Outlier
Outlier AI (Scale AI subsidiary) operates a remote freelance marketplace that connects 100,000+ vetted domain experts across 50+ countries with AI companies and research labs to provide human feedback used in training and evaluating language learning models.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersOakland, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What Outlier does
Outlier AI is a wholly-owned Scale AI subsidiary (legally Smart Ecosystem, Inc., DBA Outlier AI, Delaware) that operates a remote-first freelance marketplace connecting subject matter experts — including PhD and Master's candidates and credentialed professionals — with AI companies and research labs that need human feedback to train, evaluate, and align language learning models. As of the latest disclosed metrics, the platform has onboarded more than 1 million cumulative contributors, with 100,000+ active experts across 50+ countries and $500M+ paid out; downstream, the broader Scale AI ecosystem has processed 13 billion annotations and 87 million generative AI data points. The core product is a web-based expert dashboard (app.outlier.ai) where contributors self-onboard, verify identity and skills (via Persona), and select from a flexible task marketplace spanning 40+ domains — coding, STEM, languages, audio, and writing — at hourly rates up to $50 (specialized) and $15 (generalist) per hour, with weekly payments via PayPal, Airtm, or ACH. The platform monetizes by taking a margin on per-task or hourly fees charged to AI customers, and is fully integrated into Scale AI's enterprise data-annotation and post-training offering; its GTM is product-led, relying on organic search, content marketing, referrals, and word-of-mouth within expert communities to drive expert acquisition. A California lawsuit alleging inadequate contractor mental-health protections during data labeling represents a material reputational and operational risk for content-sensitive work. Note: firmographic descriptors and leadership/funding records in the input set reference an earlier analytics-business entity also called Outlier and should be reconciled before investment use.
Outlier firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Outlier
- Legal name
- Smart Ecosystem, Inc.
- Website
- https://outlier.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Outlier AI (Scale AI subsidiary) operates a remote freelance marketplace that connects 100,000+ vetted domain experts across 50+ countries with AI companies and research labs to provide human feedback used in training and evaluating language learning models.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Outlier industry classification
Industry- Product category
- AI training data services
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Bias, Fairness & Representativeness Testing for Datasets (HDAAALAK)
Keywords
Where Outlier is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Oakland
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Outlier business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Operations, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Task-based fees from AI companies and research labs: Outlier (operated by Scale AI) charges AI companies and research labs for human feedback services performed by its network of freelance experts. Customers submit data annotation, prompt evaluation, grading rubric creation, and model assessment tasks, which Outlier's expert network completes in exchange for per-task or hourly payment. The company retains a margin on these transactions as its primary revenue.
- Scale AI platform ecosystem revenue: Outlier is an integral part of Scale AI's broader data annotation and AI infrastructure offering. As a subsidiary, Outlier contributes to Scale AI's overall revenue from enterprise AI customers seeking high-quality training data and human feedback at scale, including post-training, reasoning, and evaluation services.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Usage-based | Weekly | Biology Expert: up to $50/hr |
| Usage-based | Weekly | Graphic Design Expert: up to $40/hr |
| Usage-based | Weekly | Coding Expert: up to $27.5/hr |
| Usage-based | Weekly | English Writing Expert: up to $15/hr |
| Usage-based | Weekly | Generalist / Language Expert roles: variable rates |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels5 records
Outlier product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Outlier operates a remote-first freelance marketplace platform connecting over 100,000 subject matter experts (PhDs, MS students, graduates, and professionals across 40+ domains including STEM, coding, languages, audio, and writing) with AI companies and research labs. Experts complete AI training tasks such as writing challenging prompts, creating grading rubrics, and rating or ranking AI outputs to provide human feedback that improves language learning models. The platform is powered by Scale AI's data infrastructure, supports flexible, self-directed work with no minimum hour commitments, and processes weekly payments globally across 50+ countries.
Product overview
Outlier AI is a freelance marketplace platform operated by Scale AI that connects over 100,000 subject matter experts with AI companies to provide human feedback improving AI Language Learning Models. The platform consists of the core Outlier AI Platform (where experts find and complete AI training work), the Expert Dashboard (for managing tasks, projects, and payments), and the internal Outlier Community Platform (for support and collaboration). Experts span 50+ countries across domains including STEM, coding, languages, audio, and writing. The platform provides flexible remote work, weekly payments via PayPal/Airtm/ACH, and competitive pay rates up to $50/hr for specialized fields.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Outlier AI Platform A remote-first freelance marketplace platform that connects over 100,000 vetted subject matter experts with AI companies and research labs to deliver human feedback tasks (prompt writing, grading rubric creation, and AI output rating/ranking) that improve language learning models across STEM, coding, languages, audio, and writing domains.
Quantifiable outcome
- $500M+ paid out to experts
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Outlier
Customer profileNamed customers1 record
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Outlier technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration8 records
AI capability6 records
Feature3 records
Outlier partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.
- Scale AIcoreOutlier is a platform operated by Scale AI, Inc. (through its affiliate Smart Ecosystem Inc., doing business as Outlier AI). Scale AI provides the data annotation infrastructure and AI capabilities that power Outlier's freelance expert marketplace. Outlier is an integral part of Scale AI's ecosystem for delivering human feedback and training data to AI companies and research labs.
- PersonasupportingPersona is used as Outlier's identity verification service provider. When experts sign up and at regular intervals thereafter, Persona collects and analyzes images, selfies, video/audio recordings, and government-issued IDs to verify identity and skills, helping protect platform integrity and reduce fraud.
- Google Analytics (Google, Inc.)supportingGoogle Analytics is used by Outlier to analyze website traffic and improve user experience. It compiles and aggregates data from cookies and other tracking technologies to help understand visitor behavior.
- HubSpot Analytics (Hubspot, Inc.)supportingHubSpot Analytics is used to understand connections between website activity and customer success, helping Outlier improve its platform and expert experience.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Outlier competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Remotasks: Remotasks is a freelance task platform also operated by Scale AI for data labeling and AI training work, parallel to Outlier. It serves the same expert network ecosystem under the Scale AI umbrella for data annotation tasks.
- Appen: Appen is a global leader in data annotation and AI training data, providing similar services to Outlier for machine learning and AI model development. It serves many of the same enterprise AI customers with comparable crowdsourced workforce solutions.
- Telus International AI: Telus International (formerly Lionbridge AI) provides data annotation, labeling, and AI training services to enterprise customers globally, similar to Outlier's offerings for AI companies and research labs.
- CloudFactory: CloudFactory provides managed data labeling and AI training services using a distributed workforce model with trained analysts, similar in concept to Outlier's expert network approach for AI training data.
- Defined.ai: Defined.ai provides high-quality training data for AI including data collection, annotation, and validation services. It serves a similar customer base of AI companies needing human-annotated data for model training and evaluation.
- Surge AI: Surge AI is an emerging data labeling platform focused on RLHF and human feedback for frontier AI model training, directly competing with Outlier in serving leading AI labs and model developers with high-quality human evaluation data.
- Clickworker: Clickworker operates a crowdsourcing platform for data labeling, content creation, and AI training tasks, similar to Outlier's freelance expert marketplace model for distributed AI training work.
- Toloka: Toloka is a crowdsourcing platform for AI training data that provides data labeling and annotation services, similar to Outlier's marketplace for AI training tasks with global contributors.
Broad incumbents
- Scale AI: Scale AI is the parent company of Outlier AI and provides broader AI data infrastructure and annotation services. While Scale AI owns Outlier rather than competing with it, Scale AI's enterprise offerings overlap with Outlier's capabilities at the platform layer.
Emerging players
- Labelbox: Labelbox provides a data labeling platform with tools for AI training data management and annotation. It serves similar enterprise AI customers but focuses on platform tooling rather than managed crowdsourced workforce services.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights5 records
Customer concentration
Outlier social profiles
Digital presenceOutlier financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Outlier leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Outlier funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds5 records
Investors9 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Outlier M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Outlier
What does Outlier do?
Outlier operates a remote-first freelance marketplace platform connecting over 100,000 subject matter experts (PhDs, MS students, graduates, and professionals across 40+ domains including STEM, coding, languages, audio, and writing) with AI companies and research labs. Experts complete AI training tasks such as writing challenging prompts, creating grading rubrics, and rating or ranking AI outputs to provide human feedback that improves language learning models. The platform is powered by Scale AI's data infrastructure, supports flexible, self-directed work with no minimum hour commitments, and processes weekly payments globally across 50+ countries.
Is Outlier a public or private company?
Outlier is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Outlier founded?
Outlier was founded in 2015. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Outlier based?
Outlier is headquartered in Oakland, United States, in the North America region.
How does Outlier make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Task-based fees from AI companies and research labs are the primary driver. The others are scale AI platform ecosystem revenue.
Who are Outlier's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Remotasks, Appen, Telus International AI, CloudFactory, Defined.ai, Surge AI, Clickworker and Toloka. Scale AI is listed as a broad incumbent. Labelbox is listed as an emerging player.
Does Outlier have an API?
No public API is recorded for Outlier.
What industry is Outlier in?
Outlier's product category is AI training data services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAALAK, Bias, Fairness & Representativeness Testing for Datasets. Its NAICS code is 518 and its SIC code is 7374.