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Research report ยท October 2026 edition

The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work

On 31 Oct 2026, 238 roles in Data Annotation & Labeling were open on 33 platforms (RWS TrainAI Community listed 49 of them (20.6%)); their median advertised rate was $30/hr, 25% below the $40/hr of all AI training work; each open role drew 3.70x the apply clicks of the average role.

Read the month's story: The AI Training Job Market in October 2026

Provisional figures. This month is complete, but late data can still arrive until 3 Nov 2026, when the edition is frozen for good.

Data window
1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026
31 days, UTC
Computed
1 Nov 2026, 01:16 UTC
Final once frozen
Source
The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every hour. Apply clicks are made on AITraining.jobs; full descriptions come from the platforms whose boards publish them.
Method
Version 5. Definitions
CC BY 4.0, how to cite

Every figure on this page as CSV and JSON, sent to your work email.

Key findings

  1. 1

    33 platforms listed the 238 open roles in Data Annotation & Labeling; RWS TrainAI Community held 49 of them (20.6%) and the three largest 105 (44.1%) (HHI 930, unconcentrated, against 522 for all AI training work).

    Figure 3
  2. 2

    172 of the 238 open roles in Data Annotation & Labeling (72.3%) stated an hourly rate, with a median of $30/hr (typical pay $15 to $100), 25% below the $40/hr of all AI training work.

    Figure 4
  3. 3

    Each open role in Data Annotation & Labeling drew 12.61 apply clicks a week on AITraining.jobs, 3.70x the average AI training role: the highest of 12 kinds of work whose demand reads on its own.

    Figure 6
  4. 4

    45 of the 238 open roles in Data Annotation & Labeling (18.9%) accepted applicants from any country, against 18.5% of all AI training roles; of the 20 countries compared, residents of the United States (154), India (93) and the United Kingdom (81) could apply to the most, and residents of Palestine to the fewest (64).

    Figure 9
  5. 5

    The words used most in the titles of open roles in Data Annotation & Labeling were Evaluator or reviewer (68), Annotator or labeler (63) and Specialist (45), of 238 open roles.

    Figure 10
  6. 6

    Of the 217 open roles in Data Annotation & Labeling with a full description, 21 (9.7%) mention a PhD or master's degree, 45 (20.7%) a professional credential and 30 (13.8%) an assessment or test; the 36 stating years of experience ask for a median of 2 years.

    Figure 11
  7. 7

    Over the 31 days from 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026, platforms listed 69 new roles in Data Annotation & Labeling and removed 87, and a removed role had been listed for a median of 47 days (30 across all AI training work).

    Figure 2
  8. 8

    Within Data Annotation & Labeling, roles listed during the window drew 5.42 apply clicks per role a week, against 17.28 for roles listed more than 12 weeks before the window.

    Figure 7

Figure 1

Open roles, week by week

Is the number of open roles in Data Annotation & Labeling rising or falling?

WeekOpen roles (fixed panel)Index
1 to 4 OctPartial week
120
102.2
5 to 11 OctPartial week
117
100.0
12 to 18 OctPartial week
112
88.9
19 to 25 OctPartial week
108
85.7
26 to 31 OctPartial week
105
83.3

Sample. Average open roles in Data Annotation & Labeling over each week's days, on the 18 platforms tracked since 1 Oct 2026 (the fixed panel; 15 of them list this work), 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026.

The index is the panel's open roles against the week of 5 Oct 2026 (100), chained week to week, beside the same index for all AI training work on the same platforms.

This site changed how it reads 5 platforms' boards in this span (Alignerr on 14 Oct 2026; OpenTrain AI on 14 Oct 2026; Handshake AI on 14 Oct 2026; Prolific on 18 Oct 2026; Outlier (Scale AI) on 30 Oct 2026). From each change to the end of its week the roles that came into view are counted as already listed, not as new listings, and the roles that left view are not counted as removals; changes in open roles are measured like for like across it, on the roles that did not move with it. Each platform's own report says what changed.

Perle Labs (first tracked 10 Oct 2026), SuperAnnotate (SME) (first tracked 10 Oct 2026), Turing (first tracked 10 Oct 2026), RemoExperts (first tracked 10 Oct 2026), Vetto (first tracked 14 Oct 2026), OneForma (first tracked 14 Oct 2026), Claru (first tracked 14 Oct 2026), Weekday (first tracked 18 Oct 2026), Innodata (first tracked 18 Oct 2026), Rise Data Labs (first tracked 18 Oct 2026), Volga Partners (first tracked 18 Oct 2026), Lifted (Upwork) (first tracked 18 Oct 2026), TELUS Digital AI (first tracked 22 Oct 2026), DATAmundi (first tracked 22 Oct 2026), Shaip (Collaborate by Shaip) (first tracked 22 Oct 2026), Sama (first tracked 22 Oct 2026), RWS TrainAI Community (first tracked 22 Oct 2026) and Cohere (first tracked 25 Oct 2026) list this work but were added to the dataset later, so they are left out of the panel and counted only in the last column: a platform's arrival never reads as growth.

Every week is marked: the kind's change differs no more than chance from the rest of AI training work's, so its weeks do not read on their own.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 2

Listings added and removed

How fast do roles in Data Annotation & Labeling turn over, and is the stock growing on the same platforms?

WorkOpen on 1 Oct 2026Open on 31 Oct 2026, same platformsChangeNew listings
Data Annotation & LabelingSmall sample120104
-13.6%
69
All AI training work2,6652,554
-4.2%
1,638

Sample. Roles listed from 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026: 356 in Data Annotation & Labeling, 7,396 across all AI training work.

Change compares the roles open on the first and the last day of the window on the platforms tracked when it opened, so a platform added during the window does not read as growth.

The kind's change is marked: it differs no more than chance from the rest of AI training work's.

A new listing first appeared in the window on a platform already tracked before that week; a platform's first week (its back catalogue) is not counted.

Median days listed runs from a removed role's listing date to its last sighting, for removed roles with a known listing date (at least 3; 77 here).

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 3

Who lists it

Which platforms list roles in Data Annotation & Labeling, and what does each advertise?

PlatformOpen rolesShare of open rolesMedian per hour
RWS TrainAI Community49
20.6%
n/a
Welo Data36
15.1%
$30
Alignerr20
8.4%
$40
Innodata15
6.3%
$15
micro115
6.3%
$30
Turing15
6.3%
n/a
Claru10
4.2%
$30
TELUS Digital AI10
4.2%
$35
Rise Data Labs8
3.4%
$30
SuperAnnotate (SME)8
3.4%
n/a
OpenTrain AI6
2.5%
$10
OneForma5
2.1%
n/a
Braintrust4
1.7%
$25
Mercor4
1.7%
$55
TransPerfect DataForce4
1.7%
n/a
DATAmundi3
1.3%
n/a
Handshake AI3
1.3%
n/a
Invisible3
1.3%
n/a
RemoExperts3
1.3%
n/a
Appen2
0.8%
n/a
Lifted (Upwork)2
0.8%
n/a
Terac2
0.8%
n/a
AfterQuery1
0.4%
n/a
Cohere1
0.4%
n/a
Outlier (Scale AI)1
0.4%
n/a
Perle Labs1
0.4%
n/a
Prolific1
0.4%
n/a
Remotasks1
0.4%
n/a
Sama1
0.4%
n/a
Shaip (Collaborate by Shaip)1
0.4%
n/a
Vetto1
0.4%
n/a
Volga Partners1
0.4%
n/a
Weekday1
0.4%
n/a

Sample. 238 roles in Data Annotation & Labeling open at the end of 31 Oct 2026, by the platform that lists them: HHI 930 (unconcentrated), against 522 for all AI training work.

HHI: the sum of every platform's squared percentage share of the open roles, 0 to 10,000; under 1,500 is unconcentrated, 1,500 to 2,500 moderately and above 2,500 highly concentrated (US merger-guideline thresholds).

Shares are of listings, not of people hired or money paid: a platform posting one role per language or country weighs more here than its hiring may.

A median needs at least 3 roles stating an hourly rate.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 4

What it pays

What do roles in Data Annotation & Labeling advertise per hour, against AI training work as a whole?

WorkMedian per hourTypical pay fromTypical pay toStating an hourly rate
Data Annotation & Labeling
$30
$15$10072.3%
All AI training work
$40
$30$12581.4%

Sample. Roles open on 31 Oct 2026: 238 in Data Annotation & Labeling, 172 of them stating an hourly rate; 4,381 across all AI training work.

Pay is the hourly figure a posting advertises (the middle of a stated range), counted once per distinct rate as the job board counts it. The median and typical pay are the board's: typical pay runs from the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each advertised range) to the 90th-percentile advertised ceiling, stated from 3 distinct rates.

Roles paid per task or per project, or that state no figure, do not state an hourly rate.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 5

How its rates are distributed

What share of roles in Data Annotation & Labeling pay $50 an hour or more?

Advertised rateOpen rolesShare of priced rolesAll AI training work
Under $15/hr46
26.7%
6.9%
$15 to $25/hr52
30.2%
10.6%
$25 to $35/hr31
18.0%
11.9%
$35 to $50/hr21
12.2%
26.0%
$50 to $75/hr11
6.4%
14.7%
$75 to $100/hr10
5.8%
15.3%
$100 to $150/hr1
0.6%
9.4%
$150/hr or more0
0.0%
5.1%

Sample. 172 roles in Data Annotation & Labeling open on 31 Oct 2026 that state an hourly rate, against 3,565 across all AI training work.

Each role counts once, at the middle of its advertised range. The bands are those of the pay-transparency report.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 6

Applicant demand per open role

Do roles in Data Annotation & Labeling draw more or fewer applicants per opening than the average AI training role?

RolesClicks per role a weekIndex
Data Annotation & Labeling
12.61
3.70x
All AI training work
3.41
1.00x
Its roles stating an hourly rate
8.21
2.41x
Its roles stating no hourly rate
22.92
6.72x
Its roles open worldwide
17.73
5.20x
Its roles limited by country
11.46
3.36x

Sample. Apply clicks on a specific role on AITraining.jobs, from 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026: 9,513 on roles in Data Annotation & Labeling, against the days those roles were open.

Clicks per role a week = apply clicks / (open role-days / 7). Index 1.00 is the rate of every role on the site.

Data Annotation & Labeling against every kind of work: Rows with fewer than 3.6 open role-days (0.5 role-weeks) are marked as a small sample and not ranked: below that the pooled rate of the kinds of work weighs more than a row's own clicks (the weight fitted on their own clicks).

Its roles by stated pay, against each other: Rows with fewer than 1.9 open role-days (0.3 role-weeks) are marked as a small sample and not ranked: below that the pooled rate of the two sides weighs more than a row's own clicks (the weight fitted on their own clicks). Its roles by reach, against each other: Rows with fewer than 8.2 open role-days (1.2 role-weeks) are marked as a small sample and not ranked: below that the pooled rate of the two sides weighs more than a row's own clicks (the weight fitted on their own clicks). All AI training work is one set, read from its first open role-day.

Apply clicks measure interest among visitors to AITraining.jobs, who see roles open in their country and recent, priced roles first. Clicks are never split by platform.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 7

Applicant demand by listing age

Do newer roles in Data Annotation & Labeling draw more applicants than older ones?

Listing ageClicks per role a weekIndex (this work = 1)
Listed during the window
5.42
0.43x
Listed up to 4 weeks before it
28.33
2.25x
Listed 4 to 12 weeks before it
0.70
0.06x
Listed more than 12 weeks before it
17.28
1.37x
Listing date unknown
0.49
0.04x

Sample. Apply clicks on roles in Data Annotation & Labeling, from 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026, by when each role was listed relative to the window's first day (1 Oct 2026).

Listing date: the date the job board gives for the posting, or else the first day the role appeared in the feed. A role that arrived with a platform's back catalogue and gives no date has none.

The index divides each row's rate by the rate of all roles in this kind of work, so it reads within the kind.

No row with any open time is a small sample: the rates of the listing ages differ so much that each reads on its own from its first open role-day.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 8

Who may apply: location rules

Can people apply to roles in Data Annotation & Labeling from anywhere?

Location ruleOpen rolesShare of its open rolesAll AI training work
Open worldwide44
18.5%
18.5%
Worldwide except listed countries28
11.8%
18.1%
Only listed countries165
69.3%
63.0%
No rule stated1
0.4%
0.4%

Sample. 238 roles in Data Annotation & Labeling open at the end of 31 Oct 2026, against 4,381 across all AI training work.

The rule is read from each posting's location text, then, where that names no country, from what the posting's own description states, and where both are silent from what the platform states about where it hires.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 9

Who may apply: roles open to each country

How many roles in Data Annotation & Labeling can a resident of each country apply to?

CountryOpen rolesShare of its open roles
Any country (worldwide roles only)
45
18.9%
United States
154
64.7%
India
93
39.1%
United Kingdom
81
34.0%
Indonesia
80
33.6%
Brazil
79
33.2%
Philippines
79
33.2%
Bangladesh
77
32.4%
Japan
77
32.4%
South Korea
76
31.9%
Argentina
75
31.5%
Chile
75
31.5%
Colombia
75
31.5%
Germany
75
31.5%
Saudi Arabia
74
31.1%
Egypt
73
30.7%
Nigeria
73
30.7%
Ghana
72
30.3%
Pakistan
72
30.3%
Cambodia
69
29.0%
Palestine
64
26.9%

Sample. 238 roles in Data Annotation & Labeling open at the end of 31 Oct 2026, for residents of a fixed set of 20 countries.

A country's count is the roles open worldwide (including roles that state no rule, as on the job board), plus roles whose list names it, plus roles whose exclusion list does not.

The 20 countries are the same in every report of this series: those named most often by the location rules of open AI training roles on 9 Oct 2026, either as the only countries accepted or as excluded.

Median pay is over the roles open to that country that state an hourly rate (at least 3).

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 10

What the roles are called

What are roles in Data Annotation & Labeling called: annotator, evaluator, expert or trainer?

Title wordOpen rolesShare of its open roles
Evaluator or reviewer
68
28.6%
Annotator or labeler
63
26.5%
Specialist
45
18.9%
Analyst or researcher
31
13.0%
Quality assurance
30
12.6%
Voice actor or speaker
15
6.3%
Expert or SME
11
4.6%
Contributor or participant
8
3.4%
Rater
7
2.9%
Trainer
7
2.9%
Lead or manager
2
0.8%
Writer or editor
2
0.8%
Engineer or developer
1
0.4%
Red teamer or tester
1
0.4%

Sample. 210 of the 238 roles in Data Annotation & Labeling open on 31 Oct 2026 name one of these words in their title (88.2%); 14 title words are named.

A title can use several of these words ('Expert AI Trainer') and counts for each. The vocabularies are those of the job-titles, languages and expert-fields reports.

Median pay needs at least 3 roles stating an hourly rate.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 11

What the descriptions ask for

Do roles in Data Annotation & Labeling ask for degrees, credentials, experience or tests?

RequirementRolesShare of described roles
Mentions a PhD15
6.9%
Mentions a PhD or master's21
9.7%
Mentions any degree57
26.3%
Mentions a professional credential45
20.7%
States years of experience36
16.6%
Asks for 5 years or more4
1.8%
States weekly hours90
41.5%
Mentions an assessment or test30
13.8%
Mentions an AI-led or video interview1
0.5%
Mentions a background check0
0.0%

Sample. 217 roles in Data Annotation & Labeling open on 31 Oct 2026 whose job board publishes a full description (AfterQuery, Appen, Braintrust, Claru, Cohere, DATAmundi, Handshake AI, Innodata, Invisible, Lifted (Upwork), Mercor, micro1, OneForma, OpenTrain AI, Outlier (Scale AI), Perle Labs, Prolific, RemoExperts, Remotasks, Rise Data Labs, RWS TrainAI Community, Sama, Shaip (Collaborate by Shaip), SuperAnnotate (SME), TELUS Digital AI, Terac, TransPerfect DataForce, Turing, Vetto, Volga Partners, Weekday and Welo Data), 91.2% of its open roles; 4,000 described roles across all AI training work.

A mention can be a requirement or a preference ('a PhD is a plus'): the figure counts both. The patterns are those of the requirements report.

Only some platforms publish full descriptions, so this figure describes their roles, not every platform's.

A kind of work's figure is shown when its described roles outweigh the average of the kinds (5.8 described roles: the weight of every kind's shares around the shares of all described roles, fitted on their own counts).

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition.

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Method and definitions

The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every hour. Apply clicks are made on AITraining.jobs; full descriptions come from the platforms whose boards publish them. Every figure is computed by one database query over the window shown, the same query for the live report and for every edition. Each figure states its sample beneath it.

Kind of work
Each role is classified from its title and description into one of the twelve kinds of AI training work this site tracks; this report counts the roles classified as Data Annotation & Labeling.
Fixed panel
The platforms already tracked when the weekly series opens. The index follows their open roles, so a platform added later (such as OpenTrain AI and Welo Data in September 2026) never reads as growth.
Index
The panel's average open roles in a week, divided by the same in the base week, times 100; shown beside the same index for all AI training work on the same platforms.
Open role
A role listed by a given day and still in its platform's feed that day.
New listing
A role that first appeared during the window on a platform already tracked before that week. A platform's first week in this dataset is its back catalogue and is not counted as new. When this site changes how it reads a platform's board (a cap lifted, a page kind or department read too, a relevance rule changed), the roles that came into view or left it from that change to the end of its week are this site's reading, not the platform's hiring: they are not new listings or removals, and changes in open roles are measured like for like across it. Each platform's report says what changed.
Removed listing
A role that left its platform's feed during the window.
Days listed
From a removed role's listing date to the last day it was seen in its feed. A median needs at least 3 removed roles.
HHI
Herfindahl-Hirschman Index: the sum of every platform's squared percentage share of open roles, 0 to 10,000. Under 1,500 unconcentrated, 1,500 to 2,500 moderately, above 2,500 highly concentrated.
Advertised pay
The hourly figure a posting states (the middle of a stated range), counted once per distinct rate as the job board counts it. The median and typical pay are the board's: typical pay runs from the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each advertised range) to the 90th-percentile advertised ceiling, stated from 3 distinct rates.
Clicks per open role a week
Apply clicks on AITraining.jobs on a specific role, divided by the days the roles were open, times 7.
Demand index
Clicks per open role a week divided by the same rate across every role on the site. Above 1, the roles draw more applicants than the average role.
Listing age
When a role was listed relative to the window's first day: during the window, up to 4 weeks before it, 4 to 12 weeks before or longer. The listing date is the job board's posting date, or else the first day the role appeared in the feed.
Location rule
Read from each posting's location text and, where that names no country, from what the posting's own description states: open worldwide, worldwide except listed countries, only listed countries, or no rule stated.
Open to a country
A role is open to residents of a country if it is open worldwide, its list names the country, or its exclusion list does not. The 20 countries compared are the same in every report of the series.
Window
Live: the last 28 complete days, in UTC, and the last twelve complete ISO weeks (from the week of 3 Aug 2026 at the earliest) for the weekly series. Edition: one calendar month, in UTC, and its weeks.

What this data cannot tell you

  • Platforms that recruit without a public job board are not counted. Several large ones invite workers to projects directly.
  • A listing is not a hire. Some platforms keep evergreen roles open for months, and some post one listing per language or country.
  • Apply clicks measure interest among the people who use AITraining.jobs, and what is shown first gets clicked more. Clicks are never published by platform.
  • Full descriptions are published by a few platforms only, so the requirements figure describes their roles and appears only when this kind's described roles read on their own against the other kinds' (the weight of every kind's shares around the shares of all described roles, fitted on their own counts).
  • A kind of work with few open roles gives figures that move with a handful of postings: rows on too little data are marked as a small sample.

How the job feeds are read and roles are classified: site methodology. How fresh, complete and consistent the data is, checked every day: data quality and coverage.

Editions

The live report covers the last 28 complete days and changes every day. Each complete month is also published as an edition, frozen two days after the month ends, so a figure you cite from an edition never moves.

Cite and reuse

Free to quote, chart and republish under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. This edition is frozen, so its figures will read the same later.

Citation

AITraining.jobs (2026). The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition. https://aitraining.jobs/research/data-annotation-market/2026-10

BibTeX

@misc{aitrainingjobs_data_annotation_market_2026_10,
  author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
  title = {The Market for Data Annotation & Labeling Work, October 2026 edition},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://aitraining.jobs/research/data-annotation-market/2026-10}},
}
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