Train the
models.
Get paid
for it.
Seven AI-training platforms, one desk. Real pay ranges, real entry bars, a 30-second matcher — and every referral link on this page labeled by class, so you always know which ones pay us.
Affiliate disclosure · some links pay this site a referral fee when a candidate is placed, at no cost to the candidate. These are independent-contractor marketplaces, not employment offers; we are not a recruiter or employment agency.
Three questions. One recommendation, with the reasoning shown.
Matches follow a fixed, published decision tree — they never depend on whether a link pays us. Each platform's referral class is disclosed on its card.
Pick your platform.
Every card shows real pay ranges, the entry bar, and — unusually for this genre — exactly how this page is or isn't compensated. The class system below is the house rule: recommendations never follow the money, and the money is always labeled.
Programs anyone may join as a referrer. Links become referral-tracked once configured; the platform pays this site on qualified placement, at no cost to you.
Referrals require an active contributor account, and program terms constrain public posting. Links here stay plain and unmonetized until each program's terms are cleared.
No referral program exists. Listed on equal footing anyway — a desk that only showed platforms that pay it wouldn't be worth reading.
The largest listing volume in AI training. A 15–25 minute AI-led interview (their recruiter, Zara) gates entry; clear it and you're matched across generalist evaluation, domain-specialist, and $100+/hr engineering roles. The realistic first stop for most people.
Entry: AI interview + possible role-specific assessment. Candidate pay is listed per role. Certification does not guarantee placement. Independent-contractor engagement; worldwide, role permitting.
A smaller, curated pool of frontier-lab projects that pays a premium for credentialed expertise — physicians, attorneys, PhDs, senior engineers. If you have a specialty, run Mercor in parallel with micro1 for the higher ceiling.
Entry: resume + AI interview; selective matching to lab projects. Generalist roles pay below the expert range shown. Independent-contractor engagement.
The structural opposite of gig tasking: vetted engineers matched into ongoing contracts with U.S. companies, increasingly on AI and LLM work. Slower to land, far stickier once landed. Compensation varies widely by role and region.
Entry: skills vetting + matching cycle; timelines depend on client demand. Independent-contractor engagement with Turing's clients.
Flexible LLM-training projects for U.S.-based bachelor's, master's, and doctoral students, candidates, and graduates — including F-1 students on CPT or OPT (STEM OPT excluded). ID verification at signup; matching follows your background.
Entry: Handshake account + profile + government-ID verification. U.S. work authorization required; confirm visa conditions with your program sponsor before applying.
Scale AI's contributor platform: prompt writing, response ranking, and domain tasks across math, code, writing, and specialist fields. Task availability fluctuates by project cycle; payment runs weekly via PayPal, Airtm, or ACH.
Entry: associate degree minimum; selective screening, higher bars on specialist projects. Independent-contractor engagement.
Labelbox's expert network for model training and evaluation — audio, code, and domain-specialist projects. A skills assessment at onboarding determines which project tiers you can claim; acceptance is deliberately narrow.
Entry: registration + skills assessment + profile review. Third-party rate reports; verify current figures in-platform. Independent-contractor engagement.
Chat-based model feedback and evaluation tasks with one of the lowest entry bars on this desk. A starter assessment gates access; project flow arrives in waves, so treat it as supplemental rather than steady income.
Entry: signup + qualifying assessment; acceptance timelines vary. Independent-contractor engagement.
No referral programs exist for these — every link above is plain. They're listed because a credible desk covers the field, not just the platforms that pay it. Surge is invite-selective; Prolific pays for research participation rather than training work.
The AI build-out is hiring. Get in the pool.
The platforms above are the front door. The Launchpad is the direct channel: one verified profile that we present to AI training companies, enterprises, and recruiting partners negotiating contracts right now — with your consent versioned, hashed, and revocable.
Every rising tide.
Frontier labs are paying premium rates for human expertise, and demand is moving faster than any single platform's intake. The Launchpad puts you in front of the whole current — without re-screening for every desk.
Joining the pool is not a job offer and does not guarantee introductions, engagements, or income. Opportunity flow follows partner demand. 18+ only.
Privacy Notice — AI Career Launchpad
What we collect. Only what you submit above: name, contact details, country, professional links, background, specialties, languages, availability, target rate, work-eligibility regions, and your resume. We do not collect government IDs, dates of birth, or any special-category data, and we ask you not to include such data in your resume.
Why. To evaluate your profile and introduce you to AI training companies, enterprises, and recruiting partners with relevant engagements — the service you are requesting — and, if you separately opt in, to send occasional opportunity emails. Partners compensate us for introductions; candidates are never charged.
Sharing. Your profile and resume are shared only with prospective engaging partners in those categories, for placement purposes, under confidentiality terms. We do not sell personal information to data brokers and do not use it for advertising. California residents: introductions to partners may constitute "sharing/selling" as those terms are defined by the CPRA — you may opt out or delete at any time via the contact above, and we honor those requests without discrimination.
Retention. Profiles are kept for 24 months from your last update, then deleted unless you refresh them. You can request access, correction, portability, or deletion at any time; EU/UK residents may also withdraw consent and lodge a complaint with their supervisory authority.
Consent integrity. The exact consent text you accept is versioned and fingerprinted (SHA-256, shown beneath the checkboxes); your submission receipt binds your consent to that version. 18+ only.
No withholding, quarterly estimates on you, and income arriving from three platforms at once by Q2. Koinly consolidates payout records alongside any crypto proceeds and produces filing-ready reports — the same toolkit rail as our prediction-markets desk.
How getting placed works.
Every platform on this desk follows the same four-stage pattern. Where they differ is the entry bar and the pace of project flow.
Use the matcher or the comparison table. Active contributors typically run two or three platforms in parallel — apply to your match first, add the runner-up once accepted.
micro1 and Mercor run AI-led interviews on your actual resume — concrete, specific answers pass. Others use skills assessments. Handshake adds government-ID verification.
Matching follows your verified background, and most platforms add short project-specific onboarding or guideline exams. Placement is never guaranteed — flow follows lab demand.
Hourly or per-task, as an independent contractor. Weekly cycles are the norm — Outlier pays Tuesdays; Handshake pays weekly. No withholding: set aside for quarterly taxes.
Compare the desk.
Pay ranges reflect verified figures and commonly reported rates as of July 2026; each platform's live listings control. Click a column header to sort.
| Platform | Focus | Pay Range | Geography | Entry Bar | Referral Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| micro1 | Everything — generalist to engineering | $15–$150+/hr | Worldwide | AI interview (15–25 min) | A · Open |
| Mercor | Credentialed domain experts | $100–$200/hr (expert) | Worldwide | Resume + AI interview, selective | A · Open |
| Turing | Long-term engineering contracts | Varies by contract | Worldwide talent, U.S. clients | Skills vetting + matching cycle | A · Open |
| Handshake AI | Students, grads & professionals | Up to $125/hr | U.S. + work auth only | Profile + government-ID check | B · Gated |
| Outlier | Flexible tasking, all domains | $10–$60/hr typical | Worldwide | Assoc. degree min, screening | B · Gated |
| Alignerr | Selective expert projects | Up to ~$150/hr reported | Worldwide | Skills assessment, narrow intake | B · Gated |
| DataAnnotation | Entry-level writing & coding | $20–$30+/hr reported | Worldwide, wave-based access | Starter assessment | B · Gated |
| Surge · Appen · Prolific · xAI | Direct applications | Varies | Varies | Platform-specific | C · Direct |
How this desk earns — modeled openly.
The same disclosure standard we apply to prediction-market bonuses: exact program mechanics, an estimator with printed assumptions, and a hard line between rails that are live and rails that stay dark until terms clear.
Estimates only — program terms control, every figure assumes fully qualified placements, and Class B rows are shown dark until their programs are cleared and enrolled.
| Program | Basis | Est. monthly |
|---|
Assumptions: micro1 payouts are listed per role — modeled at $500 for generalist-tier and $2,000 for expert-tier listings against a published ceiling of $3,000. Mercor modeled at its hourly-contract cap (4× the first accepted offer's hourly rate); marketed range runs $250–$15,000 where deliverable-contract caps apply. Turing modeled at the $1,000 talent fee, engineering placements only, paid after a completed first month; client referrals ($2,000–$20,000) excluded. Handshake modeled at its cap (10% of rate × 40 hours) and requires an active contributor account. All programs attribute at signup via link only — no retroactive claims.
micro1 Class A
Open to any referrer — no platform account or certification required. Up to $3,000 per referral, with the exact payout listed on each job posting before you share. Triggers when the candidate is hired and completes 10 hours (or one task on per-task projects) within 3 months; paid to a withdrawable wallet; no cap on referrals. Enroll at refer.micro1.ai. A second rail pays up to $50,000 for referring companies into their Data Partnerships program.
Mercor Class A
20% of everything a referred expert earns — hourly, bonuses, one-time payments — capped at 4× the hourly rate of their first accepted offer; marketed at $250–$15,000 per referral. Enroll at work.mercor.com/refer. Terms require consent-based, non-spam outreach; a passive board where candidates click through qualifies, mass messaging does not. Work-trial and Rubric Academy contracts are ineligible, and Mercor holds clawback discretion on suspect attribution.
Turing Class A
Formal partner terms: $1,000 per talent referral, paid when the developer completes a first month with a client, plus client-referral fees of $2,000 up to $20,000 per developer started. Enrollment required, with published content standards on referral postings — comply before wiring the rail. The in-network developer tier (minimum $250 per match, no limit) is the fallback if partner enrollment lags.
Handshake AI Class B
Contributor-only: the referrer must hold an active Handshake AI account at referral and at payout. Pays 10% of the referral's hourly rate per hour worked, unlocking at 10 hours, capped at 40 hours per referral, inside a 6-month window — an effective ceiling of 4× the referral's rate. Weekly payout; anti-gaming reserve. Rail stays dark until this desk holds a cleared account.
Outlier & Alignerr Class B
Outlier: referral links live in the contributor dashboard and official guidance frames referrals as candidates you can personally vouch for — the worst structural fit for an anonymous funnel, so this rail stays dark pending written clearance. Alignerr: in-platform Refer & Earn with reported milestones around $25 at onboarding and $125 at 10 hours worked; verify current figures in-dashboard before enabling.
Attribution mechanics All programs
Every program on this desk attributes strictly at signup via the referral link — no retroactive claims, anywhere. A candidate who applied independently before clicking is unattributable. Deep-link integrity is therefore the whole game: links route directly to application endpoints, and this page never interposes redirects that could strip parameters. Candidate compensation is identical with or without a referral.
Don't trust this desk. Verify it.
The programs sheet — every pay figure, payout term, and verification date on this page — is a canonical dataset your browser fingerprints on load. Anchor it to Tezos and any post-publication edit becomes provable. Placed contractors can sign attestations with their own wallets.
SHA-256 of the embedded programs sheet, computed live in your browser. When an anchor is declared, the fingerprint is checked against the published hash and the anchoring operation is looked up on-chain.
Fingerprint covers the canonical #programs-sheet JSON — the same dataset that renders the cards, matcher, and verified dates above. Same anchoring flow as the prediction module. Chain reads via TzKT — Powered by TzKT API.
Wallet-attested reports of real placements and payouts — signed with octez.connect, attributable to a real Tezos address. Signing is free, stays off-chain, and no wallet is ever asked for funds.
No signed attestations yet.