Get paid to train AI
Save · 0AI labs pay people to rate, correct, and teach their models. Generalist tasks pay modestly; domain expertise pays multiples more.
~8.1K people search this every month ↑ trending up · US, measured
The short playbook
- Apply to Mercor, Outlier, and similar platforms with a specific skill highlighted.
- Lead with your expertise (law, medicine, code, languages), not general availability.
- Treat the onboarding tests seriously; they gate the better-paying queues.
- Stack 2–3 platforms so slow weeks on one don't zero your income.
Where to apply
Pay is what workers and job listings report, not a promise. Most of these are contract work where hours rise and fall with active projects.
Mercor ↗$23–65/hr listed, experts moreMatches vetted professionals with AI labs: law, medicine, finance, code, STEM. Selective, and hours come and go with active projects.
DataAnnotation ↗$20–45/hr reportedWrite and rate AI responses. Coding and expert tracks pay at the top of the range. US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and NZ only. The starter test is unpaid.
Surge AI ↗$20–40/hr, specialists moreHuman data for frontier labs: rating, red-teaming, expert evaluation. Selective, and pay is per task, so your speed sets the real rate.
Outlier ↗$20–40/hr reportedScale AI's platform: rating responses, reviewing code, red-teaming. Projects stop without notice, and sudden account bans are a common complaint.
micro1 ↗$30–135/hr for engineersOne AI interview, then matched to AI training and engineering contracts. The annotation tier pays far less than the engineering tier.
Turing ↗$22–55/hr on AI trainingPlaces engineers into remote AI work, plus annotation and training projects. Pay is benchmarked to your local market, so offers vary a lot by country.
Mindrift ↗$15–100/hr by domainToloka's expert side: AI tutoring, red-teaming, specialist review. Skip Toloka's regular microtasks, they pay a few dollars an hour.
SuperAnnotate ↗$15–130/hr by tierAnnotation through expert review via its SME Careers portal, open globally. First payout takes 30 to 45 days.
Prolific ↗About $12/hrPaid research studies and AI tasks, matched to your demographic profile. Study volume is limited. Pocket money, not an income.
Common questions
How do you get paid to train AI?
AI labs pay people to rate model answers, label data, and write examples that teach models what good looks like. You apply to a platform, pass a screening, and work remote hours on live projects. The platform list on this page shows who is hiring and what they pay.
How much does AI training work pay?
The platforms on this page list $20 to $65 an hour for general work, with specialists and engineers quoted higher. Those are the platforms' own listed and reported rates, linked above so you can check them. Hours are the catch: projects start and stop, so treat it as flexible side income, not a salary.
Is AI training work legit?
The platforms we list are real companies paying real people, and we link each one so you can judge it. The honest cautions: projects can pause without notice, some platforms are selective, and pay varies by country. Anyone asking YOU to pay to start is a scam.
Do you need a degree to train AI models?
Not for general work. English fluency and attention to detail get you started, and the screening tests care about your judgment, not your resume. Degrees and specialist knowledge (law, medicine, code) unlock the higher-paying expert tracks.
Run this hustle? Get featured, or tell us what we got wrong.
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Income and demand tiers reflect what we found in public reports and search data, verified to the level shown. Nothing here is a guarantee of earnings.