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Research report ยท October 2026 edition

The Market for Transcription, Audio & Speech Work

On 31 Oct 2026, 638 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech were open on 31 platforms (Alignerr listed 112 of them (17.6%)); their median advertised rate was $30/hr, 25% below the $40/hr of all AI training work; each open role drew 1.12x 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, 01:18 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.

open roles on 31 Oct 2026
638
median advertised rate (all AI training work: $40/hr)
$30/hr
apply clicks per open role, against the average role
1.12x
of open roles at Alignerr, the largest of 31 platforms
18%

Key findings

  1. 1

    31 platforms listed the 638 open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech; Alignerr held 112 of them (17.6%) and the three largest 229 (35.9%) (HHI 806, unconcentrated, against 522 for all AI training work).

    Figure 3
  2. 2

    444 of the 638 open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech (69.6%) stated an hourly rate, with a median of $30/hr (typical pay $20 to $150), 25% below the $40/hr of all AI training work.

    Figure 4
  3. 3

    Each open role in Transcription, Audio & Speech drew 3.84 apply clicks a week on AITraining.jobs, 1.12x the average AI training role: the 4th highest of 12 kinds of work whose demand reads on its own.

    Figure 6
  4. 4

    190 of the 638 open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech (29.8%) accepted applicants from any country, against 18.5% of all AI training roles; of the 20 countries compared, residents of the United States (399), the United Kingdom (364) and India (352) could apply to the most, and residents of Argentina to the fewest (250).

    Figure 9
  5. 5

    565 of the 638 open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech (88.6%) name a language in their title, 78 languages in all; English (117), Spanish (47) and French (39) were named most.

    Figure 10
  6. 6

    Of the 526 open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech with a full description, 4 (0.8%) mention a PhD or master's degree, 56 (10.6%) a professional credential and 63 (12.0%) an assessment or test; the 28 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 177 new roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech and removed 228, and a removed role had been listed for a median of 29 days (30 across all AI training work).

    Figure 2
  8. 8

    Within Transcription, Audio & Speech, roles listed during the window drew 5.71 apply clicks per role a week, against 4.27 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech rising or falling?

WeekOpen roles (fixed panel)Index
1 to 4 OctPartial week
351
101.5
5 to 11 OctPartial week
346
100.0
12 to 18 OctPartial week
365
93.7
19 to 25 OctPartial week
398
92.7
26 to 31 OctPartial week
378
88.0

Sample. Average open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech over each week's days, on the 18 platforms tracked since 1 Oct 2026 (the fixed panel; 13 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 4 platforms' boards in this span (Alignerr on 14 Oct 2026; OpenTrain AI on 14 Oct 2026; Handshake AI on 14 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), Turing (first tracked 10 Oct 2026), RemoExperts (first tracked 10 Oct 2026), Babel Audio (first tracked 11 Oct 2026), Pila8 (first tracked 11 Oct 2026), OneForma (first tracked 14 Oct 2026), Pasiflora AI (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), iMerit (first tracked 22 Oct 2026), DATAmundi (first tracked 22 Oct 2026), Shaip (Collaborate by Shaip) (first tracked 22 Oct 2026), RWS TrainAI Community (first tracked 22 Oct 2026) and Inworld AI (first tracked 29 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 2

Listings added and removed

How fast do roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech turn over, and is the stock growing on the same platforms?

WorkOpen on 1 Oct 2026Open on 31 Oct 2026, same platformsChangeNew listings
Transcription, Audio & SpeechSmall sample367321
-12.6%
177
All AI training work2,6652,554
-4.2%
1,638

Sample. Roles listed from 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026: 896 in Transcription, Audio & Speech, 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; 216 here).

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 3

Who lists it

Which platforms list roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech, and what does each advertise?

PlatformOpen rolesShare of open rolesMedian per hour
Alignerr112
17.6%
$25
Perle Labs63
9.9%
n/a
RWS TrainAI Community54
8.5%
$10
Invisible52
8.2%
$35
AfterQuery47
7.4%
$30
Babel Audio47
7.4%
$105
Welo Data45
7.1%
$35
micro137
5.8%
$50
Appen28
4.4%
$35
Lifted (Upwork)25
3.9%
$20
Mercor25
3.9%
$50
TransPerfect DataForce13
2.0%
n/a
Braintrust11
1.7%
$20
OpenTrain AI9
1.4%
$15
Turing9
1.4%
n/a
Volga Partners9
1.4%
$10
Shaip (Collaborate by Shaip)8
1.3%
n/a
TELUS Digital AI8
1.3%
$10
Sigma AI7
1.1%
n/a
Weekday6
0.9%
$130
DATAmundi5
0.8%
n/a
Pila84
0.6%
$30
Rise Data Labs3
0.5%
$35
Handshake AI2
0.3%
n/a
Innodata2
0.3%
n/a
Pasiflora AI2
0.3%
n/a
iMerit1
0.2%
n/a
Inworld AI1
0.2%
n/a
OneForma1
0.2%
n/a
Outlier (Scale AI)1
0.2%
n/a
RemoExperts1
0.2%
n/a

Sample. 638 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech open at the end of 31 Oct 2026, by the platform that lists them: HHI 806 (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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 4

What it pays

What do roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech advertise per hour, against AI training work as a whole?

WorkMedian per hourTypical pay fromTypical pay toStating an hourly rate
Transcription, Audio & Speech
$30
$20$15069.6%
All AI training work
$40
$30$12581.4%

Sample. Roles open on 31 Oct 2026: 638 in Transcription, Audio & Speech, 444 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 5

How its rates are distributed

What share of roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech pay $50 an hour or more?

Advertised rateOpen rolesShare of priced rolesAll AI training work
Under $15/hr63
14.2%
6.9%
$15 to $25/hr96
21.6%
10.6%
$25 to $35/hr96
21.6%
11.9%
$35 to $50/hr83
18.7%
26.0%
$50 to $75/hr30
6.8%
14.7%
$75 to $100/hr12
2.7%
15.3%
$100 to $150/hr39
8.8%
9.4%
$150/hr or more25
5.6%
5.1%

Sample. 444 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 6

Applicant demand per open role

Do roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech draw more or fewer applicants per opening than the average AI training role?

RolesClicks per role a weekIndex
Transcription, Audio & Speech
3.84
1.12x
All AI training work
3.41
1.00x
Its roles stating an hourly rate
3.39
0.99x
Its roles stating no hourly rate
4.80
1.41x
Its roles open worldwide
0.63
0.18x
Its roles limited by country
5.26
1.54x

Sample. Apply clicks on a specific role on AITraining.jobs, from 1 Oct 2026 to 31 Oct 2026: 8,352 on roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech, 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.

Transcription, Audio & Speech 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 53.7 open role-days (7.7 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 2 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). 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 7

Applicant demand by listing age

Do newer roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech draw more applicants than older ones?

Listing ageClicks per role a weekIndex (this work = 1)
Listed during the window
5.71
1.49x
Listed up to 4 weeks before it
5.80
1.51x
Listed 4 to 12 weeks before it
1.57
0.41x
Listed more than 12 weeks before it
4.27
1.11x
Listing date unknown
0.46
0.12x

Sample. Apply clicks on roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech, 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 2.9 open role-days (0.4 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 8

Who may apply: location rules

Can people apply to roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech from anywhere?

Location ruleOpen rolesShare of its open rolesAll AI training work
Open worldwide176
27.6%
18.5%
Worldwide except listed countries145
22.7%
18.1%
Only listed countries303
47.5%
63.0%
No rule stated14
2.2%
0.4%

Sample. 638 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 9

Who may apply: roles open to each country

How many roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech can a resident of each country apply to?

CountryOpen rolesShare of its open roles
Any country (worldwide roles only)
190
29.8%
United States
399
62.5%
United Kingdom
364
57.1%
India
352
55.2%
Germany
351
55.0%
Philippines
343
53.8%
Indonesia
340
53.3%
Pakistan
333
52.2%
Japan
295
46.2%
Colombia
294
46.1%
Saudi Arabia
294
46.1%
South Korea
293
45.9%
Chile
292
45.8%
Egypt
291
45.6%
Brazil
289
45.3%
Ghana
289
45.3%
Bangladesh
288
45.1%
Nigeria
288
45.1%
Cambodia
284
44.5%
Palestine
282
44.2%
Argentina
250
39.2%

Sample. 638 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 10

Languages asked for

Which languages do roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech ask for?

LanguageOpen rolesShare of its open roles
English
117
18.3%
Spanish
47
7.4%
French
39
6.1%
German
37
5.8%
Arabic
31
4.9%
Chinese (Mandarin)
23
3.6%
Italian
20
3.1%
Portuguese
19
3.0%
Korean
17
2.7%
Dutch
16
2.5%
Japanese
16
2.5%
Vietnamese
12
1.9%
Hindi
10
1.6%
Thai
9
1.4%
Bengali
8
1.3%
Danish
8
1.3%
Hebrew
8
1.3%
Russian
8
1.3%
Indonesian
7
1.1%
Swedish
7
1.1%

Sample. 565 of the 638 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech open on 31 Oct 2026 name a language in their title (88.6%); 78 languages are named, the 20 most frequent shown.

A role counts for a language when its title names it; a role naming two languages counts for both. English counts only where the title names it.

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

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, October 2026 edition.

Figure 11

What the descriptions ask for

Do roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech ask for degrees, credentials, experience or tests?

RequirementRolesShare of described roles
Mentions a PhD0
0.0%
Mentions a PhD or master's4
0.8%
Mentions any degree26
4.9%
Mentions a professional credential56
10.6%
States years of experience28
5.3%
Asks for 5 years or more6
1.1%
States weekly hours69
13.1%
Mentions an assessment or test63
12.0%
Mentions an AI-led or video interview2
0.4%
Mentions a background check0
0.0%

Sample. 526 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech open on 31 Oct 2026 whose job board publishes a full description (AfterQuery, Appen, Babel Audio, Braintrust, DATAmundi, Handshake AI, iMerit, Innodata, Invisible, Inworld AI, Lifted (Upwork), Mercor, micro1, OneForma, OpenTrain AI, Outlier (Scale AI), Pasiflora AI, Perle Labs, Pila8, RemoExperts, Rise Data Labs, RWS TrainAI Community, Shaip (Collaborate by Shaip), Sigma AI, TELUS Digital AI, TransPerfect DataForce, Turing, Volga Partners, Weekday and Welo Data), 82.4% 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech.
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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, October 2026 edition. https://aitraining.jobs/research/transcription-audio-speech-market/2026-10

BibTeX

@misc{aitrainingjobs_transcription_audio_speech_market_2026_10,
  author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
  title = {The Market for Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, October 2026 edition},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://aitraining.jobs/research/transcription-audio-speech-market/2026-10}},
}
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