so.