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Research report ยท August 2026 edition

The Market for Coding & Software Evaluation Work

On 31 Aug 2026, 126 roles in Coding & Software Evaluation were open on 8 platforms (Invisible listed 32.5%); their median advertised rate was $70/hr, 8% above the $65/hr of all AI training work; each open role drew 1.56x the apply clicks of the average role.

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

Data window
1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026
31 days, UTC
Frozen
10 Oct 2026, 14:54 UTC
These figures will not change
Source
The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every day. Apply clicks are made on AITraining.jobs; full descriptions come from the platforms whose boards publish them.
Method
Version 1. 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 Aug 2026
126
median advertised rate (all AI training work: $65/hr)
$70/hr
apply clicks per open role, against the average role
1.56x
of open roles at Invisible, the largest of 8 platforms
33%

Key findings

  1. 1

    Between the week of 3 Aug 2026 and the week of 24 Aug 2026, open roles in Coding & Software Evaluation on the platforms tracked since 3 Aug 2026 went down 3.7%, from about 145 to 140, against +9.0% for all AI training work on the same platforms.

    Figure 1
  2. 2

    8 platforms listed the 126 open roles in Coding & Software Evaluation; Invisible held 32.5% and the three largest 81.7% (HHI 2,416, moderately concentrated, against 1,993 for all AI training work).

    Figure 3
  3. 3

    120 of the 126 open roles in Coding & Software Evaluation (95.2%) stated an hourly rate, with a median of $70/hr (middle half $65 to $90), 8% above the $65/hr of all AI training work.

    Figure 4
  4. 4

    Each open role in Coding & Software Evaluation drew 0.12 apply clicks a week on AITraining.jobs, 1.56x the average AI training role: the 2nd highest of 7 kinds of work with enough clicks to rank.

    Figure 6
  5. 5

    57.9% of the 126 open roles in Coding & Software Evaluation accepted applicants from any country, against 51.3% of all AI training roles; of the 20 countries compared, residents of the United States (110), then India (94), then Germany and the United Kingdom (85 each) could apply to the most, and residents of 4 of the countries (among them Ghana and Cambodia) to the fewest (73 each).

    Figure 9
  6. 6

    The words used most in the titles of open roles in Coding & Software Evaluation were Engineer or developer (53), Specialist (44) and Trainer (44), of 126 open roles.

    Figure 10
  7. 7

    Of the 39 open roles in Coding & Software Evaluation with a full description, 7.7% mention a PhD or master's degree, 2.6% a professional credential and 23.1% an assessment or test; the 22 stating years of experience ask for a median of 3 years.

    Figure 11
  8. 8

    Over the 31 days from 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026, open roles in Coding & Software Evaluation on the platforms tracked at its start went down 13.1% (145 to 126): platforms listed 96 new roles and removed 115, and a removed role had been listed for a median of 20 days (22 across all AI training work).

    Figure 2

Figure 1

Open roles, week by week

Is the number of open roles in Coding & Software Evaluation rising or falling?

WeekOpen roles (fixed panel)Index
3 to 9 Aug
145
100.0
10 to 16 Aug
143
98.7
17 to 23 Aug
136
93.8
24 to 30 Aug
140
96.3
31 AugPartial week
132
91.0

Sample. Average open roles in Coding & Software Evaluation over each week's days, on the 15 platforms tracked since 3 Aug 2026 (the fixed panel; 12 of them list this work), 3 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026.

The index is the panel's open roles against the week of 3 Aug 2026 (100), beside the same index for all AI training work on the same platforms.

Every platform listing this work in the span was tracked from the start of the series.

Weeks with fewer than 10 open roles on the panel, or cut by the span, are marked.

The series starts in the week of 3 Aug 2026 at the earliest: before it, this dataset's feeds were still being added and tuned.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition.

Figure 2

Listings added and removed

How fast do roles in Coding & Software Evaluation turn over, and is the stock growing on the same platforms?

WorkOpen on 1 Aug 2026Open on 31 Aug 2026, same platformsChangeNew listings
Coding & Software Evaluation145126
-13.1%
96
All AI training work1,5201,591
+4.7%
938

Sample. Roles listed from 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026: 241 in Coding & Software Evaluation, 2,458 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.

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 10; 112 here).

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition.

Figure 3

Who lists it

Which platforms list roles in Coding & Software Evaluation, and what does each advertise?

PlatformOpen rolesShare of open rolesMedian per hour
Invisible41
32.5%
$65
micro138
30.2%
$83
Mercor24
19.0%
$80
AfterQuery8
6.3%
$75
Braintrust6
4.8%
n/a
Mindrift5
4.0%
n/a
Alignerr3
2.4%
n/a
xAI (SpaceXAI)1
0.8%
n/a

Sample. 126 roles in Coding & Software Evaluation open at the end of 31 Aug 2026, by the platform that lists them: HHI 2,416 (moderately concentrated), against 1,993 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 8 roles stating an hourly rate.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition.

Figure 4

What it pays

What do roles in Coding & Software Evaluation advertise per hour, against AI training work as a whole?

WorkMedian per hour25th percentile75th percentileStating an hourly rate
Coding & Software Evaluation
$70
$65$9095.2%
All AI training work
$65
$40$8589.1%

Sample. Roles open on 31 Aug 2026: 126 in Coding & Software Evaluation, 120 of them stating an hourly rate; 1,591 across all AI training work.

Pay is the hourly figure the posting advertises (the middle of a stated range). The middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile.

Roles paid per task or per project, or that state no figure, do not state an hourly rate. A median needs at least 8 roles stating one.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition.

Figure 5

How its rates are distributed

What share of roles in Coding & Software Evaluation pay $50 an hour or more?

Advertised rateOpen rolesShare of priced rolesAll AI training work
Under $15/hr0
0.0%
2.8%
$15 to $25/hr2
1.7%
3.9%
$25 to $35/hr1
0.8%
5.1%
$35 to $50/hr10
8.3%
21.1%
$50 to $75/hr53
44.2%
32.9%
$75 to $100/hr33
27.5%
15.0%
$100 to $150/hr15
12.5%
14.9%
$150/hr or more6
5.0%
4.4%

Sample. 120 roles in Coding & Software Evaluation open on 31 Aug 2026 that state an hourly rate, against 1,418 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 Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition.

Figure 6

Applicant demand per open role

Do roles in Coding & Software Evaluation draw more or fewer applicants per opening than the average AI training role?

RolesClicks per role a weekIndex
Coding & Software Evaluation
0.12
1.56x
All AI training work
0.08
1.00x
Its roles stating an hourly rate
0.13
1.58x
Its roles stating no hourly rateSmall sample
0.10
1.30x
Its roles open worldwide
0.17
2.18x
Its roles limited by countrySmall sample
0.05
0.65x

Sample. Apply clicks on a specific role on AITraining.jobs, from 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026: 77 on roles in Coding & Software Evaluation, 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.

Rows with fewer than 30 clicks or 3 roles open on an average day are marked as a small sample.

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 Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition.

Figure 7

Applicant demand by listing age

Do newer roles in Coding & Software Evaluation draw more applicants than older ones?

Listing ageClicks per role a weekIndex (this work = 1)
Listed during the window
0.28
2.25x
Listed up to 4 weeks before itSmall sample
0.16
1.27x
Listed 4 to 12 weeks before itSmall sample
0.02
0.17x
Listed more than 12 weeks before itSmall sample
0.05
0.43x
Listing date unknownSmall sample
0.04
0.31x

Sample. Apply clicks on roles in Coding & Software Evaluation, from 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026, by when each role was listed relative to the window's first day (1 Aug 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 30 clicks or 3 roles open on an average day are marked as a small sample.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition.

Figure 8

Who may apply: location rules

Can people apply to roles in Coding & Software Evaluation from anywhere?

Location ruleOpen rolesShare of its open rolesAll AI training work
Open worldwide73
57.9%
51.3%
Worldwide except listed countries7
5.6%
9.8%
Only listed countries46
36.5%
38.9%
No rule stated0
0.0%
0.0%

Sample. 126 roles in Coding & Software Evaluation open at the end of 31 Aug 2026, against 1,591 across all AI training work.

The rule is read from each posting's location text and, where the posting is silent, from what the platform states about where it hires.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition.

Figure 9

Who may apply: roles open to each country

How many roles in Coding & Software Evaluation can a resident of each country apply to?

CountryOpen rolesShare of its open roles
Any country (worldwide roles only)
73
57.9%
United States
110
87.3%
India
94
74.6%
Germany
85
67.5%
United Kingdom
85
67.5%
Indonesia
84
66.7%
Philippines
82
65.1%
Pakistan
80
63.5%
Argentina
77
61.1%
Brazil
77
61.1%
Chile
77
61.1%
Colombia
77
61.1%
South Korea
77
61.1%
Egypt
75
59.5%
Bangladesh
74
58.7%
Japan
74
58.7%
Saudi Arabia
74
58.7%
Ghana
73
57.9%
Cambodia
73
57.9%
Nigeria
73
57.9%
Palestine
73
57.9%

Sample. 126 roles in Coding & Software Evaluation open at the end of 31 Aug 2026, for residents of a fixed set of 20 countries.

A country's count is the roles open worldwide, plus roles whose list names it, plus roles whose exclusion list does not. Roles with no rule stated count for no country.

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 8).

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition.

Figure 10

What the roles are called

What are roles in Coding & Software Evaluation called: annotator, evaluator, expert or trainer?

Title wordOpen rolesShare of its open roles
Engineer or developer
53
42.1%
Specialist
44
34.9%
Trainer
44
34.9%
Expert or SME
22
17.5%
Evaluator or reviewer
6
4.8%
Analyst or researcher
3
2.4%
Annotator or labeler
2
1.6%
Contributor or participant
2
1.6%
Writer or editor
2
1.6%
Lead or manager
1
0.8%
Quality assurance
1
0.8%
Tutor
1
0.8%

Sample. 122 of the 126 roles in Coding & Software Evaluation open on 31 Aug 2026 name one of these words in their title (96.8%); 12 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 8 roles stating an hourly rate.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition.

Figure 11

What the descriptions ask for

Do roles in Coding & Software Evaluation ask for degrees, credentials, experience or tests?

RequirementRolesShare of described roles
Mentions a PhD3
7.7%
Mentions a PhD or master's3
7.7%
Mentions any degree5
12.8%
Mentions a professional credential1
2.6%
States years of experience22
56.4%
Asks for 5 years or more5
12.8%
States weekly hours15
38.5%
Mentions an assessment or test9
23.1%
Mentions an AI-led or video interview8
20.5%
Mentions a background check0
0.0%

Sample. 39 roles in Coding & Software Evaluation open on 31 Aug 2026 whose job board publishes a full description (AfterQuery, Braintrust, Mercor and micro1), 31.0% of its open roles; 419 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.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition.

For labs, data vendors and researchers

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

  • 9,572 roles tracked, each with its history

    Every role on 29 job boards, read daily since 13 Jul 2026: its pay and place, and the first and last day it was open.

  • 6,200 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.

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Method and definitions

The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every day. 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 Coding & Software Evaluation.
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.
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 10 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). Medians need at least 8 roles stating a rate; the middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
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 at least 10 roles of this kind are described.
  • 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 Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition. https://www.aitraining.team/research/coding-ai-training-market/2026-08

BibTeX

@misc{aitrainingjobs_coding_ai_training_market_2026_08,
  author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
  title = {The Market for Coding & Software Evaluation Work, August 2026 edition},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://www.aitraining.team/research/coding-ai-training-market/2026-08}},
}
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