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Research

AI Training Labor Market Research

The market for human AI training work, measured: 81 reports built from the job boards of the AI training platforms, read every hour, and the apply clicks of the people who use AITraining.jobs, and from the industry's own filings, announcements, court records and studies.

Measured, not surveyed
Counted from the platforms' own job boards, read every hour, and from what people do on this site.
Sourced
The industry datasets take every figure from a filing, an announcement, a court record or a study, linked beside it.
Frozen monthly
Each month becomes an edition that never changes, so a number you cite reads the same next year.
Citable
Every figure has its own link and citation, free to quote with credit under CC BY 4.0. The data files are sent by email.

Monthly data story

The AI Training Job Market in October 2026

What happened in the market that month, in one article. Every figure links to the frozen edition it is quoted from.

Read October 2026 Every monthWeekly news

Start here

For AI labs

Benchmark what each vendor pays experts, see where expertise is scarce, check how vendors screen, and track which labs are building human-data teams.

For data vendors and expert networks

See which expertise labs are pushing into, how rivals are hiring and pricing, and where applicants are most and least available.

For data owners and brokers

Find the teams buying training data, what licences and archives sell for, what the courts have priced, and which kinds of data labs want next.

The market

AI Training Vendor Health

Which AI training platforms are growing, holding or shrinking their hiring, and how are their rates moving?

Too few platforms were tracked throughout 14 Oct 2026 to 10 Nov 2026 to read a like-for-like change.

platforms growing (+10% or more)
0
platforms shrinking (-10% or less)
0

14 Oct 2026 to 10 Nov 2026

Read the report October 2026September 2026

The data market: for labs, vendors and data buyers

Which AI Labs Are Hiring for Human Data

Which AI labs are hiring for the teams that buy, run and evaluate human data, and for what roles?

On 11 Nov 2026, 15 of 25 AI labs with a public job board had 95 roles open on the teams that buy, run and evaluate human data, xAI the most (20).

human-data roles open at AI labs on 11 Nov 2026
95
labs read with human-data roles open
15 of 25

11 Nov 2026 to 11 Nov 2026

Read the report

Who Is Buying AI Training Data

Which AI labs and data vendors have people whose job is to source, license or acquire training data right now?

On 11 Nov 2026, 11 roles at AI labs and human-data vendors had the job of sourcing, licensing or acquiring training data, the most at OpenAI, and 17 more were building RL environments: the desks data owners and brokers sell to.

data-acquisition and partnership roles open
11
companies hiring for them
9

11 Nov 2026 to 11 Nov 2026

Read the report

Where Human-Data Vendors Are Building

How fast are the human-data vendors hiring their own staff, and for which functions?

On 11 Nov 2026, 14 human-data vendors had 655 staff roles open on their own boards, Scale AI the most (169); engineering and product is the largest function.

open staff roles at 14 human-data vendors on 11 Nov 2026
655
at Scale AI, the most
169

11 Nov 2026 to 11 Nov 2026

Read the report

What AI Labs Pay for Human Data

What do AI labs spend on human data, what do vendors bill, what do the experts receive, and what do RL environments and tasks cost?

128 published figures on what AI labs pay for human data, from 2021 to 30 Oct 2026: lab spend, vendor bill rates against worker pay, vendors' take, RL-environment prices, prices per task and contract sizes; the largest spend figure recorded: Surge reportedly generated $1.2 billion in revenue in 2024 from work with AI labs (Surge AI, reported).

price points on human data for AI
128
Surge AI (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta), per year (vendor revenue)
$1.2B

1 Jan 2021 to 30 Oct 2026

Read the report October 2026

What AI Labs Are Buying

Which kinds of training data are in rising demand, and which are cooling?

To 30 Oct 2026, the evidence shows labs buying more coding (production-like environments), computer-use app and website clones and egocentric and robotics demonstration data and less generalist annotation and microtasks and static maths and verifiable coding tasks.

kinds of data in rising demand
12
cooling
2

20 Jun 2023 to 30 Oct 2026

Read the report October 2026

AI Training Data Licensing Deals

Who has licensed content and data to which AI companies, on what terms and for how much?

From 11 Jul 2023 to 2 Nov 2026, 93 content and data licensing deals between AI companies and data owners are recorded, 22 with a published price; the largest is News Corp with OpenAI ("Could be" close to $250 million over five years, per The Wall Street Journal (as reported by VentureBeat); terms not disclosed by the parties).

licensing deals recorded
93
with a stated or reported price
22

11 Jul 2023 to 2 Nov 2026

Read the report October 2026

Company Data Brokerage: Buyers, Prices and Terms

Who buys companies' records and the archives of defunct companies to train AI, at what prices and on what terms, and what do brokers earn?

Companies' records (email, chat, tickets, code, CRM) and the archives of defunct companies now sell to AI labs and principal vendors as raw material for RL environments: 85 prices, programs and terms recorded to 29 Oct 2026, up to $12,500,000 for a single archive and a $1 billion over the next 12 months buying program at micro1.

prices, programs and terms recorded
85
largest recorded price (Spirit Airlines (debtor))
$12.5M

12 Jan 2026 to 29 Oct 2026

Read the report October 2026

Lawsuits and Settlements Over AI Training Data

Which copyright, privacy and data-rights disputes over AI training data have been filed, ruled on or settled, and what did they cost?

From 20 Sep 2023 to 29 Oct 2026, 77 lawsuits, rulings, settlements and regulatory actions over AI training data are recorded; the largest amount is Bartz v. Anthropic ($1.5 billion, approximately $3,000 per work).

cases, rulings and settlements over training data
77
Bartz v. Anthropic, the largest amount
$1.5B

20 Sep 2023 to 29 Oct 2026

Read the report October 2026

Human Data Quality, Fraud and Security

How often do workers use AI to do human-data tasks, how do fake and resold accounts get in, and which vendors have had quality failures or breaches?

From 13 Jun 2023 to 29 Oct 2026, 50 studies, incidents and vendor statements document the quality risks of human data: workers using AI models to do the tasks (33-46% of crowd workers (range estimate) in the first measurement), fake and resold accounts, quality failures on lab projects and breaches at vendors.

studies, incidents and vendor statements
50
of crowd workers used an AI model on a task, in the first measurement
33-46%

13 Jun 2023 to 29 Oct 2026

Read the report October 2026

Applicants

Who Looks for AI Training Work

Who is looking for AI training work: in which fields, with what credentials, from which countries, and how many already work on an AI training platform?

0 people were looking for AI training work on AITraining.jobs by 10 Nov 2026; n/a of those whose credential is known hold a professional licence or a doctorate, and n/a are in the United States.

people looking for AI training work on AITraining.jobs by 10 Nov 2026
0
of those whose credential is known hold a professional licence or a doctorate
n/a

14 Oct 2026 to 10 Nov 2026

Read the report October 2026

Do Applicants Qualify for AI Training Roles?

When the people looking for AI training work are checked against the roles that suit them best, how often do they qualify, and what do they most often lack?

No member's fit check was made 14 Oct 2026 to 10 Nov 2026.

fit checks of 0 members against 0 roles, 14 Oct 2026 to 10 Nov 2026
0
of checks found a strong fit
n/a

14 Oct 2026 to 10 Nov 2026

Read the report October 2026

AI Training Talent: Supply and Demand

Where are there more people looking for AI training work than roles to fill, and where are roles short of qualified people?

No role was open on 10 Nov 2026.

people looking for AI training work for every role open on 10 Nov 2026
n/a
members who strongly fit a role, for every role open
n/a

14 Oct 2026 to 10 Nov 2026

Read the report October 2026

Skills and work

What AI Trainers Do

What tasks does AI training work involve: writing prompts, rating answers, red-teaming, coding?

No full role descriptions were available on 10 Nov 2026.

open roles with a full description read (n/a of open roles)
0

14 Oct 2026 to 10 Nov 2026

Read the report October 2026

Programming Languages in AI Training

Which programming languages are AI labs hiring coders to train models in, and what does each pay?

No Coding & Software Evaluation roles naming a programming language were open on 10 Nov 2026.

open Coding & Software Evaluation roles read
0

14 Oct 2026 to 10 Nov 2026

Read the report October 2026

Real-World Data Collection Work

Who is hiring people to collect real-world data for robots and physical AI, where, and at what pay?

No real-world data collection roles were open on 10 Nov 2026.

real-world data collection roles open on 10 Nov 2026
0
robot data-collection roles on 4 labs' own boards
9

14 Oct 2026 to 10 Nov 2026

Read the report October 2026

Pay, terms and access

The AI Training Rate Card

For the same kind of work, the same expertise and the same language, what does each platform advertise per hour?

On 10 Nov 2026, too few platforms stated rates for the same work to compare them.

open roles stating an hourly rate on 10 Nov 2026
0
kinds of work, fields and languages priced by platform
0

14 Oct 2026 to 10 Nov 2026

Read the report October 2026September 2026

The industry: money, law and evidence

Funding and Valuations of AI Training Data Companies

How much money has gone into the companies that supply human data to AI labs, and at what valuations?

From 1 Jan 2024 to 2 Nov 2026, the companies that supply human data to AI labs disclosed $3.2B in 41 funding rounds, and Scale AI carries the highest valuation at $29B.

disclosed in 41 funding rounds since 2024
$3.2B
latest valuation of Scale AI, the highest
$29B

Sourced dataset, reviewed 2 Nov 2026

Read the report October 2026

Revenue and Scale of AI Training Data Companies

How much revenue do the companies that supply human data to AI labs make, and how many people do they say work for them?

The listed human-data companies report their revenue in filings and the private ones through statements and press reports; the largest private figure recorded is Mercor's over $2 billion in gross revenue run rate (run-rate Jun 2026), and Innodata's revenue rose 47.6% in FY2025.

Mercor, run-rate Jun 2026
$2B
Innodata revenue growth, FY2025
+47.6%

Sourced dataset, reviewed 9 Nov 2026

Read the report October 2026

Lawsuits, Regulation and Labour Actions in AI Training Work

Which lawsuits, rulings, investigations, laws and labour actions concern the people who train AI, and where do they stand?

From 1 Jan 2023 to 31 Oct 2026, 35 lawsuits, rulings, investigations, laws and labour actions concerned the people who train AI; Scale AI is named in the most.

legal, regulatory and labour events since 2023
35
lawsuits filed by or for data workers
8

Sourced dataset, reviewed 31 Oct 2026

Read the report October 2026

What Studies Find About Pay in AI Data Work

What have researchers and reporters measured about pay and conditions in data annotation and AI training work, and how does it compare with today's advertised rates?

What researchers and reporters have measured about pay and conditions in data annotation and AI training work.

studies, reports and investigations
52
median of 29 hourly earnings figures measured by studies
$3.18/hr

Sourced dataset, reviewed 29 Oct 2026

Read the report October 2026

Kinds of work

One report per kind of AI training work: who lists it, what it pays, how much applicant demand each opening draws and what it asks for. Live figures to 10 Nov 2026.

Platforms

One report per platform: what it lists, what it pays, who may apply, how fast its roles turn over and how it compares with the market. Live figures to 10 Nov 2026.

Data and method

Data Quality and Coverage

How fresh, complete and consistent is the data behind these reports?

6 of 7 independent cross-checks match exactly; the 0 job boards behind these reports were last read by n/a, and null% of open roles state an hourly rate.

cross-checks that match exactly
6/7
platforms with open roles on 10 Nov 2026
0

14 Oct 2026 to 10 Nov 2026

Read the report October 2026

For labs, data vendors and researchers

Buy the data behind these reports

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

  • 0 roles tracked, each with its history

    Every role on 0 job boards, read since n/a (every hour since 18 Oct 2026): its pay and place, and the first and last day it was open.

  • 0 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.

Building AI and need the experts behind this data? (you contract them yourself) or (we deliver the expert work).

Investing in AI-data companies? Hiring radar is these records role by role, every day, as files.