Pricing
Scale AI pricing in 2026: what it costs and how to compare
Scale AI prices enterprise work per quote and does not publish a rate card. Here is what is publicly known about the cost of RLHF and expert data in 2026, and how to compare vendors on a number you can actually see.
No major RLHF vendor publishes enterprise pricing, Scale included, so direct price comparison is hard. Publicly reported figures run from cents per microtask on crowd platforms to $85 to $200+ per expert hour at the premium end. The deciding factor is usually not the headline rate but whether you can see cost per item.
The table compares the vendors on their pricing model. The honest takeaway: ask every vendor for a quote on the same task, and favour the one that shows time and cost per item rather than a bundled number.
Scale's published pricing
reported expert hour at the premium end
cost Pathwize shows in the dashboard
items in a free Pathwize pilot
Vendor facts come from the vendors' own material and widely cited public sources as of October 2026; pricing is per quote unless the vendor publishes it. Pathwize is EU-native: all data stays within the EU.
How we compared
01
Workforce model
Open crowd, vetted crowd, curated expert network, or software only. This decides the quality ceiling and the price floor.
02
Pricing model
Per task, per hour, platform fee plus reward, or SaaS. Hourly with time tracking makes cost per item visible; per task hides it.
03
EU data residency
Whether the vendor can keep storage, processing and worker access inside the EU. An EU parent alone is not residency.
04
Verification
How the vendor proves qualified humans did the work: tests on your data, recorded interviews, time per item, an audit trail.
The shortlist
| Vendor | Model | Best for | Pricing | EU residency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Scale AI San Francisco, US | Managed workforce plus expert programs, full-stack lab engagements Meta took a minority stake in 2025; several labs diversified away as a result, according to public reporting. | Large lab programs, government, physical AI | Per quote | Partial |
Surge AI San Francisco, US | Curated, vetted contractor workforce with careful task design Selective about clients; positioned at the top of the quality and price range. | Premium RLHF and expert feedback for frontier labs | Per quote; expert work reported at $85 to $200+ per hour | Partial |
Mercor San Francisco, US | Expert marketplace recruiting specialists in coding, law, medicine and more Reported revenue run rate above $1B in early 2026; a security incident was reported in March 2026. | Expert demonstrations and evaluations at scale | Per quote | Partial |
Toloka Amsterdam, NL | Crowd platform with separate expert tracks Dutch entity (Toloka AI BV), part of Nebius Group; Yandex origin is a perception question for some buyers. | High-volume preference data, pay-as-you-go | Pay-as-you-go, from cents per microtask to about $90 per hour on expert tracks | Yes |
Prolific London, UK | Verified research participants, 300k+ with prescreening filters Research-participant model rather than a managed delivery team. | Human preference studies and evaluations with demographic control | Participant reward plus platform fee; at least $12 per hour recommended | Partial |
Pathwize Cologne, Germany | Credentialed experts and students from a 200k+ network, qualification test on your own data, paid per hour Hourly pricing with automatic time tracking shows cost per item and per class; a 50-item pilot is free. | Teams that want a transparent, per-item cost and an EU entity | Per hour, quoted per task; free pilot on 50 items | Yes |
Scale AI
San Francisco, US
Managed workforce plus expert programs, full-stack lab engagements
Best for: Large lab programs, government, physical AI
Pricing: Per quote
Meta took a minority stake in 2025; several labs diversified away as a result, according to public reporting.
Surge AI
San Francisco, US
Curated, vetted contractor workforce with careful task design
Best for: Premium RLHF and expert feedback for frontier labs
Pricing: Per quote; expert work reported at $85 to $200+ per hour
Selective about clients; positioned at the top of the quality and price range.
Mercor
San Francisco, US
Expert marketplace recruiting specialists in coding, law, medicine and more
Best for: Expert demonstrations and evaluations at scale
Pricing: Per quote
Reported revenue run rate above $1B in early 2026; a security incident was reported in March 2026.
Toloka
Amsterdam, NL
Crowd platform with separate expert tracks
Best for: High-volume preference data, pay-as-you-go
Pricing: Pay-as-you-go, from cents per microtask to about $90 per hour on expert tracks
Dutch entity (Toloka AI BV), part of Nebius Group; Yandex origin is a perception question for some buyers.
Prolific
London, UK
Verified research participants, 300k+ with prescreening filters
Best for: Human preference studies and evaluations with demographic control
Pricing: Participant reward plus platform fee; at least $12 per hour recommended
Research-participant model rather than a managed delivery team.
Pathwize
Cologne, Germany
Credentialed experts and students from a 200k+ network, qualification test on your own data, paid per hour
Best for: Teams that want a transparent, per-item cost and an EU entity
Pricing: Per hour, quoted per task; free pilot on 50 items
Hourly pricing with automatic time tracking shows cost per item and per class; a 50-item pilot is free.
How Pathwize prices
Pathwize bills per hour of expert work, quoted per task for the domain and complexity, with time tracked automatically per item, so you see cost per item and per class in the dashboard and in the export.
A 50-item pilot on your own data is free, so you can benchmark quality and cost before committing.
No setup fee and no minimum volume; the EU entity keeps data residency simple.
Provenance is built in: each label carries who did it, when, and how long it took; AI interviews are recorded and checked for undisclosed AI use; exports come as CSV, JSON or COCO, with an API and webhooks for pipelines.
It is not a fit for everything. If you need a million crowd labels by Friday, a crowd platform is cheaper. Pathwize is for work where the answer depends on domain knowledge: medicine, engineering, law, finance, the sciences.
FAQs
Scale prices enterprise engagements per quote and does not publish a rate card. Costs depend on the task, volume and expertise; publicly reported expert rates in the market run from about $85 to $200+ per hour, with crowd work far cheaper.
Work varies too much by domain, volume and quality bar, so vendors quote per task. The practical move is to get quotes from two or three on the same task and compare cost per item, not headline rates.
Pick a vendor that tracks time per item. Pathwize measures it automatically and shows cost per item and per class in the dashboard and export, instead of a single bundled quote.
Usually within a few days. You send the task, the classes or rubric and a few examples; qualified experts take the test on your data; you approve who continues. A 50-item pilot is free.
Per hour of expert work, quoted per task depending on the domain and the complexity. Time is tracked automatically per item, so you see cost per item and per class in the dashboard and in the export.
In the EU. Pathwize is based in Cologne, Germany; storage and processing run on EU infrastructure, and experts work from Europe. Sensitive data can be worked in a no-download environment.
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