How much do AI data companies cost?
Almost every major AI data company quotes custom prices. As of November 9, 2026, Prolific is the only company on our list with fully published self-serve pricing: a participant reward you set plus a platform fee of usually 42.8% for corporate customers. Everyone else prices by project, task or expert hour after a scoping call.
Last updated: November 9, 2026
Common pricing models
- Self-serve platform fee: You pay contributors directly plus a percentage fee. Example: Prolific (42.8% corporate, 33.3% academic or non-profit; recommended pay of at least $12/hour, minimum $8/hour).
- Managed project or statement of work: The vendor scopes, staffs and quality-controls a program for a negotiated price. Used by Scale AI, Surge AI, Snorkel AI, Labelbox, Turing, Invisible, iMerit, Sama and others.
- Expert-hour pricing: The cost is driven by specialist pay rates. Mercor reports a $90/hour average contracted expert rate. Handshake AI role listings range from up to $17/hour to up to $150/hour. These are contributor pay rates, not the price buyers pay, which includes vendor margin and management.
- Dataset licensing: Off-the-shelf datasets from catalogs such as Appen, Toloka, Surge AI and Mercor.
- Outcome-linked terms: Surge AI says trusted labs can train on some datasets and pay only if relevant metrics improve.
What each company publishes
| Company | Public pricing | How to get a price |
|---|---|---|
| Prolific | Yes: platform fee and pay guidance | Self-serve price calculator; managed services by quote |
| Surge AI | No | Contact; some pay-if-it-works dataset terms |
| Scale AI | No | Book a demo |
| Mercor | No (expert pay visible on role listings) | Contact sales |
| Snorkel AI | No | Request dataset samples |
| Labelbox | No public pricing page found | Contact sales |
| Turing | No | Contact |
| Handshake AI | No (contributor pay visible on role listings) | Book a scoping session |
| Invisible Technologies | No | Book a demo |
| micro1 | No | Contact |
| Toloka | No public price list found | Self-service platform or talk to an expert |
| Appen | No | Talk to an expert; dataset catalog |
| iMerit | No | Talk to an expert or book a demo |
| Sama | No | Scoping call with pricing |
Questions to ask before you sign
- What exactly is the unit of billing (task, hour, accepted item or dataset), and who pays for rework?
- How are contributor qualifications verified, and can we set our own bar?
- What quality metrics are guaranteed, and how are they measured against our gold data?
- Who owns the outputs, and can the vendor reuse or resell them?
- What are the minimum commitments, ramp times and exit terms?
- What do contributors earn, and how are guidelines and disputes handled?
FAQ
Why don't most AI data companies publish prices?
Costs depend heavily on task difficulty, required expertise, volume, turnaround and security needs, so most vendors scope each project before quoting.
What is the cheapest way to get human feedback data?
For small studies you design yourself, a self-serve participant platform such as Prolific is usually the most direct route, because you set pay and see the fee upfront.