Vendor profile · Directory · Managed service
Scale AI
The largest enterprise data engine: annotation, RLHF, evaluation and red-teaming delivered as managed programs for frontier labs and governments.
| Model | Managed service + platform (Scale Data Engine) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2016 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA |
| Pricing | Not published — enterprise contracts, sales-led |
| Website | scale.com |
What Scale AI does
Scale AI, founded in San Francisco in 2016 by Alexandr Wang and Lucy Guo, sells the data used to train and test frontier AI models. Its Data Engine covers data collection, annotation, RLHF preference data and model evaluation across text, image, video, 3D and sensor data.
The company also builds applied AI for enterprises and governments. Meta took a 49% minority stake in June 2025 at a valuation above $29 billion, and its published case studies name customers including OpenAI, Meta and the US Department of Defense.
Strengths
- Broadest service surface in the category: annotation, RLHF, evaluation, red-teaming
- Published case studies with frontier labs and the US Department of Defense
- Deep enterprise and government compliance posture (SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP reported)
Considerations
- No public pricing of any kind — budget discovery requires a sales process
- Enterprise orientation means small projects are a poor fit
- Meta’s 49% stake is a governance fact some buyers weigh when choosing a neutral data partner
Other managed services in the directory
- Appen — The category’s longest-running operator: a publicly traded managed data provider with a crowd of over one million contributors in 170+ countries.
- Surge AI — The bootstrapped quality maximalist: over $1 billion in 2024 revenue with no outside capital, built on credentialed experts rather than crowd volume.
- iMerit — A managed data-services company that pairs employed specialist teams with its Scholars expert network — and, since 2026, sits inside EXL.
- Sama — The original impact-sourcing annotation company: a Certified B Corp running managed programs with its own full-time workforce in Kenya and Uganda.
- CloudFactory — A managed-workforce company: trained analyst teams in Nepal and Kenya delivering annotation and data processing as a consumption-priced service.
- Cogito Tech — A US-registered managed annotation company whose India-based workforce and specialist consultants concentrate on healthcare, legal and financial AI data.
- Label Your Data — A managed annotation service that does the rarest thing in this market: publishes its per-unit prices, with no minimum order.
- Zilo AI — A Bangalore staffing-and-annotation firm with a distinct model: its annotators work inside the platform you already use, instead of selling you theirs.
- TELUS Digital — The telecom-owned data giant: TELUS’s digital arm runs one of the world’s largest AI data operations, built on the $935M acquisition of Lionbridge AI.
Frequently asked questions
What does Scale AI do?
The largest enterprise data engine: annotation, RLHF, evaluation and red-teaming delivered as managed programs for frontier labs and governments.
How much does Scale AI cost?
Scale AI does not publish pricing (not published — enterprise contracts, sales-led). Any figure quoted by third parties is an estimate; budget discovery requires engaging the vendor directly.
Who is Scale AI best for?
Frontier labs, large enterprises and government programs that need annotation and evaluation run as a managed, high-volume program.
Who should not use Scale AI?
Small teams or pilot projects — there is no self-serve tier for large-scale annotation work, and pricing starts with a sales call.
Sources
Facts on this page were drawn from the public sources above, checked November 2026. If you spot an error, tell us at the corrections address in the footer — we fix sourced errors and note the change.
Profile last updated: November 8, 2026 · How we write profiles · Corrections: [email protected]