Braintrust reviews · researched 4 Oct 2026
Is Braintrust legit?
Yes. Braintrust (Freelance Labs, Inc., San Francisco, founded 2018) is a real company that pays talent by invoice through Wise or Stripe, after the client pays. Many applicants report long screening and no work, and once hired your pay waits on the client: Braintrust pays after the client pays and does not guarantee that clients pay.
, AITraining.jobs lists 78 open Braintrust roles; their typical pay runs $18 to $100 an hour, with a median of $25.
- Trustpilot1.7/520 reviews
- Read 4 Oct 2026
The Braintrust review
Researched October 2026 · 31 sourcesIt pays $18–$100/hr typically (median $25/hr).
Actively hiring, pay independently measured from its live feedAdam Jackson (CEO) and Gabriel Luna-Ostaseski founded Braintrust in San Francisco in 2018; Freelance Labs, Inc. runs the site. It had raised $24 million by October 2020, and in December 2021 Coatue led a $100 million purchase of its BTRST token with Tiger Global. It names clients such as NASA, Porsche, Nestle and Goldman Sachs, and many of the jobs in its listings come from AI-data firms such as Turing and Outlier.
Talent invoice clients in the Braintrust app and are paid by Wise or Stripe. Its terms promise to start payment within 30 days of an invoice unless the client has not paid, and its AI-training page says gig payments go out weekly.
Trustpilot 1.7/5 (20 reviews). Read October 2026.
78 open roles on Braintrust, independently checked 18 Oct 2026.
Fake clients have posted jobs and sent malware-laced code through Braintrust, and impostors pose as staff by email or social media. Real offers come only on the platform, staff never ask for your login, and the real sites are usebraintrust.com and app.usebraintrust.com (braintrust.dev is a different company).
What people praise
- No fee for talent: Braintrust's fee terms charge the client 15% on top of the rate you agree.
- The Better Business Bureau lists no complaints against it in three years (A+ rating, not accredited).
- ID checks run through Persona, and Braintrust says your ID images are not shown to clients, sold, or used to train AI.
What people complain about
- Applicants say they must finish a profile, an ID check and a recorded AI interview before any client sees their application, and that rejections come with no reason.
- Braintrust's own help center says that, due to volume, not every application gets a response.
- Some job seekers call Braintrust's LinkedIn job ads bait, because applying leads to a required Braintrust sign-up first (September 2023 post).
- Reviewers report frequent marketing emails after signing up, and one said strangers contacted them on WhatsApp days after joining.
What has gone wrong
- February 2024. Two freelancers said a fake client invited them to a Braintrust job and had them run project code that hid malware; one said about $12,600 in crypto was drained. No public statement from Braintrust was found.
- August 2023. A Blind user reported fake 'Virtual Assistant' listings on Braintrust from someone posing as a real estate firm; one came down within two days, then more appeared. Since November 2023 Braintrust's help center says it asks some clients for a $500 refundable deposit before a first hire to keep offers legitimate.
Best for: Experienced professionals (Braintrust asks for 3+ years) who want vetted contract or AI-training work with established clients and can wait about 30 days for invoices to be paid. Not for: Newcomers who need fast or guaranteed pay, people in countries outside Braintrust's payout list, and anyone unwilling to share a government ID and record an AI interview before a client sees their application.
Sources for this review
- Braintrust: About
- Braintrust: AI Training Jobs
- Braintrust: Terms of Service (updated Feb 6, 2025)
- Braintrust: Terms of Service, Site Service Fees (updated Jul 19, 2023)
- Braintrust: Terms of Service, Talent Accounts (updated Jul 19, 2023)
- Braintrust Help Center: When do I get paid? (updated Sep 18, 2026)
- Braintrust Help Center: Where does Braintrust send payments?
- Braintrust Help Center: How does the Braintrust Screening process work?
- Braintrust Help Center: Guide: Becoming Approved Talent
- Braintrust Help Center: Identity Verification (IDV)
- Braintrust Help Center: Report Scams and Fraud on Braintrust
- Braintrust Help Center: Braintrust Security Protocols
- Braintrust Help Center: Watch out for some of the more common criminal scam activity
- Braintrust Help Center: Fraud Prevention
- Braintrust: public job listings API (read Oct 4, 2026)
- Every: Braintrust's Founders on How to Run a Decentralised Marketplace (Dec 13, 2021)
- Fortune: Why companies like Porsche and Nestle are turning to worker-owned talent site Braintrust for new hires (Jun 24, 2020)
- CoinDesk: Braintrust Raises $18M to Bring DeFi-Thinking to the Gig Economy (Oct 1, 2020)
- PR Newswire: Coatue and Tiger Global Purchase $100M Braintrust Tokens to Seed Web3 Network Development Initiative (Dec 9, 2021)
- Fortune: Crypto VCs face a harsh reality in the bear market (Jun 1, 2023)
- Fortune: Tiger Global-backed Braintrust bet big on blockchain. Now it's launching an AI-powered hiring platform (Apr 29, 2024)
- BBB: Braintrust business profile
- Trustpilot: usebraintrust.com Reviews
- Glassdoor: Working at Braintrust (search snippet)
- LinkedIn: Samuel Raynor post on Braintrust job ads (Sep 2023)
- Blind: Are jobs listed by braintrust real? (May to Aug 2023)
- GitHub (tayvano/lazarus-bluenoroff-research): Braintrust Job Dev Scams aka freebling.io
- CoinGecko: Braintrust (BTRST) price
- braintrust.com: redirects to www.usebraintrust.com
- TechCrunch: AI evaluation startup Braintrust confirms breach (braintrust.dev, May 6, 2026)
- SiliconANGLE: Braintrust lands $80M funding round (braintrust.dev, Feb 17, 2026)
Got a message from Braintrust?
Its real sites: usebraintrust.com. Paste the message to check the links, the sender and the pay.
What Braintrust's job board shows
Read from its public job board every day: how much it lists, how often it states pay, who may apply and how fast roles come down, against every other platform this site reads.
Braintrust listed 78 open roles on 17 Oct 2026, 2.1% of the 3,668 open across the 29 platforms AITraining.jobs reads, the 13th most.
Counted at the end of each week, Braintrust went from 71 open roles on 9 Aug 2026 to 84 on 11 Oct 2026 (+18.3%); the highest count was 87 on 4 Oct 2026.
From 20 Sep 2026 to 17 Oct 2026, Braintrust posted 32 new listings and removed 34 (listed a median of 18.5 days before removal, against 33.2 days on other platforms); its open roles went from 80 to 78 (-2.5%).
1.3% of its open roles are open to applicants in any country (29.1% on other platforms); 98.7% are limited to listed countries, most often the United States (named by 41.6%).
Braintrust against the other platforms
How does Braintrust compare with the rest of the market on size, pay, reach and turnover?
| Measure | Braintrust | Other platforms | Its rank (1 = highest) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open roles on 17 Oct 2026 | 78 | 3,590 | 13th of 29 |
| Share of all open roles | 2.1% | 97.9% | 13th of 29 |
| New listings in the window | 32 | 2,220 | joint 9th of 29 |
| Kinds of work listed | 7 | 12 | joint 13th of 29 |
| Open roles stating an hourly rate | 73.1% | 82.8% | 16th of 25 |
| Median advertised pay | $25/hr | $65/hr | joint 18th of 22 |
| Open roles accepting any country | 1.3% | 29.1% | 14th of 25 |
| Median days listed, removed roles | 18.5 days | 33.2 days | 11th of 13 |
Open roles at Braintrust, week by week
Is Braintrust listing more AI training roles or fewer?
| Week | Open at the end of the week | New listings |
|---|---|---|
| 3 to 9 Aug | 11 | |
| 10 to 16 Aug | 21 | |
| 17 to 23 Aug | 14 | |
| 24 to 30 Aug | 4 | |
| 31 Aug to 6 Sep | 19 | |
| 7 to 13 Sep | 3 | |
| 14 to 20 Sep | 12 | |
| 21 to 27 Sep | 8 | |
| 28 Sep to 4 Oct | 17 | |
| 5 to 11 Oct | 3 |
Braintrust reviews: questions
Is Braintrust legit?
Yes. Braintrust (Freelance Labs, Inc., San Francisco, founded 2018) is a real company that pays talent by invoice through Wise or Stripe, after the client pays. Many applicants report long screening and no work, and once hired your pay waits on the client: Braintrust pays after the client pays and does not guarantee that clients pay.
Is Braintrust a scam?
No. Braintrust is a real company. Fake clients have posted jobs and sent malware-laced code through Braintrust, and impostors pose as staff by email or social media. Real offers come only on the platform, staff never ask for your login, and the real sites are usebraintrust.com and app.usebraintrust.com (braintrust.dev is a different company).
Does Braintrust pay?
Yes. Established community-owned network with named enterprise and lab clients. Payment reliability generally reported as good. Payouts: Weekly; talent keeps 100% (no talent-side fee). Talent invoice clients in the Braintrust app and are paid by Wise or Stripe. Its terms promise to start payment within 30 days of an invoice unless the client has not paid, and its AI-training page says gig payments go out weekly.
What do workers say about Braintrust?
Trustpilot 1.7/5 (20 reviews), read October 2026. Praise: No fee for talent: Braintrust's fee terms charge the client 15% on top of the rate you agree. Complaints: Applicants say they must finish a profile, an ID check and a recorded AI interview before any client sees their application, and that rejections come with no reason.
Has anything gone wrong at Braintrust?
February 2024: Two freelancers said a fake client invited them to a Braintrust job and had them run project code that hid malware; one said about $12,600 in crypto was drained. No public statement from Braintrust was found. August 2023: A Blind user reported fake 'Virtual Assistant' listings on Braintrust from someone posing as a real estate firm; one came down within two days, then more appeared. Since November 2023 Braintrust's help center says it asks some clients for a $500 refundable deposit before a first hire to keep offers legitimate.
How do I spot a fake Braintrust recruiter?
Fake clients have posted jobs and sent malware-laced code through Braintrust, and impostors pose as staff by email or social media. Real offers come only on the platform, staff never ask for your login, and the real sites are usebraintrust.com and app.usebraintrust.com (braintrust.dev is a different company).
Is Braintrust hiring right now?
Yes. 78 open Braintrust roles are listed on its public job board, read 18 Oct 2026. Counted at the end of each week, Braintrust went from 71 open roles on 9 Aug 2026 to 84 on 11 Oct 2026 (+18.3%); the highest count was 87 on 4 Oct 2026.
Who is Braintrust for?
Best for: Experienced professionals (Braintrust asks for 3+ years) who want vetted contract or AI-training work with established clients and can wait about 30 days for invoices to be paid. Not for: Newcomers who need fast or guaranteed pay, people in countries outside Braintrust's payout list, and anyone unwilling to share a government ID and record an AI interview before a client sees their application.