AI labs pay engineers, doctors, lawyers, PhDs, and careful generalists to grade and correct their models. The pay ranges from $15/hr to over $200/hr depending on which platform you pick and what you bring. This guide tells you where to start.
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These are the six we'd actually send a friend to. Pay figures are reported ranges for US/UK/Canada-based contributors as of mid-2026; individual offers vary and several platforms pay less outside those regions.
| Platform | Best for | Reported pay | The catch | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercor | Credentialed experts: MDs, JDs, PhDs, senior engineers, finance pros | $60–$250/hr | Hardest screen. A recorded AI interview is the gate, and matching to a project can take weeks. | Apply |
| Alignerr | Specialists who want a second queue; coding evaluators | $25–$200/hr | Headline rates are real but rare. Work availability comes and goes. | Apply |
| micro1 | Software engineers, especially with competitive-programming chops | $40–$120/hr | Engineering-focused; less for non-technical fields. | Apply |
| Outlier | Coding and writing tasks; broad global eligibility | $15–$60/hr | Queue instability is the common complaint. Pay is tiered by country. | Apply |
| DataAnnotation | Careful generalists and coders; lowest barrier to entry | $20–$60/hr | A 1–3 hour unpaid assessment with a low acceptance rate, and no retakes. | Apply |
| Handshake AI | PhDs, grad students, and credentialed experts | $50–$150/hr | Newer expert marketplace; project volume is still uneven. | Apply |
Most contributors work two or three of these at once to smooth out the gaps between projects. Some Apply links are referral links; see the disclosure.
Fake recruiters copy these names on LinkedIn, Telegram, and WhatsApp. They all fail the same checks.
No signup fee, no equipment purchase, no paid training, no "starter kit", no check to deposit. The labs pay the platforms; the platforms pay you.
Apply only on the real domain. A lookalike with an extra word or a different ending is a scam.
Real platforms send offers through their own dashboard or a company email after you've applied. A stranger messaging first is a red flag.
A "hiring manager" who wants to interview you over Telegram or Signal is not hiring you.
Real domains: mercor.com alignerr.com micro1.ai outlier.ai dataannotation.tech joinhandshake.com
If that all sounds fine, pick your top two from the table and apply to both today.
Find my best fitGrading a model's answers in your field, writing hard questions it should be able to answer, comparing two responses and picking the better one, or correcting mistakes. It's expert review work done through a web dashboard, not data entry.
For credentialed experts (MD, JD, PhD, senior engineer), Mercor's top rates are the highest in the market, with Alignerr and Handshake AI close behind on rare projects. For generalists, DataAnnotation and Outlier pay the most reliably.
No, but it matters. Mercor, Outlier, Alignerr, and DataAnnotation all accept international contributors, though some listings are region-locked and Outlier tiers pay by country. Check eligibility before spending time on an assessment.
Yes. Most experienced contributors do, as long as it doesn't create a conflict of interest on a specific project.
Weekly to bi-weekly on approved work for most platforms. Mercor pays on a project cadence. All reputable platforms pay within about two weeks under normal circumstances.
Some of the Apply links are referral links. When someone signs up through one and gets hired, the platform pays a referral fee out of its own pocket. Your pay rate and your odds are identical either way, and the rankings above are based on pay and reliability, not on which platforms have referral programs. Platforms without referral links are linked directly.