The AI Training Job Market in August 2026

On the 15 platforms tracked throughout, open roles went up 9.0%, from about 1,476 in the week of 3 Aug 2026 to 1,609 in the week of 24 Aug 2026.Finding 1

Apply clicks per open role went from 0.04 a week in the week of 3 Aug 2026 to 0.06 in the week of 24 Aug 2026, as the roles listed and the site's audience changed.Finding 3

Multilingual & Localization was the largest kind of AI training work, with 432 of 1,591 open roles (27.2%) on 31 Aug 2026.Finding 1

Invisible listed the most roles, 32.9% of all open roles on 31 Aug 2026; the five largest platforms together listed 86.7%.Finding 3

On 31 Aug 2026, 1,591 AI training roles were open across the job boards of 14 platforms; Invisible listed the most (32.9%) and Mercor advertised the highest median pay ($85/hr).Summary

Invisible (32.9%), Mercor (20.4%) and micro1 (18.4%) listed the most open roles on 31 Aug 2026; the five largest of the 14 platforms held 86.7% of all open roles.Finding 1

Of the 9 platforms with at least 8 roles stating a rate, Mercor advertised the highest median, $85/hr, and Outlier (Scale AI) the lowest, $25/hr.Finding 2

From 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026, open roles on the 15 AI training platforms tracked throughout went up 4.6%: 4 grew and 6 shrank by 10% or more while 4 held steady, and the largest moves in roles were Handshake AI (-52 roles, -100.0%) and Mercor (+118, +57.3%).Summary

On the 15 platforms tracked throughout the window, open roles changed by +4.6%, on 937 new listings against 867 removals; 4 grew and 6 shrank by 10% or more while 4 held steady.Finding 1

Over the longer run, the 15 platforms tracked since the week of 3 Aug 2026 averaged 1,476 open roles that week and 1,631 in the week of 31 Aug 2026 (+10.5%).Finding 4

On 31 Aug 2026, AI training listings were moderately concentrated overall (HHI 1,993 across 14 platforms); Robotics & Physical-AI Data was the most concentrated kind of work, led by micro1 with 94.1% of its open roles.Summary

Across all AI training work, listings are moderately concentrated (HHI 1,993 across 14 platforms); Invisible holds 32.9% of open roles.Finding 1

On the same platforms, concentration rose from 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026 (HHI 1,844 to 1,993) and fell in 1 of 9 kinds of work; the largest move was in Agentic Tasks & RL Environments, from 6,089 to 3,149.Finding 4

On 31 Aug 2026, for roles open to US residents, the best-paying platform advertised 2.15 times the rate of the worst-paying one in the typical kind of AI training work, and up to 3.26 times in Multilingual & Localization ($75 at Mercor against $23 at Braintrust).Summary

Among roles open to US residents, the widest gap for the same kind of work is in Multilingual & Localization: Mercor advertises a median of $75 an hour and Braintrust $23 (3.26 times).Finding 1

Across all roles, wherever they hire, the widest gap is in AI Evaluation & Rating (RLHF): Mercor advertises a median of $80 an hour and Invisible $20, 4 times as much, partly because the two hire in different countries.Finding 3

On 31 Aug 2026, 89.1% of 1,591 open AI training roles stated an hourly rate, with a median of $65/hr and 67.1% at $50/hr or more.Summary

Agentic Tasks & RL Environments roles stated a rate most often (100%), Transcription, Audio & Speech roles least often (72.3%).Finding 2

3 of the 12 platforms with at least 10 open roles stated a rate on every role; TransPerfect DataForce stated one on none of its 31 roles.Finding 3

On 31 Aug 2026, 51.3% of open AI training roles accepted applicants from any country; residents of the United States could apply to the most (1,233 of 1,591).Summary

51.3% of the 1,591 roles open on 31 Aug 2026 accepted applicants from any country; 38.9% were limited to listed countries and 9.8% excluded some.Finding 1

Residents of the United States (1,233), India (1,054) and the United Kingdom (1,049) could apply to the most open roles; a resident of a country no posting names could apply to the 816 worldwide roles.Finding 3

On 31 Aug 2026, 1.5% of 1,591 open AI training roles had to be done on-site or hybrid, 75.5% were remote and 23.0% did not say; the largest group of on-site roles was domain expert evaluation, and most were in the United States, India and the United Kingdom.Summary

1.5% of the 1,591 AI training roles open on 31 Aug 2026 (24) must be done on-site or hybrid; 75.5% are remote and 23.0% do not say.Finding 1

366 open roles state no arrangement in their title, location or workplace field, 94.3% of them at Invisible, so the remote share is a floor.Finding 2

From 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026, people on AITraining.jobs made 955 apply clicks; per open role, interest was highest in Data Annotation & Labeling (4.82x the average role) and lowest in Multilingual & Localization (0.57x).Summary

Law, Medicine & Finance drew the most apply clicks: 102 of 567 (18.0%), followed by AI Evaluation & Rating (RLHF) (17.6%) and Multilingual & Localization (16.0%).Finding 1

Per open role, Data Annotation & Labeling drew the most applicant interest: 0.4 apply clicks a week, 4.82x the average role. Multilingual & Localization drew the least: 0.05 a week (0.57x).Finding 2

Compared within the same kind of work from 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026, a listing under 14 days old went with 2.9 times the clicks per open role, 'freelance' in the title with 65% fewer and a long title with 56% fewer: associations among the people who use AITraining.jobs, partly the site's own ranking of roles.Summary

Within the same kind of work, roles listed less than 14 days earlier drew 2.9 times the apply clicks per open role of roles listed before that, the strongest association measured (7 kinds of work compared).Finding 1

Roles in the top fifth of their kind of work's advertised rates drew 0.86 times the clicks per open role of their kinds' average, against 1.08 for the bottom fifth and 1.17 for roles stating no rate.Finding 4

On 31 Aug 2026, open AI training roles named 95 languages; English, French and Arabic had the most openings, and French roles advertised the highest median pay ($65/hr).Summary

English (57), French (37), Arabic (35), Chinese (Mandarin) (31) and German (29) had the most open roles on 31 Aug 2026, of 95 languages named in role titles.Finding 1

French roles advertised the highest median pay, $65/hr, and Thai the lowest, $25/hr, among languages with at least 8 priced roles.Finding 3

On 31 Aug 2026, 753 open AI training roles named an expert field; Software & computer science, Finance, accounting & economics and Law had the most openings, and Physics & astronomy advertised the highest median pay ($115/hr).Summary

Software & computer science (108), Finance, accounting & economics (92), Law (91), Business, sales & consulting (72) and Medicine & nursing (72) had the most open roles on 31 Aug 2026, of 17 fields named in role titles.Finding 1

Physics & astronomy roles advertised the highest median pay, $115/hr, and Voice acting, music & sound the lowest, $36/hr, among fields with at least 8 priced roles.Finding 3

On 31 Aug 2026, Voice acting, music & sound was the hardest expert field to recruit for AI training work (scarcity index 1.14x, 1.00 = the market) and Multilingual & Localization the hardest kind of work (1.59x); 1 group was scarcer than the market on all three measures: applicants per opening, time to close and pay.Summary

Voice acting, music & sound is the hardest expert field to staff, with a scarcity index of 1.14x (1.00 is the market): its roles draw 0.41x the market's apply clicks per open role, its listings came down 9% less often than other roles of the same age on the same platforms, and it advertises $36/hr, 45% below the market median of $65/hr.Finding 1

Multilingual & Localization is the hardest kind of work to staff, with a scarcity index of 1.59x (1.00 is the market): its roles draw 0.58x the market's apply clicks per open role, its listings came down 57% less often than other roles of the same age on the same platforms, and it advertises $65/hr, the market median.Finding 2

More than half of the AI training roles listed from 3 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026 were still listed at the end of the observation; Agentic Tasks & RL Environments turned over fastest (median 7.3 days).Summary

More than half of the 714 AI training roles listed from 3 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026 were still listed 28 days after going up, so their median lifetime is longer than the time observed.Finding 1

Counting only the roles already removed puts the median at 7.3 days, but 71.0% of the roles are still listed and the median of all roles is not reached yet.Finding 2

From 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026, 90.9% of dated AI training postings fell on a weekday (Wednesday the busiest day), while people applied most on Wednesday and in the 14:00 UTC hour.Summary

Wednesday and Thursday are the busiest posting days, with 52.1% of new postings between them (an even spread would give two days 28.6%); 90.9% carry a Monday-to-Friday date.Finding 1

Postings with a stated time are busiest in the 17:00 UTC hour (14.0% of them), and 36.2% fall in the 16:00 to 20:00 UTC block.Finding 3

On 31 Aug 2026, AI training roles were most often titled "Trainer", "Specialist" and "Expert or SME"; roles titled "Analyst or researcher" advertised the highest median pay ($100/hr).Summary

The most common title words were Trainer (33.2% of open roles), Specialist (29.9% of open roles) and Expert or SME (26.9% of open roles).Finding 1

Roles titled "Analyst or researcher" advertised the highest median ($100/hr); roles titled "Annotator or labeler" the lowest ($26/hr).Finding 2

From the week of 3 Aug 2026 to the week of 24 Aug 2026, on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, Education & teaching grew fastest among expert fields (+57.7% open roles), Thai among languages (+16.7%) and Robotics & Physical-AI Data among kinds of work (+58.7%).Summary

Education & teaching grew fastest among expert fields on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, from about 14 open roles in the week of 3 Aug 2026 to 22 in the week of 24 Aug 2026 (+57.7%), with 20 new listings from 6 platforms; Writing, editing & journalism shrank the most (-20.4%).Finding 1

Thai grew fastest among languages on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, from about 10 open roles in the week of 3 Aug 2026 to 12 in the week of 24 Aug 2026 (+16.7%), with 4 new listings from 3 platforms; Portuguese shrank the most (-16.6%).Finding 2