Data annotation services
Data annotation services label the photos, video, text or sound you send. Then an AI model (software taught from examples) can learn what those files contain. Choose the labels you need in the cost estimate below the title, and it shows a likely price range built from prices that companies publish. After that, you can send one short request, and three companies that do this work reply with a price.
Work out your labeling cost
50,000 boxes overall, drawn as squares of 1,000 boxes
That makes 50,000 boxes across 10,000 images. What a team outside the US would charge, roughly:
$1,000 to $6,000
Teams abroad list between $0.02 and $0.12 for each box.
Get quotes for this jobThe calculation behind this
The published low and high price for that label type gets multiplied by the label count. Another review adds 20 to 50 percent, while a US team costs two to four times the outside-US range.
Prices for image tags come from Kili Technology for the low end and BasicAI for the high end.
Prices for bounding boxes come from Label Your Data for the low end and Habile Data for the high end.
Prices for polygons come from AnnotationBox for the low end and Habile Data for the high end.
Prices for keypoints come from Label Your Data for the low end and Habile Data for the high end.
Prices for pixel masks come from Habile Data for the low end and GDS Online for the high end.
Prices for video tracking come from Habile Data.
Prices for text entities come from Habile Data.
Prices for sentiment come from GDS Online.
Prices for transcripts come from GDS Online for the low end and Habile Data for the high end.
Prices for lidar cuboids come from Habile Data.
Prices for answer rankings come from Habile Data.
The work a data annotation service does for you
The package you send has your files plus a label guide, one short document that explains every label's meaning. Trained staff at the company apply the labels, re-check some of the work and return the files so your team can use them.
Most companies start with a pilot, which is a small trial job. CloudFactory labels a few of your files for free. Label Your Data does a free trial job first and then tells you the price.
Prices: per label, per item or per hour
For simple work, companies charge for each label (for example, each box drawn around an object) or for each item (for example, each photo). If the work is hard to count, the price is hourly. Teams outside the US charge from $0.02 up to $0.12 to draw a box around one object.
A team based in the US usually charges two to four times as much. You can also pay a bit extra for a second person to check every label, which pays off when a single mistake would be costly.
Software or service
With labeling software, your own people use a program to do the labeling. A labeling service also supplies the people, and many of them can work in the software you already use.
When your job is small and there is no rush, a free labeling program may be enough. We name the free ones in our labeling software comparison. If the job would take your own staff more than a few weeks, a service saves you from hiring and training extra people.
Annotation companies in brief
From their own sites: each company's home base and its way of charging.
| Company | Based in | How it prices |
|---|---|---|
| Scale AIscale.com | San Francisco, California | Per project |
| Appenappen.com | Sydney, Australia and Kirkland, Washington | Per project |
| TELUS Digitaltelusdigital.com | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | Per project |
| iMeritimerit.ai | San Jose, California | Per project |
| Samasama.com | San Francisco, California | Per project |
| CloudFactorycloudfactory.com | Reading, England | You agree a yearly budget with them and pay only for the work they finish; a few of your files labeled free as a test |
| Label Your Datalabelyourdata.com | Wilmington, Delaware | From $0.02 per box, or from $6 for each hour a labeler works; free trial job; no setup fees |
| Shaipshaip.com | New York, New York | Per project |
Most companies first look at a sample of your files, then give you one price for the whole job ("per project"). Fill in the short form one time and get prices back from three of them.
See all 15 companies and check what each labels and how your files stay safe
Pick your kind of data
- Image annotation: Photos tagged, boxed or outlined
- Video annotation: Moving things marked in each picture of a video
- Text annotation: Writing tagged for names, topics and tone
- Audio annotation: Speech written out as text, sounds labeled
- LiDAR annotation: LiDAR is a laser that maps a street in 3D; labels mark the cars and people in it
- Medical data: Doctors mark up scans and records
- Geospatial imagery: Geospatial work labels satellite and aircraft pictures of land, roads and buildings
- RLHF services: RLHF means people rate a chatbot's answers so it learns which ones are better
Common questions about data annotation services
What do data annotation services charge?
That depends on the label type. With a team outside the US, drawing a box around an object costs a few cents. When every area of a photo is colored in, each photo costs somewhere between 20 cents and a few dollars. For a minute of speech written out as text, expect about 10 cents to $1.50. US teams charge two to four times more. The cost estimate shows a range for your job once you choose a label type.
Do data annotation and data labeling mean the same thing?
Yes. The meaning is the same: your files get tags, boxes, outlines or text, giving an AI model examples to learn from. For the same work, companies use both terms.
Is it possible to test a labeling company for free first?
Yes, several do. Label Your Data offers a free trial job. CloudFactory labels a few of your files for free. Keymakr labels a small sample batch so you can check it before the full job.
Send one brief, hear from three vendors
Describe your data once and we pass it to three annotation vendors that label that kind of data, so you can compare quotes side by side.
- One short form instead of three sales calls
- Matched on data type, volume and security needs
- You choose who to talk to