| Kind of work | Median | Middle half | Rates (n) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychology | $150/hr | $79 to $150 | 28 |
| Legal | $105/hr | $76 to $130 | 147 |
| Healthcare | $100/hr | $75 to $150 | 149 |
| Finance | $100/hr | $80 to $116 | 76 |
| Accounting | $87.50/hr | $80 to $107 | 36 |
| STEM | $82.50/hr | $67.50 to $100 | 237 |
| Business | $80/hr | $70 to $100 | 266 |
| Software Engineering | $80/hr | $64 to $101 | 124 |
| Mathematics | $77.50/hr | $52 to $95 | 30 |
| Generalist | $70/hr | $47.50 to $100 | 360 |
| Humanities | $70/hr | $55 to $80 | 54 |
| Design | $70/hr | $61 to $86.50 | 34 |
| Voice Acting | $55/hr | $38 to $75 | 40 |
| Writing | $45/hr | $22.50 to $75 | 105 |
| Languages | $35/hr | $22 to $50 | 348 |
| Data Science | $26/hr | $15 to $70 | 86 |
| IT & Systems | under 10 rates | 5 | |
| Creative | under 10 rates | 2 | |
| QA Testing | under 10 rates | 1 | |
| Platform | Median | Middle half | Rates (n) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AfterQuery | $87/hr | $70 to $115 | 172 |
| Ethos | $80/hr | $70 to $80 | 139 |
| Mercor | $75/hr | $50 to $100 | 1,361 |
| Micro1 | $70/hr | $37.50 to $120 | 272 |
| xAI | $35/hr | $35 to $35 | 32 |
| Alignerr | $22.50/hr | $22.50 to $35 | 60 |
| Outlier | $19.50/hr | $12.50 to $27.50 | 11 |
| RWS | $15/hr | $11 to $18 | 37 |
| Innodata | $15/hr | $15 to $37.50 | 27 |
| Sovrano | under 10 rates | 9 | |
| Vetto | under 10 rates | 5 | |
| SME Careers | under 10 rates | 2 | |
| Turing | under 10 rates | 1 | |
Cite as: AI Training Board Pay Index, October 2026, aitrainingboard.com/pay/2026-10. Free to reuse with credit, under CC BY 4.0.
How the figures are computed
We take each open role's rate as the platform lists it, on October 5, 2026. Only hourly rates count. We leave out our own estimates, rates a listing gives only as a ceiling ("up to $50/hr"), ranges whose top is more than 10 times the bottom, and rates under $3 or over $400/hr. A role posted twice with the same title and rate counts once. A group needs 10 distinct rates before we show a median. The middle half is the range between the 25th and 75th percentile. Listed rates are what a platform advertises, so what you're paid can differ by project and by country. New figures go up on the 1st of each month, and each month keeps its own page.