Key findings

1
8 platforms listed the 18 open roles in Research Studies & Surveys; Terac held 5 of them (27.8%) and the three largest 11 (61.1%).
Figure 3
2
11 of the 18 open roles in Research Studies & Surveys (61.1%) stated an hourly rate, with a median of $75/hr (typical pay $60 to $200), 88% above the $40/hr of all AI training work.
Figure 4
3
Each open role in Research Studies & Surveys drew 0.52 apply clicks a week on AITraining.jobs, 0.15x the average AI training role: the lowest of 12 kinds of work whose demand reads on its own.
Figure 6
4
3 of the 18 open roles in Research Studies & Surveys (16.7%) accepted applicants from any country, against 18.5% of all AI training roles; of the 20 countries compared, residents of the United States (16), then Brazil and the United Kingdom (7 each) could apply to the most, and residents of Cambodia, Pakistan and Palestine to the fewest (5 each).
Figure 9
5
Of the 16 open roles in Research Studies & Surveys with a full description, 4 (25.0%) mention a PhD or master's degree, 4 (25.0%) a professional credential and none an assessment or test.
Figure 11
6
Over the 31 days from 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026, platforms listed 16 new roles in Research Studies & Surveys and removed 23, and a removed role had been listed for a median of 53 days (30 across all AI training work).
Figure 2
7
Within Research Studies & Surveys, roles listed during the window drew 0.74 apply clicks per role a week, against 0.03 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 Research Studies & Surveys rising or falling?

Week	Open roles (fixed panel)	Index	All AI training work (index)	All tracked platforms
1 to 4 OctPartial week	19	84.1	103.2	19
5 to 11 OctPartial week	22	100.0	100.0	22
12 to 18 OctPartial week	27	92.3	95.8	27
19 to 25 OctPartial week	25	78.9	96.9	29
26 to 31 OctPartial week	16	66.9	97.4	19

Sample. Average open roles in Research Studies & Surveys over each week's days, on the 18 platforms tracked since 1 Oct 2026 (the fixed panel; 7 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 3 platforms' boards in this span (Alignerr on 14 Oct 2026; Mindrift on 14 Oct 2026 and 22 Oct 2026; OpenTrain AI on 14 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.

OneForma (first tracked 14 Oct 2026), Weekday (first tracked 18 Oct 2026), Scale AI Human Frontier Collective (first tracked 18 Oct 2026), TELUS Digital AI (first tracked 22 Oct 2026) and Snorkel AI Expert Community (first tracked 22 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 Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 2

Listings added and removed

How fast do roles in Research Studies & Surveys turn over, and is the stock growing on the same platforms?

Work	Open on 1 Oct 2026	Open on 31 Oct 2026, same platforms	Change	New listings	Removed	Median days listed
Research Studies & SurveysSmall sample	17	16	-3.7%	16	23	53.1 days
All AI training work	2,665	2,554	-4.2%	1,638	2,018	30.0 days

Sample. Roles listed from 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026: 61 in Research Studies & Surveys, 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; 23 here).

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 3

Who lists it

Which platforms list roles in Research Studies & Surveys, and what does each advertise?

Platform	Open roles	Share of open roles	Stating an hourly rate	Median per hour
Terac	5	27.8%	60.0%	$75
Mercor	3	16.7%	33.3%	n/a
TransPerfect DataForce	3	16.7%	0.0%	n/a
Alignerr	2	11.1%	100.0%	n/a
micro1	2	11.1%	100.0%	n/a
Scale AI Human Frontier Collective	1	5.6%	100.0%	n/a
Snorkel AI Expert Community	1	5.6%	100.0%	n/a
TELUS Digital AI	1	5.6%	100.0%	n/a

Sample. 18 roles in Research Studies & Surveys open at the end of 31 Oct 2026, by the platform that lists them: HHI 1,667 (moderately concentrated), 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 Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 4

What it pays

What do roles in Research Studies & Surveys advertise per hour, against AI training work as a whole?

Work	Median per hour	Typical pay from	Typical pay to	Stating an hourly rate	Roles stating pay
Research Studies & Surveys	$75	$60	$200	61.1%	11
All AI training work	$40	$30	$125	81.4%	3,565

Sample. Roles open on 31 Oct 2026: 18 in Research Studies & Surveys, 11 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 Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 5

How its rates are distributed

What share of roles in Research Studies & Surveys pay $50 an hour or more?

Advertised rate	Open roles	Share of priced roles	This rate or less	All AI training work
Under $15/hr	1	9.1%	9.1%	6.9%
$15 to $25/hr	0	0.0%	9.1%	10.6%
$25 to $35/hr	0	0.0%	9.1%	11.9%
$35 to $50/hr	0	0.0%	9.1%	26.0%
$50 to $75/hr	4	36.4%	45.5%	14.7%
$75 to $100/hr	1	9.1%	54.5%	15.3%
$100 to $150/hr	3	27.3%	81.8%	9.4%
$150/hr or more	2	18.2%	100.0%	5.1%

Sample. 11 roles in Research Studies & Surveys 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 Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 6

Applicant demand per open role

Do roles in Research Studies & Surveys draw more or fewer applicants per opening than the average AI training role?

Roles	Clicks per role a week	Index	Clicks	Avg open roles
Research Studies & Surveys	0.52	0.15x	55	24
All AI training work	3.41	1.00x	53,794	3,561
Its roles stating an hourly rate	0.85	0.25x	36	10
Its roles stating no hourly rate	0.30	0.09x	19	14
Its roles open worldwideSmall sample	1.00	0.29x	8	2
Its roles limited by countrySmall sample	0.49	0.14x	47	22

Sample. Apply clicks on a specific role on AITraining.jobs, from 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026: 55 on roles in Research Studies & Surveys, 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.

Research Studies & Surveys 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 62.7 open role-days (9 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: Every row is marked as a small sample: the rates of the two sides differ no more than chance makes them, so none reads on its own and none is ranked. 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 Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 7

Applicant demand by listing age

Do newer roles in Research Studies & Surveys draw more applicants than older ones?

Listing age	Clicks per role a week	Index (this work = 1)	Clicks	Avg open roles
Listed during the window	0.74	1.41x	27	8
Listed up to 4 weeks before it	1.01	1.93x	20	4
Listed 4 to 12 weeks before it	0.96	1.83x	7	2
Listed more than 12 weeks before it	0.03	0.05x	1	8
Listing date unknown	0.00	0.00x	0	1

Sample. Apply clicks on roles in Research Studies & Surveys, 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.

Rows with fewer than 10.3 open role-days (1.5 role-weeks) are marked as a small sample and not ranked: below that the pooled rate of the listing ages weighs more than a row's own clicks (the weight fitted on their own clicks).

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 8

Who may apply: location rules

Can people apply to roles in Research Studies & Surveys from anywhere?

Location rule	Open roles	Share of its open roles	All AI training work
Open worldwide	3	16.7%	18.5%
Worldwide except listed countries	3	16.7%	18.1%
Only listed countries	12	66.7%	63.0%
No rule stated	0	0.0%	0.4%

Sample. 18 roles in Research Studies & Surveys 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 Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 9

Who may apply: roles open to each country

How many roles in Research Studies & Surveys can a resident of each country apply to?

Country	Open roles	Share of its open roles	Median per hour
Any country (worldwide roles only)	3	16.7%	$55
United States	16	88.9%	$90
Brazil	7	38.9%	$70
United Kingdom	7	38.9%	$70
Argentina	6	33.3%	$70
Bangladesh	6	33.3%	$70
Chile	6	33.3%	$70
Colombia	6	33.3%	$70
Germany	6	33.3%	$70
Egypt	6	33.3%	$70
Ghana	6	33.3%	$70
Indonesia	6	33.3%	$70
India	6	33.3%	$70
Japan	6	33.3%	$70
South Korea	6	33.3%	$70
Nigeria	6	33.3%	$70
Philippines	6	33.3%	$70
Saudi Arabia	6	33.3%	$70
Cambodia	5	27.8%	$70
Pakistan	5	27.8%	$70
Palestine	5	27.8%	$70

Sample. 18 roles in Research Studies & Surveys 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 Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 10

What the roles are called

What are roles in Research Studies & Surveys called: annotator, evaluator, expert or trainer?

Title word	Open roles	Share of its open roles	Median per hour	Platforms
Analyst or researcher	2	11.1%	n/a	1
Engineer or developer	2	11.1%	n/a	1
Expert or SME	2	11.1%	n/a	2
Contributor or participant	1	5.6%	n/a	1
Evaluator or reviewer	1	5.6%	n/a	1
Voice actor or speaker	1	5.6%	n/a	1

Sample. 8 of the 18 roles in Research Studies & Surveys open on 31 Oct 2026 name one of these words in their title (44.4%); 6 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 Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 11

What the descriptions ask for

Do roles in Research Studies & Surveys ask for degrees, credentials, experience or tests?

Requirement	Roles	Share of described roles	All described roles
Mentions a PhD	4	25.0%	17.3%
Mentions a PhD or master's	4	25.0%	25.2%
Mentions any degree	6	37.5%	38.7%
Mentions a professional credential	4	25.0%	16.6%
States years of experience	2	12.5%	26.0%
Asks for 5 years or more	1	6.3%	7.2%
States weekly hours	1	6.3%	24.5%
Mentions an assessment or test	0	0.0%	20.0%
Mentions an AI-led or video interview	1	6.3%	5.0%
Mentions a background check	0	0.0%	0.5%

Sample. 16 roles in Research Studies & Surveys open on 31 Oct 2026 whose job board publishes a full description (Mercor, micro1, Scale AI Human Frontier Collective, Snorkel AI Expert Community, TELUS Digital AI, Terac and TransPerfect DataForce), 88.9% 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 Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition.

For labs, data vendors and researchers

Buy the data behind this report

The figures above are a summary. Behind them are records we collect ourselves, every day:

11,482 roles tracked, each with its history
Every role on 62 job boards, read since 13 Jul 2026 (every hour since 18 Oct 2026): its pay and place, and the first and last day it was open.
58,632 apply clicks in 28 days
Which roles people actually apply to, by field, pay and kind of work. It happens on this site, so nobody else can count it.
39 lab and vendor hiring boards
The job boards of 25 AI labs and 14 human-data vendors, read every day: who is hiring for human data, and who is hiring to buy it.

What you can buy

The records
The rows behind any figure, with their history, not only the totals.
A regular feed
The same figures every week or month, as files.
A custom cut or benchmark
Your countries, languages or fields, or your own platform against the market.

Building AI and need the experts behind this data? (you contract them yourself) or (we deliver the expert work).

Investing in AI-data companies? Hiring radar is these records role by role, every day, as files.

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 Research Studies & Surveys.
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.

Live dataLast 28 complete days, recomputed daily
October 2026 edition (this page)Freezes on first reading
September 2026 editionFrozen 10 Oct 2026
August 2026 editionFrozen 10 Oct 2026

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 Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition. https://aitraining.jobs/research/research-studies-surveys-market/2026-10

BibTeX

@misc{aitrainingjobs_research_studies_surveys_market_2026_10,
  author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
  title = {The Market for Research Studies & Surveys Work, October 2026 edition},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://aitraining.jobs/research/research-studies-surveys-market/2026-10}},
}

Data: every figure as CSV (one line per value) and JSON, sent to your work email.Pay and open-roles data

More research

The same figures for every other kind of work:

All 81 research reports