For teams buying AI training data
Handshake AI pricing
Handshake AI publishes no price for buyers. The press reports net AI-training revenue near US$300 million on gross AI-training revenue of nearly US$1 billion, so it pays most of what it bills to its experts.
Read against Handshake AI’s own pages and the press on 2 Nov 2026. Every figure below links its source.
The figures
What Handshake AI charges, keeps and pays
Each figure as its source published it, with whose money it is: what a buyer pays, what the vendor keeps, or what the person doing the work receives.
| Figure as published | Whose money | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI data business gross margins around 30%, versus about 80% for the job boardexpert human data | Kept by the vendor | Analyst estimate | Sacra, 11 Oct 2026 |
| Net AI-training revenue approaches $300M on gross AI-training revenue of nearly $1Bexpert human data | Kept by the vendor | Reported by a third party | Dealroom News (summarising The Information), 14 Apr 2026 |
| Fellowship opportunities list ceilings from up to $17 an hour (AI evaluation) to up to $125 (game developer, PCB tool specialist); FP&A analyst and energy professional up to $80; software engineer and philosophy expert up to $120AI Fellowship opportunities (evaluation, finance, engineering, game and hardware) | Paid to the worker | Stated by the company | Handshake, 25 Oct 2026 |
| $110 to $140 an hour for physicians, 15+ hours a week, with milestone bonusesphysician domain expert (AI research contract) | Paid to the worker | Stated by the company | Reach Capital job board (Handshake posting), 25 Oct 2026 |
| Handshake's physician posting lists up to $200 an hour depending on the projectphysician (medical license, direct patient care experience) | Paid to the worker | Reported by a third party | PYMNTS (citing Bloomberg), 20 Oct 2026 |
| Handshake's lawyer posting pays $90 to $110 an hourlawyer (law degree, licence, practice experience) | Paid to the worker | Reported by a third party | PYMNTS (citing Bloomberg), 20 Oct 2026 |
| $32 to $95 an hour (W-2, hourly, employed through TCWGlobal)AI Red Teamer (Remote) | Paid to the worker | Stated by the company | Handshake (job board), 5 Oct 2026 |
| $65 to $158 an hour (contract, remote, USA)AI Red Teamer, CBRNE (Remote) | Paid to the worker | Stated by the company | Handshake (job board), 5 Sep 2026 |
| $65 to $125 an hour (contract, remote, USA)AI Red Teamer, Cybersecurity (Remote) | Paid to the worker | Stated by the company | Handshake (job board), 5 Sep 2026 |
| Pays about $60 million a month to more than 30,000 individuals, on a run rate of about $1 billionexpert human data (company statement of payouts) | Paid to the worker | Stated by the company | Handshake (job board), 5 Sep 2026 |
From our dataset of published figures on what AI companies pay for human data: every vendor’s figures in one report.
About Handshake AI
What Handshake AI sells
Expert human data for AI labs from students, graduates and professionals in the Handshake careers network.
Handshake AI supplies credentialed experts for AI training work, as its own pages describe.
- Handshake's ARR crosses $1B as AI training revenue surges (Dealroom (The Information), 14 Apr 2026)
What an expert hour costs
Start from what the expert is paid
Every vendor's price for an expert hour is the expert's pay plus the vendor's share. We read the pay of every open AI-training role on the major platforms every hour, so here is what each kind of US expert is paid for AI work today.
| Expert | Typical rate | Range | Measured from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physicians | $125/hr | $100 to $270 | 66 rates, 13 platforms |
| Lawyers | $110/hr | $75 to $400 | 96 rates, 20 platforms |
| Psychologists | $85/hr | $35 to $95 | 9 rates, 5 platforms |
| Accountants | $80/hr | $60 to $125 | 42 rates, 16 platforms |
| Actuaries and insurance experts | $80/hr | $50 to $125 | 18 rates, 8 platforms |
| Finance professionals | $80/hr | $60 to $150 | 166 rates, 21 platforms |
| Cybersecurity experts | $80/hr | $60 to $125 | 31 rates, 7 platforms |
| Biologists | $80/hr | $40 to $125 | 39 rates, 11 platforms |
| Environmental scientists | $80/hr | $45 to $100 | 16 rates, 7 platforms |
| Mechanical engineers | $80/hr | $55 to $135 | 37 rates, 15 platforms |
| Electrical engineers | $80/hr | $65 to $145 | 23 rates, 14 platforms |
| Chemical engineers and materials scientists | $80/hr | $40 to $135 | 18 rates, 10 platforms |
| Economists | $75/hr | $50 to $120 | 16 rates, 6 platforms |
| Software engineers | $75/hr | $40 to $150 | 206 rates, 21 platforms |
| Mathematicians | $75/hr | $40 to $200 | 46 rates, 15 platforms |
| Chemists | $70/hr | $40 to $125 | 36 rates, 13 platforms |
| Pharmacists, dentists and other clinicians | $65/hr | $40 to $135 | 68 rates, 19 platforms |
| Paralegals, law students and notaries | $65/hr | $60 to $150 | 11 rates, 5 platforms |
| Physicists | $65/hr | $45 to $200 | 30 rates, 16 platforms |
| Nurses | $60/hr | $50 to $125 | 12 rates, 8 platforms |
| Nuclear and CBRN experts | $60/hr | $40 to $130 | 19 rates, 8 platforms |
| Civil engineers and architects | $55/hr | $45 to $120 | 16 rates, 11 platforms |
| Writers and editors | $55/hr | $35 to $120 | 18 rates, 8 platforms |
| Teachers | $50/hr | $45 to $75 | 29 rates, 10 platforms |
| Translators and linguists | $30/hr | $20 to $75 | 19 rates, 6 platforms |
Typical rate: the middle of what the open roles naming that profession pay, for roles open to US experts; the range runs from the 25th percentile of those roles to the 90th-percentile advertised ceiling. Read live.
What other vendors keep
- Scale AI: Monetizes per task, marking up the cost of labor, for 50%+ gross margin (analyst estimate, Sacra, 11 Oct 2026).
- Mercor: Percentage-based recruiting fee, typically 30%, for direct talent placements (analyst estimate, Sacra, 11 Oct 2026).
- Mercor, Handshake, micro1: Roughly 60% to 70% of top-line income paid out to domain specialists (reported by a third party, TechCrunch, 22 Sep 2026).
- Mercor: Third-party analysts estimate Mercor's take at roughly 30% to 35% of billed hours, with contractors receiving 60% to 70% of gross billings (analyst estimate, HeroHunt.ai, 6 Sep 2026).
- micro1: Gross margins on off-the-shelf data as high as 80% to 90% (reported by a third party, TechCrunch, 20 Aug 2026).
- micro1: Net annual run rate $150M to $200M on a $500M gross run rate (about 30% to 40% retained) (reported by a third party, TechCrunch, 20 Aug 2026).
- Mercor: Pays 60% to 70% of topline revenue to contractors; net revenue roughly $600M to $800M on a $2B gross run rate (reported by a third party, Dealroom News (summarising The Information), Jun 2026).
- Mercor: Gross margin 33% in Q2 2026; company expects 46% next year and 56% by 2030 (reported by a third party, BigGo Finance (summarising The Information), Jun 2026).
Alternatives
Alternatives to Handshake AI
Expert data from US professionals, run end to end
Evaluations, rubrics, fine-tuning data and red-teaming by US doctors, nurses, lawyers, finance professionals, scientists and engineers from our own network. An expert hour is priced at what that kind of expert is paid today (the table above) plus our fee for running the project, and the quote shows both.
Looking for paid work at Handshake AI rather than buying data? Handshake AI: open roles, pay and whether it is legit.
Questions
What teams ask about Handshake AI
How much does Handshake AI charge?
Handshake AI publishes no price for buyers. The press reports net AI-training revenue near US$300 million on gross AI-training revenue of nearly US$1 billion, so it pays most of what it bills to its experts.
How much of the price does Handshake AI keep?
AI data business gross margins around 30%, versus about 80% for the job board (analyst estimate, Sacra, 11 Oct 2026). Net AI-training revenue approaches $300M on gross AI-training revenue of nearly $1B (reported by a third party, Dealroom News (summarising The Information), 14 Apr 2026).
What does Handshake AI sell?
Expert human data for AI labs from students, graduates and professionals in the Handshake careers network.