Braintrust Pay in 2026
Braintrust is a talent network and AI hiring platform. Companies post contract and full-time roles across engineering, AI, design, product, and AI training. Talent apply through an AI skills interview, and Braintrust charges them no platform fee. NearSkill tracks live Braintrust roles with published rates, so the bands below come from listings rather than marketing pages.
Ankit KumarFounder, NearSkillWritten and reviewed by the NearSkill founder. Every rate is sourced and dated on this page.LinkedInTypical pay range
$7.5–$150/hr
Depending on role, expertise, and project complexity.
AI Training
Machine Learning & AI
Software Engineering
Global opportunities
About Braintrust
usebraintrust.comBraintrust is a talent network run by Freelance Labs, Inc., founded in 2018 and headquartered in San Francisco. Companies post contract and full-time roles, talent pass an AI skills interview, and clients pay a platform fee while talent pay none. Braintrust also sells AIR, an AI screening product, and Nexus, a workflow automation product.
- Company type
- Talent network and AI hiring platform
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, United States
- Founded
- 2018 in San Francisco as a contract IT and software talent marketplace
- Products
- Talent marketplace, Braintrust AIR (AI screening, 2024), and Nexus (workflow automation, 2025)
- Scale
- 2M+ vetted professionals across 100+ countries and 100+ enterprise integrations (Braintrust, 2026)
- Fee model
- Talent pay 0%; clients pay a platform fee, 10% in Braintrust community docs and 15% reported under 2026 fee terms
- Payment
- Invoices release when the client pays, on 30-day terms in Braintrust help docs; Wise or Stripe payouts to about 35 countries
Quick facts
- $7.5–$150/hrTypical pay range
- Talent network and AI hiring platformWork model
- 104Active listings
- 104Roles with published pay
- USDTop currency
- 100% of live rolesPay disclosure
Braintrust at a glance
Based on live NearSkill listings. Actual pay and availability may vary by role, location, and project.
104
Active listings
104
With published pay
100%
Pay disclosed
How pay works
- The rate is agreed per role, and Braintrust charges talent nothing on it. Its for-talent page states 0% fees, no markup, and no cut of earnings.
- Clients pay a platform fee on top of the rate. Community docs state 10%, while a 1 Nov 2026 third-party review reports 15% under current fee terms. The terms on the role you accept govern.
- Talent invoice through Braintrust, and payment is released when the client pays. Help-center terms start payment within 30 days of the invoice; Wise and Stripe handle payouts.
- AI training work is reported as paid weekly. Contract and full-time roles follow the invoice and net-30 process, and Braintrust does not guarantee that a client pays.
- Payouts reach bank accounts in about 35 countries. Outside those countries, only roles where the client pays talent directly appear.
Engagement mix
Braintrust pay by role
Hourly ranges grouped from live listings. Monthly, yearly, and fixed amounts are tracked separately and never merged into these bands.
Braintrust rows use hourly rates published on Braintrust's public jobs page and sampled on 1 Nov 2026. The advertised median for AI training roles comes from a 1 Nov 2026 AITraining.jobs analysis of 58 Braintrust listings that state pay. Fee, payment, payout-country, and onboarding facts come from Braintrust's about page, for-talent page, and community docs, plus the same third-party review. As live Braintrust roles load on NearSkill, the table switches to the rates employers published on each listing, updated through the day. Roles without a published rate are counted separately and never estimated. Implausible outliers (hourly above $500, yearly above $2M, flipped ranges) are excluded from the range math so one bad row cannot distort the band.
How roles split by pay shape
Hourly, monthly, yearly, and fixed amounts are counted separately.
Hourly
$7.5–$150/hr
Monthly
No monthly roles
Yearly
$19000–$350000/yr
One-time
$350–$1600 per project
What Braintrust is hiring for right now
Live roles grouped by category, with the hourly band each category actually advertises.
Live Braintrust roles
Recent active listings on NearSkill. A role without a published rate shows the current market band instead of an empty field.
How Braintrust compares on pay
Typical hourly bands on the same scale, from lowest generalist floor to top expert ceiling.
Braintrust pay FAQs
How much does Braintrust pay per hour in 2026?
Braintrust's public jobs page lists $130 to $260 an hour for senior engineering and AI/ML roles, $50 to $150 for legal, medical, and finance experts, and $20 to $180 for AI training, writing, and annotation work. A 1 Nov 2026 third-party analysis of 58 AI-training listings that state pay put the median at about $25 an hour, with the overall band at $18 to $100. The table on this page uses listing rates, never estimates.
Does Braintrust take a cut of what I earn?
No. Braintrust says talent pay 0% fees and keep 100% of the agreed rate. Clients pay a platform fee instead: Braintrust's community docs state 10%, and a 2026 third-party review reports 15% under current terms. Payment processors, intermediary banks, and your own bank can still charge their own fees.
Is Braintrust legit?
Yes. Braintrust is run by Freelance Labs, Inc., founded in 2018 and backed by investors including Coatue, Tiger Global, and Pantera Capital. It reports 2M+ vetted professionals across 100+ countries. The caveats are documented: payment waits on the client, direct payouts cover about 35 countries, and a 1 Nov 2026 third-party review records a 1.7/5 Trustpilot average across 20 reviews. braintrust.dev is a different company.
How and when does Braintrust pay?
Talent invoice through Braintrust, and payment is released when the client pays the invoice. Help-center terms start payment within 30 days. Payouts use Wise or Stripe and reach bank accounts in about 35 countries. AI training gigs are reported as paid weekly, while contract roles follow the invoice and net-30 process. Independent contractors handle their own tax.
Does Braintrust have AI training jobs?
Yes. Braintrust's jobs page listed 900+ AI Training roles on 1 Nov 2026, alongside 2,100+ AI & ML and 4,800+ engineering roles. AI training work covers data annotation, writing, voice recording, coding, translation, and domain-expert evaluation. Rates run from about $20 an hour for annotation and writing to $180 for specialist RLHF and healthcare review.
What does Braintrust onboarding involve?
Build a profile, which takes about 20 minutes, complete an asynchronous AI skills interview, pass identity and skills certification, then accept a matched role. Braintrust says applications are reviewed within 24 to 72 hours. A 2026 third-party review reports that rejected applicants can reapply after six months.
Ready to start earning on Braintrust?
Create your profile, complete the required assessments, and apply for available projects. NearSkill lists the live roles and their published rates.