Training-data company
Surge AI
Surge AI is a training-data company founded by Edwin Chen in 2020 that supplies expert human data and post-training work to AI labs. Forbes reported $1.2 billion of revenue in 2024 and said Surge hires annotators through DataAnnotation, a wholly owned affiliate. Surge does not publish a program for buying company data or any terms for data sellers.
Facts checked against Surge AI's own pages in November 2026. Visit Surge AI
At a glance
- What it buys
- Expert human work for post-training and evaluation, sourced through its workforce. No company data purchase program published
- Published payout
- Not published by Surge AI. DataAnnotation lists up to $150 or more an hour for coding work and up to $50 an hour for generalists
- Size requirement
- Not applicable. Individuals apply through DataAnnotation, which Forbes reported is Surge's affiliate
- Exclusivity
- Not published
- Fee to seller
- Not published
- Payment timing
- Not published
Key takeaways
- Surge AI is a training-data company.
- What it buys: Expert human work for post-training and evaluation, sourced through its workforce. No company data purchase program published.
- Published payout: Not published by Surge AI. DataAnnotation lists up to $150 or more an hour for coding work and up to $50 an hour for generalists.
- Size requirement: Not applicable. Individuals apply through DataAnnotation, which Forbes reported is Surge's affiliate.
- Surge AI does not publish its exclusivity, fee to seller and payment timing.
- Facts checked on Surge AI's own pages in November 2026.
What does Surge AI do?
Surge AI sells human data for training and evaluating AI models. Its site lists off-the-shelf data, a training lab for post-training, an expert workforce and enterprise services, plus benchmarks such as DAYJOB: Tax and Hemingway-bench. Forbes reported in September 2025 that its customers included Google, Meta, Microsoft, Anthropic and Mistral, and that Surge had about 250 staff and more than a million gig workers in over 50 countries.
How does Surge AI pay contributors?
Surge AI hires annotators through DataAnnotation, a wholly owned affiliate whose site does not name Surge, according to Forbes, which also reported California class actions alleging worker misclassification that Chen called without merit. DataAnnotation's site lists maximum rates of up to $150 or more an hour for coding, up to $125 or more for expert fields and up to $40 for language specialists. Surge does not license company archives, so compare buyers that do, such as Scale AI or micro1.
Comparing buyers?
Published payouts are ceilings, not quotes. We can put your records in front of several vetted buyers and compare offers on the same terms. Get a free valuation.
Sources
- Surge AI homepage, Surge AI, accessed November 2026
- DataAnnotation homepage, DataAnnotation, accessed November 2026
- How this Google alum became a low-key AI billionaire, Forbes Australia, accessed November 2026
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Surge AI is listed for reference. We are independent and this page is not an endorsement. If anything here is out of date, email hello@sellmydatatoai.net and we will correct it.