Earnings calculator
How much can you earn training robots?
Put in the kind of work, your level, and the hours you can give it. The estimate comes straight from the pay on live open roles, the same measured rates behind the rest of the site, not a made-up number.
Consistent quality, working steadily for an employer
Experienced AV & drone work, 20 hours a week, works out to roughly
About $500–$700 a week, at $25–$35/hr.
Anchored on 24 advertised rates measured from live open AV & drone roles across 9 employers, 2026-10-10. This is an estimate of what the work pays, not a guarantee of hours or acceptance: real earnings depend on your shifts, your speed and quality, and how much work an employer or program offers you.
See 351 open AV & drone rolesWhat every kind of work pays at 20 hrs/week
Estimated monthly earnings for a experienced worker, by work type. Tap a row to see who is hiring.
| Work type | Per hour | Per month | Open now |
|---|---|---|---|
| AV & Drone Operators $2,150–$3,050/mo | $25–$35 | $2,150–$3,050 | 351 |
| Robot Teleoperation $2,150–$2,600/mo | $25–$30 | $2,150–$2,600 | 87 |
| Data & Demonstration Collection $1,750–$2,600/mo | $20–$30 | $1,750–$2,600 | 63 |
| Embodied-AI Data Annotation $2,150–$2,150/mo | $25–$25 | $2,150–$2,150 | 11 |
| Robot Fleet Operations $1,750–$2,150/mo | $20–$25 | $1,750–$2,150 | 100 |
| Robot Task Evaluation & QA $1,750–$1,750/mo | $20–$20 | $1,750–$1,750 | 11 |
| Egocentric & Wearable Capture $450–$850/mo | $5–$10 | $450–$850 | 125 |
Ranges are the interquartile (25th to 75th percentile) band measured from live open roles where enough state a rate, and the hourly range employers state otherwise. Advertised maximums ("up to $X/hr") are excluded because a ceiling is not an observed wage.
How this estimate is calculated
For each kind of work we read the hourly rates advertised on today’s open roles and take the middle of the market: the 25th-to-75th-percentile band, with the median in between. A worker who is getting started is estimated at the lower half of that band, an experienced worker across the typical band, and a senior or lead operator at the upper half. We never extrapolate above or below the rates actually observed.
We deliberately leave out two things that would distort the number: roles that advertise only a maximum (“up to $X/hr”), because a ceiling is not a wage anyone is being paid, and offers paid per task or per accepted minute of footage, because turning them into an hourly wage needs a guess about how long the work takes. Where too few roles in a kind of work state a rate to measure it live, we fall back to the hourly range employers state for that work and label it as such. See the full methodology and the live pay tables.
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Common questions
- How much can you make training robots?
- Most robot-training work advertises $20–$40 an hour, measured from the rates on live open roles across 26 employers. At 20 hours a week that is roughly $1,750 to $3,450 a month. Pay varies with the kind of work and where it is: recording your own tasks at home is often paid per accepted minute of video, while on-site robot operator, safety-driver and drone roles post hourly rates.
- Is robot-training work paid hourly or per task?
- Both. Lab, fleet and operator roles usually pay an hourly wage, while recording and data-collection programs often pay per task or per accepted minute or hour of footage. This calculator works in hourly terms because that is how most roles advertise pay; on per-task or per-footage work your effective hourly rate depends on setup, uploads and how much of your footage is accepted.
- Do beginners earn less than experienced operators?
- The job feeds do not record pay by experience level, so the calculator places a getting-started worker in the lower half of the band employers advertise, an experienced worker across the typical band, and a senior or lead operator in the upper half. These are placements within advertised pay, not measured premiums. Location, shift and the kind of work also change what a role advertises.
- Which robot-training work pays the most?
- Right now AV & Drone Operators has the highest rates in the calculator, $25–$35/hr for an experienced worker, measured from live open roles, and Egocentric & Wearable Capture the lowest, $5–$10/hr. Use the calculator above to compare every kind of work at your own hours.