How much do AI trainers make in 2026? Pay by platform and kind of work

People search for an AI trainer salary. AI training work has no standard salary. It is paid by the hour or by the task, and the rate on the listing is not the same as what ends up in your account.

The numbers below come from the open roles on our board. We check each role against the platform's own job board every night, or by hand where a platform has none. They are not self-reported earnings and not old reviews.

What AI trainers are paid per hour

On 12 Oct 2026, 788 open roles listed an hourly rate. The typical starting rate across them was $50 an hour. Typical means the median. The rates ran from $5 to $450 an hour. See the live figures on AI training jobs statistics.

That range is wide because the work is wide. A rating task and a review by a licensed doctor are both "AI training".

Pay by kind of work

Kind of work	Typical starting rate	Open roles
Writing and languages	$65/hr	118
Coding	$60/hr	190
Expert review	$60/hr	595
Rating, data and voice	$26/hr	297

Source: HiringRemote, last checked 12 Oct 2026.

Rating pays least. Expert review has by far the most roles and covers fields such as law, medicine, finance and engineering. On 12 Oct the best-paid micro1 role was an Investment & Finance Expert at $245 to $280 an hour.

Pay by platform

Platform	Typical start	Range	Open roles
Turing	$150/hr	$30 to $150	196
Rex.zone (RemoExperts)	$68/hr	$20 to $150	32
Meridial (Invisible)	$63/hr	$10 to $100	94
AI expert network	$61/hr	$15 to $450	266
Terac	$60/hr	$35 to $100	15
micro1	$50/hr	$6 to $400	258
HumanSignal	$50/hr	$50	4
CrowdGen by Appen	$35/hr	$25 to $100	53
xAI	$35/hr	$35 to $100	13
Welo Data	$25/hr	$5 to $105	210
RWS TrainAI	$18/hr	$6 to $36	59

Source: Pay explorer, last checked 12 Oct 2026.

Read three things before you trust a row:

• Turing's $150 comes from 6 roles. Only 6 of Turing's 196 open roles state an hourly rate. Its pay page shows the same: $150 for coding and expert review, $30 for rating. Treat it as a sample, not an average.
• micro1 has the widest base. 256 of its 258 roles list an hourly rate, with a typical start of $50. By kind of work, micro1 starts at $22 for rating, $40 for writing and languages, $50 for coding and $60 for expert review. See micro1 pay.
• "AI expert network" is our label for one platform that we show under a generic name.

Rates also depend on where you live on some platforms. Appen's own job posts show it: the same Vietnamese-language voice recording project was posted at $25 in the US, $15 in Taiwan and $5 in the Philippines. Expert marketplaces such as micro1 and Mercor tend to put one rate on the listing. Neither says so in writing, so treat that as a pattern. More in how AI training pay works.

Hourly, per task and per project

Not every role pays by the hour. Roles paid per task or per project count as open roles on our board but are left out of the pay figures. On 12 Oct 2026 our list included a CrowdGen speech collection evaluation project at $35 a project.

Per-task pay only makes sense if you know how long a task takes. Ask yourself that before you apply, and work out an hourly figure from the first few tasks you do.

The listed rate is not your take-home

Most of the rates above are starting rates for logged, approved hours. Four things sit between that number and your bank account.

Unpaid screening. Most platforms test you before you start. Outlier says onboarding typically takes 30 to 90 minutes, and its role pages say lower rates may apply during onboarding. DataAnnotation does not say whether its assessment is paid. Plan on screening as unpaid time.

Waiting between projects. Passing a screening puts you in a pool, not on a project. Outlier says there are no minimum hours, which also means no promise of work.

"Up to" rates. Outlier's role pages showed rates from up to $7.50 an hour (Hindi, India) to up to $150 an hour (machine learning experts) on 7 Oct 2026. Those are ceilings.

What people report. In April 2025 Forbes profiled one of Outlier's busiest contributors, who said she usually makes $25 to $30 an hour, and reported that the average contractor works about six hours a week. In August 2025 AlgorithmWatch spoke to Outlier workers in Europe and the US. Once unpaid training and meetings were counted, a US worker put his real pay under $5 an hour and a German worker about $7. These are small samples. They show the gap between the best rate and an average week. Read the Outlier review for the sources.

A quick sum, as arithmetic and not as measured earnings: 10 paid hours a week at the typical $50 an hour is $500 a week before tax. Each hour you spend on unpaid screening or waiting lowers what you earn per hour spent.

Tax

On almost every platform you work as an independent contractor. For most contractors outside the US the platform withholds nothing, and you declare and pay tax where you live. This is general information, not tax advice. The details are in how AI training pay works.

How to earn more per hour

1. Move up a kind of work. Rating starts at a typical $26 an hour. Writing, coding and expert review start at $60 or more. If you have a degree, a licence or a second language, aim there first.
2. Choose platforms that publish a rate. Roles that state an hourly rate let you check the maths before you spend time on screening.
3. Apply to two platforms, not one. A pool that goes quiet costs you less when you are in a second one.
4. Keep a log. Write down hours, screening time and payouts. Your real hourly rate is payouts divided by every hour spent, not the listed rate.

Ready to look? See the jobs hiring now, or the full statistics.

Questions people ask

How much do AI trainers make per hour? The typical starting rate is $50 an hour, from 788 open roles that list an hourly rate (12 Oct 2026). The range is $5 to $450.

What is the AI trainer salary? There is no standard salary. Most AI trainers are independent contractors paid by the hour or task, so yearly income depends on how many hours you get.

Who pays the most? On 12 Oct 2026 Turing had the highest typical start at $150 an hour, from 6 roles with a stated rate. Among platforms with a large number of rates, micro1 started at $50 and its best-paid role at $245 to $280.

Is AI training pay fixed? Platforms say rates are posted upfront for logged, approved hours. Handshake AI's page says its rates are posted upfront and do not change mid-project. Rates still vary by project, field and often country.

Do you get paid for the assessment? Not usually, and platforms often do not say. Check before you start, and plan for it to be unpaid.

We earn a referral bonus from some platforms if you are hired through an Apply link, including micro1 and Turing. It costs you nothing and never decides what we list. See how we make money.

How we checked: pay figures from the roles on our list, checked every night, on 12 Oct 2026. Outlier figures from Outlier's own role pages (7 Oct 2026) and the reports named above.