Skip to content

Research report ยท August 2026 edition

How AI Training Roles Advertise Pay

On 31 Aug 2026, 89.1% of 1,591 open AI training roles stated an hourly rate, with a median of $65/hr and 67.1% at $50/hr or more.

Read the month's story: The AI Training Job Market in August 2026

Data window
1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026
31 days, UTC
Frozen
10 Oct 2026, 08:03 UTC
These figures will not change
Source
The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every day.
Method
Version 1. Definitions
CC BY 4.0, how to cite

Every figure on this page as CSV and JSON, sent to your work email.

of open roles state an hourly rate
89%
roles stating a rate
1,418
median advertised rate
$65/hr
of priced roles advertise $100/hr or more
19%

Key findings

  1. 1

    89.1% of the 1,591 AI training roles open on 31 Aug 2026 stated an hourly rate; the rest left pay to a later step or paid per task or project.

    Figure 1
  2. 2

    Agentic Tasks & RL Environments roles stated a rate most often (100%), Transcription, Audio & Speech roles least often (72.3%).

    Figure 1
  3. 3

    3 of the 12 platforms with at least 10 open roles stated a rate on every role; TransPerfect DataForce stated one on none of its 31 roles.

    Figure 2
  4. 4

    67.1% of roles that state a rate advertise $50/hr or more, and 19.3% advertise $100/hr or more.

    Figure 3
  5. 5

    On the platforms tracked throughout, the advertised median rose from $65/hr on 1 Aug 2026 to $65/hr on 31 Aug 2026 (0%).

    Figure 5
  6. 6

    The widest advertised ranges were in Transcription, Audio & Speech (top 10.83x the bottom) and the narrowest in Red-Teaming & AI Safety (1.29x).

    Figure 4

Figure 1

How often roles state an hourly rate, by kind of work

Which kinds of AI training work tell you what they pay before you apply?

Kind of workRoles stating an hourly rateOpen roles
Agentic Tasks & RL Environments
100.0%
17
Red-Teaming & AI Safety
100.0%
16
AI Evaluation & Rating (RLHF)
98.6%
222
Law, Medicine & Finance
96.5%
431
Math & STEM
95.6%
158
Coding & Software Evaluation
95.2%
126
Robotics & Physical-AI Data
94.1%
17
Writing & Content
82.4%
17
Multilingual & Localization
78.0%
432
Data Annotation & Labeling
76.7%
30
Transcription, Audio & Speech
72.3%
119
Research Studies & SurveysSmall sample
50.0%
6

Sample. 1,591 roles open on 31 Aug 2026; 1,418 state an hourly rate.

A role states pay when its posting gives an hourly figure or range. Roles paid per task or per project, or that state no figure, do not.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, How AI Training Roles Advertise Pay, August 2026 edition.

Figure 2

How often roles state an hourly rate, by platform

Which platforms publish their rates, and which leave pay until after you qualify?

PlatformRoles stating an hourly rateOpen roles
AfterQuery
100.0%
161
Alignerr
100.0%
17
Mindrift
100.0%
13
Outlier (Scale AI)Small sample
100.0%
9
Invisible
99.4%
523
micro1
99.0%
292
Mercor
97.2%
325
xAI (SpaceXAI)
92.6%
27
Braintrust
79.7%
69
RemotasksSmall sample
66.7%
3
Terac
38.9%
18
Appen
16.7%
24
Sigma AI
0.0%
79
TransPerfect DataForce
0.0%
31

Sample. 1,591 roles open on 31 Aug 2026.

Rows under 10 open roles are marked as a small sample.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, How AI Training Roles Advertise Pay, August 2026 edition.

Figure 3

How advertised hourly rates are distributed

What share of AI training roles pay $50 an hour or more?

Advertised rateOpen rolesShare of priced roles
Under $15/hr40
2.8%
$15 to $25/hr56
3.9%
$25 to $35/hr72
5.1%
$35 to $50/hr299
21.1%
$50 to $75/hr466
32.9%
$75 to $100/hr212
15.0%
$100 to $150/hr211
14.9%
$150/hr or more62
4.4%

Sample. 1,418 roles open on 31 Aug 2026 that state an hourly rate.

Each role counts once, at the middle of its advertised range.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, How AI Training Roles Advertise Pay, August 2026 edition.

Figure 4

How wide advertised pay ranges are, by kind of work

When a role gives a range, how far apart are the top and the bottom?

Kind of workTop of range / bottomMedian width
Transcription, Audio & Speech
10.83x
$59
Multilingual & Localization
8.13x
$57
Data Annotation & Labeling
2.00x
$14
Writing & Content
2.00x
$40
AI Evaluation & Rating (RLHF)
1.80x
$37
Agentic Tasks & RL Environments
1.67x
$40
Math & STEM
1.54x
$40
Coding & Software Evaluation
1.50x
$40
Law, Medicine & Finance
1.50x
$40
Robotics & Physical-AI Data
1.35x
$4
Red-Teaming & AI Safety
1.29x
$14
Research Studies & SurveysSmall sample
n/a
n/a

Sample. Roles open on 31 Aug 2026 that state an hourly rate; medians over the roles that give a range (top above bottom).

A ratio of 2.00x means the top of a typical range is twice its bottom: where a worker lands inside it is decided after they qualify.

Medians need at least 8 roles giving a range.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, How AI Training Roles Advertise Pay, August 2026 edition.

Figure 5

Change in the advertised median over the window

Are advertised rates for AI training work rising or falling?

Kind of workMedian on 1 Aug 2026Median on 31 Aug 2026Change
All kinds of work$65
$65
0.0%
AI Evaluation & Rating (RLHF)$54
$75
+39.5%
Multilingual & Localization$48
$65
+34.6%
Coding & Software Evaluation$65
$70
+7.7%
Law, Medicine & Finance$75
$78
+3.3%
Agentic Tasks & RL Environments$50
$50
0.0%
Transcription, Audio & Speech$36
$36
0.0%
Math & STEM$65
$65
0.0%
Red-Teaming & AI Safety$65
$55
-15.4%
Data Annotation & Labeling$24
$18
-25.5%
Research Studies & SurveysSmall samplen/a
n/a
n/a
Robotics & Physical-AI DataSmall samplen/a
$13
n/a
Writing & ContentSmall samplen/a
$48
n/a

Sample. Roles stating an hourly rate that were open at the start of 1 Aug 2026 and at the end of 31 Aug 2026, on the platforms tracked throughout.

The median moves when the mix of open roles changes as much as when rates change: it describes what is advertised, not a raise for any one role.

Medians need at least 8 priced roles at each end.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, How AI Training Roles Advertise Pay, August 2026 edition.

For labs, data vendors and researchers

Buy the data behind this report

The figures above are a summary. Behind them are records we collect ourselves, every day:

  • 10,289 roles tracked, each with its history

    Every role on 29 job boards, read daily since 13 Jul 2026: its pay and place, and the first and last day it was open.

  • 6,200 apply clicks in 28 days

    Which roles people actually apply to, by field, pay and kind of work. It happens on this site, so nobody else can count it.

  • 39 lab and vendor hiring boards

    The job boards of 25 AI labs and 14 human-data vendors, read every day: who is hiring for human data, and who is hiring to buy it.

What you can buy

  • The records

    The rows behind any figure, with their history, not only the totals.

  • A regular feed

    The same figures every week or month, as files.

  • A custom cut or benchmark

    Your countries, languages or fields, or your own platform against the market.

Method and definitions

The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every day. Every figure is computed by one database query over the window shown, the same query for the live report and for every edition. Each figure states its sample beneath it.

Stating pay
A role states pay when its posting gives an hourly figure or range. Per-task or per-project pay, and postings with no figure, do not count.
Advertised pay
The hourly figure a posting states (the middle of a stated range). Medians need at least 8 roles stating a rate; the middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
Range ratio
The top of an advertised range divided by its bottom, for roles that give a range.
Open role
A role listed by a given day and still in its platform's feed that day.
Kind of work
Each role is classified from its title and description into one of the twelve kinds of AI training work this site tracks, from AI evaluation and coding to multilingual and audio work. Every kind links to its own page.
Window
Live: the last 28 complete days, in UTC. Edition: one calendar month, in UTC.

What this data cannot tell you

  • Platforms that recruit without a public job board are not counted. Several large ones invite workers to projects directly.
  • A listing is not a hire. Some platforms keep evergreen roles open for months, and some post one listing per language or country.
  • Pay is what postings advertise, not what workers are paid after bonuses, tiers or rejected tasks.

How the job feeds are read and roles are classified: site methodology. How fresh, complete and consistent the data is, checked every day: data quality and coverage.

Editions

The live report covers the last 28 complete days and changes every day. Each complete month is also published as an edition, frozen two days after the month ends, so a figure you cite from an edition never moves.

Cite and reuse

Free to quote, chart and republish under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. This edition is frozen, so its figures will read the same later.

Citation

AITraining.jobs (2026). How AI Training Roles Advertise Pay, August 2026 edition. https://www.aitraining.run/research/pay-transparency/2026-08

BibTeX

@misc{aitrainingjobs_pay_transparency_2026_08,
  author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
  title = {How AI Training Roles Advertise Pay, August 2026 edition},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://www.aitraining.run/research/pay-transparency/2026-08}},
}
Data: every figure as CSV (one line per value) and JSON, sent to your work email.Pay and open-roles data

More research

All 78 research reports