{"edition":"2026-09","title":"AIPayList AI Work Pay Index, September 2026 edition","frozen":true,"note":"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.","name":"AIPayList AI Work Pay Index","as_of":"2026-09-23T21:30:20.541Z","license":"CC BY 4.0: reuse freely with a link to https://aipaylist.com/pay/editions/2026-09","methodology":"https://aipaylist.com/methodology","units":"USD per hour; distinct advertised rates (one vote per unique platform+range); percentiles of the top of each advertised band (basis since 2026-08-25; midpoints with ceilings excluded before that); per-task pay excluded","population":"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.","pay_floor_usd":10,"open_jobs":2930,"overall":{"p25":45,"median":80,"p75":120,"n":525,"nListings":2793},"fields":[{"key":"engineering","label":"Software engineering","median":100,"p25":70,"p75":130,"distinct_rates":88,"listings":406},{"key":"medicine","label":"Medicine & health","median":100,"p25":80,"p75":155,"distinct_rates":45,"listings":120},{"key":"law","label":"Law & legal","median":130,"p25":100,"p75":180,"distinct_rates":31,"listings":101},{"key":"business","label":"Business & other experts","median":60,"p25":50,"p75":90,"distinct_rates":55,"listings":174},{"key":"finance","label":"Finance","median":100,"p25":90,"p75":140,"distinct_rates":42,"listings":152},{"key":"audio","label":"Voice & audio","median":31,"p25":24,"p75":50,"distinct_rates":42,"listings":317},{"key":"security","label":"Cybersecurity","median":95,"p25":60,"p75":175,"distinct_rates":11,"listings":54},{"key":"model_eval","label":"Model evaluation & rating","median":40,"p25":25,"p75":75,"distinct_rates":20,"listings":204},{"key":"science","label":"Science & math","median":80,"p25":61,"p75":110,"distinct_rates":38,"listings":174},{"key":"multilingual","label":"Multilingual","median":36,"p25":22,"p75":52,"distinct_rates":53,"listings":682},{"key":"writing","label":"Writing & content","median":50,"p25":40,"p75":80,"distinct_rates":6,"listings":33},{"key":"annotation","label":"Data annotation","median":20,"p25":15,"p75":35,"distinct_rates":20,"listings":55}],"platforms":[{"id":"afterquery","name":"AfterQuery","median":110,"p25":80,"p75":145,"top":200,"distinct_rates":75,"listings":206},{"id":"terac","name":"Terac","median":90,"p25":40,"p75":105,"top":210,"distinct_rates":10,"listings":11},{"id":"mercor","name":"Mercor","median":84,"p25":56,"p75":125,"top":400,"distinct_rates":122,"listings":326},{"id":"micro1","name":"micro1","median":80,"p25":50,"p75":120,"top":400,"distinct_rates":120,"listings":359},{"id":"handshake-ai","name":"Handshake AI","median":80,"p25":55,"p75":110,"top":300,"distinct_rates":29,"listings":218},{"id":"alignerr","name":"Alignerr","median":75,"p25":50,"p75":120,"top":400,"distinct_rates":66,"listings":556},{"id":"xai","name":"xAI Specialist AI Tutors","median":75,"p25":75,"p75":100,"top":100,"distinct_rates":5,"listings":25},{"id":"meridial","name":"Meridial (Invisible)","median":45,"p25":28,"p75":65,"top":200,"distinct_rates":29,"listings":762},{"id":"rise-data-labs","name":"Rise Data Labs","median":45,"p25":40,"p75":60,"top":150,"distinct_rates":11,"listings":88},{"id":"claru","name":"Claru","median":35,"p25":25,"p75":50,"top":100,"distinct_rates":11,"listings":40},{"id":"braintrust","name":"Braintrust","median":31,"p25":17,"p75":75,"top":150,"distinct_rates":22,"listings":31},{"id":"innodata","name":"Innodata","median":21,"p25":20,"p75":30,"top":80,"distinct_rates":5,"listings":19}]}