Data report · updated 18 Oct 2026
The State of AI Training Pay, 2026
AI training work pays a typical $35–$120/hr (median $65/hr), measured from 2,453 distinct advertised rates across 26 platforms and the 3,684 roles open right now. Advertised rates run from $2/hr for microtasks to $450/hr for credentialed expert work.
Key findings
What the data says right now
By kind of work
Median hourly pay, highest first
Only kinds of work with a live rate across at least three platforms are shown, so each figure is a market rate, not one vendor's card. The bar is the median; the range is typical pay, measured the same way as every band on the site.
Want the interactive version, with an earnings estimator and every platform's band? Open the pay explorer.
By platform
Highest-paying platforms right now
Platforms whose live job feed states enough real hourly rates to measure, ranked by median. Each links to its full review.
Where the work is
Open roles by kind of work
Pay is only half the picture. This is where the hiring actually is right now, by live open-role count, and how fast new roles are appearing.
- Week of 14 Sep 2026202
- Week of 21 Sep 2026354
- Week of 28 Sep 2026304
- Week of 5 Oct 2026232
(202 + 354 + 304 + 232) ÷ 4 = 273, about 273 a week.
New roles posted per week
Averaged over the last 4 complete weeks across the platforms we track. Each platform’s one-time onboarding backlog is excluded, so this counts genuine new hiring, not the first import of existing listings.
How we measured this
Methodology
Every figure in this report is measured from the live job feeds of the 29 platforms hiring now (of the 65 platforms AITraining.jobs tracks in total), refreshed daily. We read the hourly rate a role actually advertises, dedupe repeated listings of the same role at the same rate on the same platform, and exclude advertised maximums (“up to $X/hr”) because a ceiling is not an observed wage.
“Typical” pay runs from the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each advertised range) to the 90th-percentile advertised ceiling, so it includes the well-paid expert tier, and every band in this report (the market’s, each kind of work’s, each platform’s) is measured that same way from its own open roles, the figure its list on the job board states. A kind of work is reported as a market rate only when its rate spans at least three platforms, so no single vendor’s rate card is presented as the going rate. Figures last refreshed 18 Oct 2026. Read the full methodology.
Use this data
Cite or reuse these figures
Free to quote and reuse under CC BY 4.0: credit AITraining.jobs and link to this report. The figures are re-measured daily, so cite the date.
AITraining.jobs. The State of AI Training Pay, 2026. Data as of 2026-10-18. https://www.aitraining.run/ai-training-pay-report
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AI training pay: common questions
How much does AI training work pay?
Typical AI-training work pays $35–$120/hr, a live median of $65/hr measured from 2,453 distinct advertised rates across 26 platforms. Simple data-labeling and survey work sits at the bottom (priced by geography, as low as $2/hr); credentialed expert, coding, and RL-environment work reaches $450/hr.
What is the highest-paying kind of AI training work?
Of the kinds of work with a live market rate right now, Research Studies & Surveys pays the most: a median of $100/hr (typical $80–$100/hr), measured across 4 platforms.
Do AI training platforms publish what they pay?
About 83% of the 3,684 roles open right now state an hourly rate; the remaining 638 set pay per project after you qualify. This report measures only the rates that are actually advertised, so the numbers reflect what real postings say rather than a marketing "average".
How many new AI training roles open each week?
About 273 new AI-training roles are posted per week across the platforms we track, averaged over the last 4 complete weeks. Each platform's one-time onboarding backlog is excluded, so this reflects genuine new hiring rather than the initial import of existing listings.
Is this pay data current?
Yes. Every figure is recomputed from the platforms' live job feeds, last refreshed 18 Oct 2026. Advertised maximums ("up to $X/hr") are excluded because a ceiling is not an observed rate, and repeated listings of the same role at the same rate are counted once.