# AI training market map

Viral lists mix training, annotation, and crowdwork. This map separates the lanes by who can get in, then shows what each lane shows. Listed pay is not earnings. Snapshot: 3,293 open AI training gigs, typical listed top $34–$110/hr (median $70/hr), as of 2026-10-25.

## Specialist networks

The typical listing asks for a profession, a degree or years in a field.

- [10x Team](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/10x-team): Senior European professionals as freelance AI trainers for AI labs, a euro hourly range on every role. On-board. 126 open roles, too few distinct US dollar rates for a benchmark median.
  To start: Apply on the posting's form. 10x Team then emails the steps, a short written assessment and an AI interview.
  Rated elsewhere: Trustpilot 2.6/5 (10 reviews).
- [AfterQuery](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/afterquery): Expert data platform. Public board with a rate on each listing. On-board. 228 open roles, median listed top $93/hr.
  45 of 228 hourly listings share the most common band, $30/hr.
  To start: Choose an expert pool and take its unpaid, single-attempt assessment. Timing is shown before starting. Onboarding and project matching are separate steps.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 3.2/5 (10 ratings), Trustpilot 2.8/5 (115 reviews).
- [Alignerr](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/alignerr): Labelbox expert network. Structured hourly bands on a public jobs API. On-board. 629 open roles, median listed top $75/hr.
  97 of 629 hourly listings share the most common band, $40–$120/hr.
  To start: Create a profile and apply to a job. Phone and ID verification are required. Some roles add a Zara interview or domain assessment.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 2.2/5 (21 reviews), Trustpilot 4.5/5 (2,987 reviews).
- [Handshake AI](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/handshake-ai): Graduate AI training fellowship. Public opportunity pages with a listed ceiling. On-board. 235 open roles, median listed top $77/hr.
  42 of 235 hourly listings share the most common band, up to $75/hr.
  To start: Apply to the fellowship and complete your profile. Project selection may add evaluations, training or a portfolio review. Requirements vary by opportunity.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 3.1/5 (317 reviews, Handshake (all roles)), Trustpilot 1.2/5 (129 reviews).
- [Mercor](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/mercor): Expert network. Public hourly rates on contractor roles. On-board. 279 open roles, median listed top $105/hr.
  14 of 248 hourly listings share the most common band, $70–$110/hr.
  To start: Account and CV, then an AI interview of about 20 minutes. My reply planning estimate is 2 to 4 weeks. Check your application status for the decision.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 4.2/5 (197 reviews), Trustpilot 4.5/5 (1,198 reviews).
- [micro1](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/micro1): Expert network. Public hourly rates on contractor roles. On-board. 374 open roles, median listed top $80/hr.
  16 of 366 hourly listings share the most common band, $40–$80/hr.
  To start: Account and CV. My estimate: 20 to 30 minutes of questions, plus about 25 to 30 minutes if an exercise is required. Check the full estimate for your role.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 4.7/5 (22 reviews, AI Trainer role), Glassdoor 4.4/5 (190 reviews).
- [SME Careers](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/sme-careers): SuperAnnotate's expert network. Public board with a structured rate on every role, set per country. On-board. 760 open roles, median listed top $50/hr.
  149 of 760 hourly listings share the most common band, up to $20/hr.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 4.3/5 (51 reviews, SuperAnnotate (all roles)).
- [Terac](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/terac): Expert panel and AI evaluation work. Public opportunity pages. On-board. 72 open roles, median listed top $90/hr.
  6 of 27 hourly listings share the most common band, $90/hr.
  To start: Verify your phone and review your profile. Optional onboarding interview: about 10 minutes. Some opportunities add screening of about 3 minutes.
  Rated elsewhere: Trustpilot 4.5/5 (51 reviews).
- [Turing](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/turing): Coding and expert contracts for frontier AI labs. Public board, a rate on a minority of roles. On-board. 226 open roles, median listed top $100/hr.
  13 of 25 hourly listings share the most common band, $15/hr.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 3.5/5 (793 reviews), Trustpilot 2.3/5 (205 reviews).
- [Vetto](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/vetto): Expert review and scenario writing for AI projects, paid a fixed fee per approved task. On-board. 14 open roles, too few distinct US dollar rates for a benchmark median.
  1 of 1 hourly listings share the most common band, $100/hr.
  To start: Apply on Vetto's Greenhouse form and answer its screening questions in English, or Portuguese where the role allows it. Vetto says it blocks applications written with AI.
- [xAI Specialist AI Tutors](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/xai): Direct contractor tutor roles on the xAI careers board. On-board. 11 open roles, too few distinct US dollar rates for a benchmark median.
  5 of 11 hourly listings share the most common band, $35–$45/hr.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 4.3/5 (22 reviews, AI Tutor role), Glassdoor 3.6/5 (53 reviews).

## Open to newcomers

The typical listing asks for a language, a skill test or general ability, behind an assessment or an evaluation.

- [Babel Audio](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/babel-audio): Voice data collection. Public role pages with a published rate. On-board. 43 open roles, too few distinct US dollar rates for a benchmark median.
  2 of 3 hourly listings share the most common band, $17.5/hr.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 4.7/5 (14 reviews), Trustpilot 3.7/5 (121 reviews).
- [Braintrust](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/braintrust): AI training and data work posted by employers on a public freelance marketplace. On-board. 26 open roles, median listed top $31/hr.
  3 of 25 hourly listings share the most common band, $40–$90/hr.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 3.9/5 (42 reviews), Trustpilot 1.7/5 (20 reviews).
- [Claru](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/claru): Annotation, model evaluation and video capture with public compensation. On-board. 40 open roles, median listed top $35/hr.
  10 of 40 hourly listings share the most common band, $10/hr.
- [DataAnnotation](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/dataannotation): Public recruitment tracks with listed role rates, refreshed from the provider's board. Posting dates are not supplied. On-board. 112 open roles, too few distinct US dollar rates for a benchmark median.
  63 of 112 hourly listings share the most common band, up to $125/hr.
  To start: Account, then a one-attempt Starter Assessment of about an hour. Specialist assessments can take one to two hours. Approval depends on review and matching work.
  Workers report: Workers on r/dataannotation describe $20 to $25 an hour on generalist projects and $30 to $40 on coding, with $40 to $50 the highest figures they cite. Glassdoor self-reports run $30 to $55 an hour, average $39 from 114 reports as of March 2026. The board's $125 and $150 ceilings appear in no worker report we found.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 4.0/5 (650 reviews), Trustpilot 3.9/5 (1,975 reviews).
- [Fleet AI](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/fleet-ai): Domain expert Fellow contracts for evaluating AI in professional workflows. On-board. No open roles in the latest feed pull.
- [G2i](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/g2i): AI coding evaluation contracts with published hourly ranges. On-board. No open roles in the latest feed pull.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 3.6/5 (19 reviews), Trustpilot 4.2/5 (51 reviews).
- [Grayder](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/grayder): Life science AI work for doctors, scientists and regulatory specialists, with a published hourly rate on every role. On-board. 14 open roles, median listed top $50/hr.
  3 of 14 hourly listings share the most common band, $10/hr.
- [iMerit Scholars](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/imerit-scholars): AI evaluation and annotation contracts with explicit published rates. On-board. 8 open roles, too few distinct US dollar rates for a benchmark median.
  3 of 8 hourly listings share the most common band, $35/hr.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 3.4/5 (465 reviews, iMerit (all roles)), Trustpilot 2.0/5 (10 reviews, iMerit company profile).
- [Innodata](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/innodata): Contributor AI evaluation roles with published hourly compensation. On-board. 22 open roles, median listed top $20/hr.
  17 of 21 hourly listings share the most common band, $15/hr.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 2.4/5 (62 reviews, Generative AI Associate role), Glassdoor 3.7/5 (958 reviews).
- [Lionbridge](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/lionbridge): Freelance transcription and data collection projects country by country, with a structured rate on each. On-board. 45 open roles, median listed top $22/hr.
  6 of 40 hourly listings share the most common band, $15–$20/hr.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 3.4/5 (2,710 reviews), Trustpilot 1.7/5 (42 reviews).
- [Meridial (Invisible)](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/meridial): Freelance AI trainer projects, most in one wide band with the rate set after evaluation. Public Greenhouse board. On-board. 769 open roles, median listed top $45/hr.
  375 of 762 hourly listings share the most common band, $8–$65/hr.
  To start: Apply to a project. The posted band is a band, and the exact rate is set after evaluation.
  Workers report: Glassdoor rates Invisible Technologies' AI trainer pay 2.8 of 5 across 60 reviews, at $8 to $65 an hour. On r/Meridial one worker found a project listed at $40 to $60 an hour paid a little under $5 per approved task, and applicants describe a language test followed by a wait for a project match.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 2.9/5 (63 reviews, Invisible AI Trainer role), Glassdoor 3.2/5 (303 reviews, Invisible Technologies (all roles)).
- [Outlier](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/outlier): AI evaluation projects. Public hourly ceilings and role-specific country restrictions. On-board. 1 open roles, too few distinct US dollar rates for a benchmark median.
  1 of 1 hourly listings share the most common band, up to $25/hr.
  To start: General onboarding takes 30 to 90 minutes, including setup, screening and ID checks. Project-specific qualification comes afterward and varies.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 3.2/5 (712 reviews), Trustpilot 4.0/5 (5,539 reviews).
- [Pasiflora AI](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/pasiflora-ai): Open AI data and video projects, separate from future expert talent pools. On-board. 3 open roles, too few distinct US dollar rates for a benchmark median.
  2 of 3 hourly listings share the most common band, $15/hr.
- [Rise Data Labs](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/rise-data-labs): Public AI training and annotation roles across coding, languages and domain expertise. On-board. 88 open roles, median listed top $45/hr.
  39 of 88 hourly listings share the most common band, $15–$45/hr.
- [RWS TrainAI](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/rws-trainai): Language and speech evaluation work for fluent speakers, posted country by country with an hourly rate in nearly every posting. On-board. 71 open roles, median listed top $20/hr.
  13 of 70 hourly listings share the most common band, $18/hr.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 3.2/5 (1,131 reviews, RWS Group (all roles)), Trustpilot 1.8/5 (53 reviews, RWS company profile).
- [Sovrano AI](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/sovrano): Native-speaker evaluation and speech work beside expert deck and case authoring, each posting with its own rate. On-board. 3 open roles, too few distinct US dollar rates for a benchmark median.
  1 of 1 hourly listings share the most common band, $5–$15/hr.
  Rated elsewhere: Trustpilot 4.4/5 (54 reviews).
- [TransPerfect DataForce](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/dataforce): Country-specific AI data collection and writing projects with published task payments. On-board. 15 open roles, too few distinct US dollar rates for a benchmark median.
  Rated elsewhere: Glassdoor 3.0/5 (2,892 reviews, TransPerfect (all roles)), Trustpilot 3.6/5 (141 reviews).
- [Workada](https://aipaylist.com/platforms/workada): Data labeling, video, science and finance AI work, with a published hourly rate on every role. On-board. 5 open roles, median listed top $100/hr.
  1 of 5 hourly listings share the most common band, $100/hr.
  To start: Apply on the role page with a resume. Workada says every role includes a short interview, then identity verification and paid training before tasking.
  Rated elsewhere: Trustpilot 3.6/5 (50 reviews).

## Out of scope / crowd

Crowd microtasks or careers-only boards with no public dated rate feed.

- Appen: Crowd data collection. no public dated rate feed.
- Clickworker: Crowd microtasks. no public dated rate feed.
- Microworkers: Crowd microtasks. no public dated rate feed.
- OneForma: Crowd annotation and linguistics projects. no public dated rate feed.
- Prolific: Paid research studies. insufficient public rate data.
- Remotasks: Crowd annotation. no public dated rate feed.
- TELUS Digital AI: Search and ads rating roles, set country by country. Its own posting template leaves compensation blank. no public dated rate feed.
- Toloka: Crowd tasks. no public dated rate feed.
- Welocalize: Localization and rating work. careers-only.

## Relay boards

These carry other platforms' roles under their own name. The work is usually real, but the employer on the page is not the employer you would be working for, and the rate has been copied rather than published.

Every list of AI training work sits between you and the people paying, this one included. The question is what it does with the employer's name. This directory names the platform that will hire you, links out to that platform, and copies the rate its posting publishes. It never lists a role under its own name, and it never invents a rate. Some outbound links are referral links, and they are never a ranking factor ([disclosure](https://aipaylist.com/disclosure)).

OpenTrain AI's own terms of service (last updated 2026-04-25, checked 2026-09-21) say it may be paid a referral fee or commission by the outside platforms whose jobs it lists when someone it sends is hired there. When we checked on 2026-09-21, the Apply button on a role OpenTrain AI carries from another platform led to a page on OpenTrain's own app asking you to create an OpenTrain account to apply, not to the platform that posted the role. On 2026-09-21 we checked AuraOne's public job feeds and about 40 of its job pages. Every Apply button we found led to AuraOne's own application form on auraone.ai, not to another platform, and we found no referral or affiliate links and no public referral programme. What AuraOne does with an application after that is not public.

Sources:
- [OpenTrain AI terms of service, section 13.3](https://www.opentrain.ai/terms-of-service/) (checked 2026-09-21)
- [An OpenTrain AI job page and its Apply button](https://www.opentrain.ai/jobs/customer-support-ai-task-author--cmsyymucx002a04l87y91ckrz/) (checked 2026-09-21)
- [The OpenTrain page that Apply button leads to](https://app.opentrain.ai/job-detail/cmsyymucx002a04l87y91ckrz) (checked 2026-09-21)
- [AuraOne public jobs feed for Indeed](https://auraone.ai/api/jobs/feed/indeed.xml) (checked 2026-09-21)
- [An AuraOne job page and its Apply button](https://auraone.ai/public/ai-labs/jobs/well-cost-analyst-aoj-0078b9b5dfc8f21141) (checked 2026-09-21)
- [AuraOne terms of service](https://auraone.ai/legal/terms) (checked 2026-09-21)
- [AuraOne partners page](https://auraone.ai/company/partners) (checked 2026-09-21)

- AuraOne (https://aipaylist.com/platforms/auraone): 3,346 specialist roles under its own name. Its own feed gives 1,034 of them a Mercor job id. republishes other platforms' roles.
- OpenTrain AI (https://aipaylist.com/platforms/opentrain): About 1,300 open roles. When counted on 2026-09-05, about a sixth of its titles were near-exact copies of roles on four other boards. republishes other platforms' roles.

## Public growth signals

Growth usually means more client contracts, then more seats over time, and more room to keep listed rates competitive. Use this as a signal, not a promise. A rising company can still reject you or pay below the ceiling.

These are public reported or estimated figures, not audited. Gross includes contractor pay. Mixed years and mixed definitions. If a figure here is wrong, write to contact@aipaylist.com.

Rows follow the source list below, not a ranking of platforms.

| Platform | Public figure | As-of | Source | Note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mercor | about $614M H1 2026 gross | Jul 2026 | [The Information, 21 Jul 2026](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/mercors-fast-growth-relies-biggest-ai-companies-documents-show), [VFF digest of The Information](https://vff.ai/article/2026/07/21/mercor-s-fast-growth-relies-on-biggest-ai-companies-documents-show) | Gross, not net. Primary source is paywalled. |
| Surge (DataAnnotation's parent) | over $1B | 2024 figure, reported 2025 | [Forbes, 17 Sep 2025](https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2025/09/17/the-ai-billionaire-youve-never-heard-of/), [Reuters, 1 Jul 2025](https://www.reuters.com/business/scale-ais-bigger-rival-surge-ai-seeks-up-1-billion-capital-raise-sources-say-2025-07-01/) | Forbes cites $1.2B 2024 revenue. Reported gross/revenue wording, mixed year vs 2026 rows. |
| Handshake | about $1B AI-training run rate | Apr 2026 | [Dealroom, 14 Apr 2026](https://dealroom.co/news/127345-handshakes-arr-crosses-1b-as-ai-training-revenue-surges/) | Gross annualized AI-training revenue, not net. |
| Micro1 | about $500M gross run rate | 20 Aug 2026 | [TechCrunch, 20 Aug 2026](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/20/ai-data-startup-micro1-reaches-500m-gross-run-rate-amid-ai-training-boom/) | Gross run rate, not net. Gross includes contractor pay. Gross is not what the company keeps. |

## How we decide to add a feed

- The posting publishes a rate we can copy, not a pay-discussed-later line.
- The post is dated, or the feed is re-readable, so we can tell when a role closes.
- The listed top meets the $10/hr listing floor.
- We own the ingest adapter and can keep the copy honest when the feed changes.

Listed pay is not earnings. Off-board names carry a qualitative reason only.

---

Source: AIPayList (https://aipaylist.com/market-map)
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