Pay index · frozen edition · September 2026
What AI work paid: the September 2026 edition
These are the pay index figures exactly as they were published at 23 Sep 2026, 21:30 UTC. Unlike the live index, which recomputes several times a day, the figures on this page never change, so a figure quoted from it can still be checked here later.
Computed from 2,793 listings with an hourly rate, country copies included. Once the repeated wide bands described under Units are set aside, they carry 525 distinct advertised rates from the platforms' own job feeds. Every figure is the top of the advertised pay band, the most a role says it can pay, which is not what people typically earn. Roles listed on AIPayList, which requires an advertised rate of at least $10/hr or $10 per task (since 2026-08-26). Lower-paid AI rating work exists and is not represented here. Roles publishing no rate are listed but contribute nothing to these figures. Methodology.
Correction, 28 September 2026: the field table in this edition counted a pay band posted in more than one field only once, in whichever field's listing was read first. So most fields held fewer distinct rates than their own page listed that day, and some medians and ranges differ from that page's. The Business & other experts row was the exception. It measured business, marketing, education and unclassified expert roles but linked to the Business page, so it held more rates than that page. The overall figures and the platform table are not affected. From 28 September 2026 the live index measures each field from the rates its page shows. That row is three rows there, Business & ops, Marketing & sales and Education, and expert roles in none of those fields have no field row, as they have no field page.
- $45 to $120
- typical top rate (p25 to p75)
- $80
- median top rate
- 2,930
- open roles that day
The 2,793 listings above count open listings that carry an hourly rate, each country copy of a role included, while the 2,930 open roles count distinct roles, with country copies folded into one and roles without an hourly rate included.
By field
Highest median first.
| Field | Median | Typical (p25 to p75) | Distinct rates | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Law & legal | $130/hr | $100 to $180 | 31 | 101 |
| Software engineering | $100/hr | $70 to $130 | 88 | 406 |
| Medicine & health | $100/hr | $80 to $155 | 45 | 120 |
| Finance | $100/hr | $90 to $140 | 42 | 152 |
| Cybersecurity | $95/hr | $60 to $175 | 11 | 54 |
| Science & math | $80/hr | $61 to $110 | 38 | 174 |
| Business & other experts | $60/hr | $50 to $90 | 55 | 174 |
| Writing & content | $50/hr | $40 to $80 | 6 | 33 |
| Model evaluation & rating | $40/hr | $25 to $75 | 20 | 204 |
| Multilingual | $36/hr | $22 to $52 | 53 | 682 |
| Voice & audio | $31/hr | $24 to $50 | 42 | 317 |
| Data annotation | $20/hr | $15 to $35 | 20 | 55 |
By platform (at least 5 distinct rates)
The 12 platforms with at least 5 distinct rates each. A platform with fewer has no row here, but its rates still count in the overall figures above.
| Platform | Median | Typical | Top | Distinct | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AfterQuery | $110/hr | $80 to $145 | $200/hr | 75 | 206 |
| Terac | $90/hr | $40 to $105 | $210/hr | 10 | 11 |
| Mercor | $84/hr | $56 to $125 | $400/hr | 122 | 326 |
| micro1 | $80/hr | $50 to $120 | $400/hr | 120 | 359 |
| Handshake AI | $80/hr | $55 to $110 | $300/hr | 29 | 218 |
| Alignerr | $75/hr | $50 to $120 | $400/hr | 66 | 556 |
| xAI Specialist AI Tutors | $75/hr | $75 to $100 | $100/hr | 5 | 25 |
| Meridial (Invisible) | $45/hr | $28 to $65 | $200/hr | 29 | 762 |
| Rise Data Labs | $45/hr | $40 to $60 | $150/hr | 11 | 88 |
| Claru | $35/hr | $25 to $50 | $100/hr | 11 | 40 |
| Braintrust | $31/hr | $17 to $75 | $150/hr | 22 | 31 |
| Innodata | $21/hr | $20 to $30 | $80/hr | 5 | 19 |
Cite this edition
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. The same figures as JSON: /pay/editions/2026-09/json.
In September 2026, the middle half of top hourly rates advertised by AI-work platforms ran from $45 to $120/hr (median top rate $80/hr, n=525 distinct advertised rates, read 2026-09-23). AIPayList Pay Index, September 2026 edition, https://aipaylist.com/pay/editions/2026-09
AIPayList. (2026). AI work pay index, September 2026 edition [Data set]. https://aipaylist.com/pay/editions/2026-09
Units: US dollars an hour. The dollar figures are percentiles of the top of each advertised pay band, and each band counts once per platform however many listings repeat it. The overall and field figures also leave out a band whose top is more than three times its bottom when one platform repeats it on more than 30 listings, because such a band is a disclaimer rather than an offer. The platform rows keep those bands, and the listing counts include their listings. Per-task pay is left out.