Original research · last measured 2026-08-15
What remote AI training work actually pays
Measured across 676 priced hourly listings, the median advertised rate is $75 an hour. The spread underneath that number is the part worth knowing: the field you work in moves the rate more than the platform you work through.
What the data says
Advertised rates run from $6 to $400 an hour. That range is not noise around a single job type — it is two different kinds of work sharing one label. Law roles carry a median of $115; Robotics roles carry $13.
The dividing line is whether the platform could train someone to do the task. Fields that need a credential — law, medicine, finance — sit at the top, because the model is being taught by someone who already knows the subject. Fields at the bottom are largely physical data capture: recording video at home, gathering household footage, annotating clips. Both are real work and both are listed here, but they are not the same job at different rates.
Platform choice barely registers by comparison. Across hourly listings the two largest platforms' medians sit within about ten dollars of each other, while the gap between the top and bottom field is roughly 9×. Choosing the field is the decision that pays.
Median hourly rate by field
Advertised ranges, midpoint per role, hourly listings only. Fields with fewer than 8 priced roles are omitted (5 of them) — a median over a handful of listings is an anecdote.
| Field | Median | Range | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Law | $115 | $12.92–$400 | 90 |
| Finance | $95 | $10–$220 | 47 |
| Software Engineering | $90 | $15–$250 | 52 |
| Medicine | $90 | $20–$250 | 24 |
| Business Operations | $84 | $20–$250 | 66 |
| Sciences Research | $84 | $16–$200 | 86 |
| Applied Engineering | $80 | $30–$175 | 46 |
| Data Analysis | $70 | $15–$170 | 33 |
| Language Audio | $48 | $8–$150 | 56 |
| Sales & Marketing | $48 | $15–$90 | 9 |
| Strategy & Ops | $43 | $6–$190 | 64 |
| Arts Design | $39 | $11–$300 | 67 |
| Robotics | $13 | $6–$55 | 13 |
What this does not measure
Only hourly listings are counted. Roles advertised as an annual salary or a flat per-task fee are excluded rather than converted, because a per-deliverable fee is not a rate over time and treating one as the other is how a $2,000 project fee becomes a published "$2,000 an hour". They are shown in their own units on their own pages.
55 roles publish no range at all and are excluded. That is a real answer rather than missing data: one platform in this directory publishes no pay figure on any public endpoint, so its roles read "Not disclosed" here instead of carrying an invented estimate.
Recomputed on every deploy from the live catalogue. Advertised rates are what a listing states, not what an individual contract settles at. If a figure here contradicts a platform's own posting, the posting is right and this should be corrected.
Common questions
How much does remote AI training work pay?
The median advertised rate across 676 priced hourly listings in this directory is $75 an hour. Individual roles run from $6 to $400, and the field matters far more than the platform — the highest-paying field's median is roughly 9× the lowest.
Which AI training work pays the most?
Law roles carry the highest median rate at $115 an hour across 90 listings. Specialist professional fields — law, medicine, finance — consistently pay above the catalogue median, because the work needs a credential the platform cannot train for.
Why do some AI data roles only pay $10 an hour?
Because they are physical data-collection tasks, not technical work. The lowest-paying field in this data is Robotics at a $13 median, and its listings are largely at-home video capture and household recording jobs. The field label describes what the data is for, not the skill required to produce it.
Do these platforms publish their rates?
Not all of them. 55 of the roles in this directory carry no published pay range at all, most of them from one platform that publishes no rate on any public page. Those roles are shown as "Not disclosed" rather than filled with an estimate, and they are excluded from every figure here.
Is the advertised rate what you actually get paid?
It is what the listing advertises, which is the only figure that can be measured from outside. Final rates are set by the platform after screening and can land anywhere in the advertised band, and hours are rarely guaranteed — most of this work is contract, paid for time actually worked.
See all research, or browse the open roles by field.