Key findings
- 1
OpenTrain AI (30.3%), Invisible (19.5%) and micro1 (11.8%) listed the most open roles on 30 Sep 2026; the five largest of the 16 platforms held 80.0% of all open roles.
- 2
Of the 11 platforms with at least 8 roles stating a rate, Terac advertised the highest median, $90/hr, and Braintrust the lowest, $20/hr.
- 3
3 of 13 platforms with at least 10 open roles stated an hourly rate on every one; TransPerfect DataForce stated one on none of its 66 roles.
- 4
micro1 opened all 323 of its roles to applicants anywhere, the most of any platform; Terac opened none of its 18 roles, the fewest.
- 5
Roles came down fastest at TransPerfect DataForce (a median of 24.8 days listed) and stayed up longest at Sigma AI (68.8 days).
Figure 1
Open roles and listing activity by platform
Which platforms list the most AI training roles, and which are growing?
| Platform | Open on 30 Sep 2026 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| OpenTrain AI | 826 | 30.3% |
| Invisible | 531 | 19.5% |
| micro1 | 323 | 11.8% |
| Mercor | 255 | 9.3% |
| Welo Data | 247 | 9.1% |
| AfterQuery | 198 | 7.3% |
| Sigma AI | 76 | 2.8% |
| Braintrust | 75 | 2.7% |
| TransPerfect DataForce | 66 | 2.4% |
| Alignerr | 38 | 1.4% |
| Appen | 32 | 1.2% |
| xAI (SpaceXAI) | 31 | 1.1% |
| Terac | 18 | 0.7% |
| Outlier (Scale AI) | 6 | 0.2% |
| Handshake AI | 4 | 0.1% |
| Remotasks | 3 | 0.1% |
Sample. 2,729 roles open at the end of 30 Sep 2026 on the 16 platforms whose public job boards AITraining.jobs reads daily; listings from 1 Sep 2026 to 30 Sep 2026.
New listings leave out a platform's first week in this dataset (its back catalogue). Change compares the platform's open roles at the start and the end of the window.
A platform that posts one listing per language or country counts each one: these are listings, not people hired.
Source. AITraining.jobs Research, AI Training Platforms Compared, September 2026 edition.
Figure 2
Advertised hourly pay by platform
What does each platform advertise it pays, and how often does it say?
| Platform | Median per hour | Middle half | Roles stating pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terac | $90 | $50 to $100 | 50.0% |
| AfterQuery | $75 | $45 to $100 | 100.0% |
| Mercor | $75 | $45 to $94 | 83.9% |
| micro1 | $68 | $43 to $110 | 99.7% |
| Invisible | $65 | $37 to $65 | 99.2% |
| OpenTrain AI | $46 | $23 to $90 | 43.3% |
| xAI (SpaceXAI) | $40 | $40 to $40 | 93.5% |
| Appen | $34 | $21 to $39 | 31.3% |
| Alignerr | $23 | $23 to $45 | 100.0% |
| Braintrust | $20 | $18 to $58 | 77.3% |
| Welo Data | $20 | $9 to $31 | 78.5% |
| Handshake AISmall sample | n/a | n/a | 100.0% |
| Outlier (Scale AI)Small sample | n/a | n/a | 100.0% |
| RemotasksSmall sample | n/a | n/a | 66.7% |
| Sigma AISmall sample | n/a | n/a | 0.0% |
| TransPerfect DataForceSmall sample | n/a | n/a | 0.0% |
Sample. The 1,969 roles open on 30 Sep 2026 that state an hourly rate.
Pay is the hourly figure the posting advertises (the middle of a stated range). The middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
A median needs at least 8 roles stating a rate; platforms below that are marked as a small sample and show n/a.
Source. AITraining.jobs Research, AI Training Platforms Compared, September 2026 edition.
Figure 3
Who may apply, by platform
Which platforms hire worldwide, and which limit roles to some countries?
| Platform | Open worldwide | Only listed countries |
|---|---|---|
| Alignerr | 100.0% | 0.0% |
| micro1 | 100.0% | 0.0% |
| xAI (SpaceXAI) | 80.6% | 19.4% |
| Mercor | 69.8% | 30.2% |
| Invisible | 36.2% | 63.8% |
| OpenTrain AI | 31.5% | 68.4% |
| Appen | 18.8% | 81.3% |
| Outlier (Scale AI)Small sample | 16.7% | 83.3% |
| Welo Data | 1.6% | 98.4% |
| TransPerfect DataForce | 1.5% | 98.5% |
| Braintrust | 1.3% | 98.7% |
| AfterQuery | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Handshake AISmall sample | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| RemotasksSmall sample | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| Sigma AI | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| Terac | 0.0% | 100.0% |
Sample. 2,729 roles open on 30 Sep 2026; shares of each platform's own open roles.
The rule is read from each posting's location text. Countries named: distinct countries in the platform's include and exclude lists.
Source. AITraining.jobs Research, AI Training Platforms Compared, September 2026 edition.
Figure 4
How long roles stay listed, by platform
Which platforms fill or pull their roles fastest?
| Platform | Median days listed | Open roles listed in the last 30 days |
|---|---|---|
| Sigma AI | 68.8 | 10.5% |
| Welo Data | 67.1 | 12.6% |
| Mercor | 38.1 | 47.5% |
| Braintrust | 35.0 | 42.7% |
| micro1 | 31.0 | 63.8% |
| xAI (SpaceXAI) | 30.0 | 6.5% |
| OpenTrain AI | 28.5 | 37.7% |
| Terac | 27.8 | 55.6% |
| TransPerfect DataForce | 24.8 | 28.8% |
| AfterQuerySmall sample | n/a | 20.2% |
| AlignerrSmall sample | n/a | 55.3% |
| AppenSmall sample | n/a | 37.5% |
| Handshake AISmall sample | n/a | 50.0% |
| InvisibleSmall sample | n/a | 1.9% |
| Outlier (Scale AI)Small sample | n/a | 0.0% |
| RemotasksSmall sample | n/a | 0.0% |
Sample. Roles removed from 1 Sep 2026 to 30 Sep 2026 with a known listing date, and roles open on 30 Sep 2026.
Days listed: from the listing date the job board states (or the first day the role appeared in the feed) to the last day it was seen.
A median needs at least 10 removed roles.
Source. AITraining.jobs Research, AI Training Platforms Compared, September 2026 edition.
Figure 5
What each platform hires for
Which kind of AI training work does each platform list most?
| Platform | Main kind of work | Its share |
|---|---|---|
| OpenTrain AI | Law, Medicine & Finance | 30.0% |
| Invisible | Multilingual & Localization | 45.8% |
| micro1 | AI Evaluation & Rating (RLHF) | 31.0% |
| Mercor | Law, Medicine & Finance | 20.0% |
| Welo Data | Multilingual & Localization | 43.3% |
| AfterQuery | Law, Medicine & Finance | 56.1% |
| Sigma AI | Multilingual & Localization | 90.8% |
| Braintrust | Multilingual & Localization | 46.7% |
| TransPerfect DataForce | Multilingual & Localization | 40.9% |
| Alignerr | Transcription, Audio & Speech | 50.0% |
| Appen | Transcription, Audio & Speech | 78.1% |
| xAI (SpaceXAI) | Multilingual & Localization | 83.9% |
| Terac | Agentic Tasks & RL Environments | 33.3% |
| Outlier (Scale AI) | Multilingual & Localization | 66.7% |
| Handshake AI | AI Evaluation & Rating (RLHF) | 75.0% |
| Remotasks | Data Annotation & Labeling | 33.3% |
Sample. 2,729 roles open on 30 Sep 2026, by the kind of work each is classified as.
Kinds of work are this site's twelve categories of AI training work, each classified from the role's title and description.
Source. AITraining.jobs Research, AI Training Platforms Compared, September 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:
9,572 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.
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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.
- Coverage
- The platforms whose public job boards AITraining.jobs reads in full every day. Each figure states how many were read.
- Open role
- A role listed by a given day and still in its platform's feed that day.
- New listing
- A role that first appeared during the window on a platform already tracked before that week. A platform's first week in this dataset is its back catalogue and is not counted as new.
- Removed listing
- A role that left its platform's feed during the window.
- Days listed
- From a removed role's listing date to the last day it was seen in its feed.
- 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.
- Location rule
- Read from each posting's location text and, where that names no country, from what the posting's own description states: open worldwide, worldwide except listed countries, only listed countries, or no rule stated.
- 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.
- Live dataLast 28 complete days, recomputed daily
- September 2026 edition (this page)Frozen 10 Oct 2026
- August 2026 editionFrozen 10 Oct 2026
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). AI Training Platforms Compared, September 2026 edition. https://www.aitraining.run/research/platform-scorecard/2026-09
BibTeX
@misc{aitrainingjobs_platform_scorecard_2026_09,
author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
title = {AI Training Platforms Compared, September 2026 edition},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://www.aitraining.run/research/platform-scorecard/2026-09}},
}More research
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