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Research report ยท August 2026 edition

The Market for Transcription, Audio & Speech Work

On 31 Aug 2026, 122 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech were open on 8 platforms (Invisible listed 42.6%); their median advertised rate was $36/hr, 45% below the $65/hr of all AI training work; each open role drew 0.95x 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, 15:01 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
122
median advertised rate (all AI training work: $65/hr)
$36/hr
apply clicks per open role, against the average role
0.95x
of open roles at Invisible, the largest of 8 platforms
43%

Key findings

  1. 1

    Between the week of 3 Aug 2026 and the week of 24 Aug 2026, open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech on the platforms tracked since 3 Aug 2026 went down 5.8%, from about 128 to 120, against +9.0% for all AI training work on the same platforms.

    Figure 1
  2. 2

    8 platforms listed the 122 open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech; Invisible held 42.6% and the three largest 70.5% (HHI 2,417, moderately concentrated, against 1,993 for all AI training work).

    Figure 3
  3. 3

    89 of the 122 open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech (73.0%) stated an hourly rate, with a median of $36/hr (middle half $30 to $37), 45% below the $65/hr of all AI training work.

    Figure 4
  4. 4

    Each open role in Transcription, Audio & Speech drew 0.08 apply clicks a week on AITraining.jobs, 0.95x the average AI training role: the 4th lowest of 7 kinds of work with enough clicks to rank.

    Figure 6
  5. 5

    52.5% of the 122 open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech accepted applicants from any country, against 51.3% of all AI training roles; of the 20 countries compared, residents of the United States (87), the United Kingdom (84) and Germany (78) could apply to the most, and residents of 9 of the countries (among them Bangladesh and Brazil) to the fewest (64 each).

    Figure 9
  6. 6

    82.8% of the 122 open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech name a language in their title, 42 languages in all; English (12), German (8) and Arabic (6) were named most.

    Figure 10
  7. 7

    Of the 27 open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech with a full description, none mention a PhD or master's degree, none a professional credential and 10 an assessment or test.

    Figure 11
  8. 8

    Over the 31 days from 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026, open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech on the platforms tracked at its start went down 2.4% (125 to 122): platforms listed 26 new roles and removed 29, and a removed role had been listed for a median of 27 days (22 across all AI training work).

    Figure 2

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
3 to 9 Aug
128
100.0
10 to 16 Aug
125
97.9
17 to 23 Aug
119
93.4
24 to 30 Aug
120
94.2
31 AugPartial week
122
95.5

Sample. Average open roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech over each week's days, on the 15 platforms tracked since 3 Aug 2026 (the fixed panel; 11 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 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 Aug 2026Open on 31 Aug 2026, same platformsChangeNew listings
Transcription, Audio & Speech125122
-2.4%
26
All AI training work1,5201,591
+4.7%
938

Sample. Roles listed from 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026: 151 in Transcription, Audio & Speech, 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; 29 here).

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 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
Invisible52
42.6%
$36
Appen18
14.8%
n/a
micro116
13.1%
$20
AfterQuery10
8.2%
$30
Braintrust10
8.2%
$23
TransPerfect DataForce8
6.6%
n/a
Sigma AI7
5.7%
n/a
Alignerr1
0.8%
n/a

Sample. 122 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech open at the end of 31 Aug 2026, by the platform that lists them: HHI 2,417 (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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 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 hour25th percentile75th percentileStating an hourly rate
Transcription, Audio & Speech
$36
$30$3773.0%
All AI training work
$65
$40$8589.1%

Sample. Roles open on 31 Aug 2026: 122 in Transcription, Audio & Speech, 89 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 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/hr3
3.4%
2.8%
$15 to $25/hr13
14.6%
3.9%
$25 to $35/hr21
23.6%
5.1%
$35 to $50/hr37
41.6%
21.1%
$50 to $75/hr11
12.4%
32.9%
$75 to $100/hr2
2.2%
15.0%
$100 to $150/hr2
2.2%
14.9%
$150/hr or more0
0.0%
4.4%

Sample. 89 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 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
0.08
0.95x
All AI training work
0.08
1.00x
Its roles stating an hourly rate
0.08
0.98x
Its roles stating no hourly rateSmall sample
0.07
0.88x
Its roles open worldwideSmall sample
0.08
1.00x
Its roles limited by countrySmall sample
0.07
0.90x

Sample. Apply clicks on a specific role on AITraining.jobs, from 1 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026: 41 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.

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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 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 windowSmall sample
0.25
3.33x
Listed up to 4 weeks before itSmall sample
0.03
0.46x
Listed 4 to 12 weeks before itSmall sample
0.10
1.27x
Listed more than 12 weeks before itSmall sample
0.06
0.78x

Sample. Apply clicks on roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech, 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 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 worldwide64
52.5%
51.3%
Worldwide except listed countries9
7.4%
9.8%
Only listed countries49
40.2%
38.9%
No rule stated0
0.0%
0.0%

Sample. 122 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 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)
64
52.5%
United States
87
71.3%
United Kingdom
84
68.9%
Germany
78
63.9%
Indonesia
75
61.5%
India
75
61.5%
Philippines
74
60.7%
Pakistan
73
59.8%
South Korea
66
54.1%
Saudi Arabia
66
54.1%
Argentina
65
53.3%
Japan
65
53.3%
Bangladesh
64
52.5%
Brazil
64
52.5%
Chile
64
52.5%
Colombia
64
52.5%
Egypt
64
52.5%
Ghana
64
52.5%
Cambodia
64
52.5%
Nigeria
64
52.5%
Palestine
64
52.5%

Sample. 122 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 2026 edition.

Figure 10

Languages asked for

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

LanguageOpen rolesShare of its open roles
English
12
9.8%
German
8
6.6%
Arabic
6
4.9%
French
5
4.1%
Italian
5
4.1%
Vietnamese
5
4.1%
Chinese (Mandarin)
4
3.3%
Dutch
4
3.3%
Japanese
4
3.3%
Portuguese
4
3.3%
Hindi
3
2.5%
Korean
3
2.5%
Telugu
3
2.5%
Thai
3
2.5%
Czech
2
1.6%
Danish
2
1.6%
Finnish
2
1.6%
Greek
2
1.6%
Hungarian
2
1.6%
Russian
2
1.6%

Sample. 101 of the 122 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech open on 31 Aug 2026 name a language in their title (82.8%); 42 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 8 roles stating an hourly rate.

Source. AITraining.jobs Research, The Market for Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 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's0
0.0%
Mentions any degree0
0.0%
Mentions a professional credential0
0.0%
States years of experience0
0.0%
Asks for 5 years or more0
0.0%
States weekly hours3
11.1%
Mentions an assessment or test10
37.0%
Mentions an AI-led or video interview1
3.7%
Mentions a background check0
0.0%

Sample. 27 roles in Transcription, Audio & Speech open on 31 Aug 2026 whose job board publishes a full description (AfterQuery, Braintrust and micro1), 22.1% 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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 2026 edition.

For labs, data vendors and researchers

Buy the data behind this report

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.

What you can buy

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    The rows behind any figure, with their history, not only the totals.

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    Your countries, languages or fields, or your own platform against the market.

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 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.
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 Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 2026 edition. https://www.aitraining.team/research/transcription-audio-speech-market/2026-08

BibTeX

@misc{aitrainingjobs_transcription_audio_speech_market_2026_08,
  author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
  title = {The Market for Transcription, Audio & Speech Work, August 2026 edition},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://www.aitraining.team/research/transcription-audio-speech-market/2026-08}},
}
Data: every figure as CSV (one line per value) and JSON, sent to your work email.Pay and open-roles data

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