Hourly vs per-task pay in AI training work
Pay breakdown · Today
Most AI training listings quote an hourly rate, but some pay per task or per unit, from $0.15 to $2,200. Across the 761 listings on this site, 723 are hourly, 33 are per task and 5 are salaried. Here is who uses each model, what the figures look like, and how to work out what a per-task fee is worth per hour.
The split on this site
The question of hourly vs per-task pay in AI training has a lopsided answer on our board. Of the 761 listings live on 12 October 2026:
| Pay model | Listings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Per hour | 723 | 95% |
| Per task or per unit | 33 | 4% |
| Per year (salaried) | 5 | 1% |
The five salaried roles are micro1's Member of Technical Staff research positions, at $200,000 to $320,000 a year, listed as full-time positions. Everything else is contract work.
The hourly label can mislead. As our guide to how you actually get paid explains, some platforms quote an hourly figure but pay per accepted task, so the hourly number is a projection of your speed. Check the compensation paragraph of each listing, not the headline.
What hourly listings pay
Taking the midpoint of each hourly listing's range, the median is $70 an hour. Half the 723 sit between $45 and $100, and the midpoints run from $6 to $400. Most listings with a midpoint of $150 or more are in medicine, psychology, law or finance; the single highest range is $350 to $450 for a Mercor oncologist role. For the full picture by field, see how much AI training jobs pay.
On a true hourly project you are paid for time logged, which makes earnings easy to predict. Outlier's FAQ says rates "vary by expertise, project complexity, and location" and that you always see the tasking rate before starting a project. Meridial, Invisible's contractor marketplace, says in its FAQ that it publishes the rate range on each engagement before you commit.
Who pays per task, and how much
All 33 per-task listings on this site come from two companies.
Mercor has 30. Twenty-four of them are red-teaming and safety roles for specialists (nuclear engineers, health physicists, chemists, explosives and public safety experts) at $65 to $75 per task. The rest vary widely: $12.60 per task for a bilingual Thai generalist role, $130 for Go codebase questions and answers, $500 for sharing your AI coding sessions and $2,200 for database systems evaluation.
Invisible Technologies has 3: Danish and Dutch speaker projects at $1.30 per unit, and Pin to Product at $0.15 per task.
A task fee by itself says nothing about the hourly rate. A $2,200 task could be a week's work.
Turning a task fee into an hourly rate
Divide the fee by the hours a task takes you. At $65 per task:
- One task an hour earns $65 an hour
- One task every 90 minutes earns about $43 an hour
- One task every two hours earns $32.50 an hour
The listing rarely tells you the time per task, so time your first few before deciding. Two things move the result. Rejected tasks usually pay nothing, and some per-task projects cap how long you can hold a task, which our Outlier pay guide covers from contributor reports.
Per-task pay rewards speed and quality together. If you are fast and accurate in your field, it can beat the hourly equivalent. If you are learning the guidelines, hourly work is the safer start.
Sources
Counts and rates come from the 761 listings on this site on 12 October 2026, each quoting its platform's published figure. Outlier and Meridial statements come from their FAQ pages, read the same day. We are not affiliated with any of these platforms.
Questions
- Do most AI training jobs pay hourly or per task?
- Hourly, at least on paper. Of the 761 listings on this site on 12 October 2026, 723 quote an hourly rate, 33 pay per task or per unit, and 5 are annual salaries. The per-task listings come from Mercor (30) and Invisible Technologies (3).
- How do I compare a per-task rate with an hourly rate?
- Divide the fee by the time a task takes you, in hours. A $65 task that takes 90 minutes works out to about $43 an hour. Time a few practice tasks before you rely on the figure, since rejected tasks earn nothing.
- What does a typical hourly AI training listing pay?
- Using the midpoint of each hourly listing's range, half of the 723 hourly listings on this site pay between $45 and $100 an hour, with a median of $70. Midpoints run from $6 to $400.
Platforms covered here
Put this into practice
Every listing shows its pay and who it is open to.