AI Training Data Providers
What to check before you sign with a training data provider — and how we compare on each point.
The five questions that separate providers
Most provider websites look alike. The differences show up in the answers to five questions, and any provider worth using will answer all of them in writing.
- How many distinct speakers are in the dataset? Hours are easy to inflate by recording the same people longer. Speaker count is the number that determines whether a model generalizes.
- Who are the annotators, and are they native speakers of the target language? A fluent second-language speaker and a native speaker produce measurably different transcription quality.
- What is the annotation guideline, and can I see it before the project starts? If they will not show you the guideline, they either do not have one or it is not good enough to share.
- What happens if the delivery does not meet spec? A provider with a real quality process will describe a re-work policy. One without will change the subject.
- Can you show the consent and licensing chain? For any data involving real people, this is the difference between a usable asset and a legal liability.
Where we sit in that market
We are a sourcing layer, not a production house. That means we are not defending a fixed catalog or a fixed set of recording studios — we match the project to the producer who can meet it.
It also means we can be honest about coverage. For the 31 languages with documented search demand we have deep production paths and can usually quote within days. For the 89 coverage languages, we can often produce but the timeline is longer and we will say so.
What a serious specification looks like
Buyers who get good results tend to write specifications that answer the same questions we ask. Here is the shape of one.
- Language, dialect, and the region speakers should come from.
- Total hours, and minimum distinct speaker count.
- Recording conditions — studio, home, mobile, or a specified noise environment with a target SNR.
- Annotation type: transcription only, transcription plus intent, phoneme-level, or diarization.
- Delivery format and sampling rate, plus whether you need speaker metadata per file.
Red flags on the buyer side too
Providers are wary of the same things buyers are. A request that asks for a price before specifying hours and annotation depth will get a slow, hedged answer from anyone experienced, because there is no honest number to give.
Requests that require the provider to figure out the use case after delivery, or that leave the compliance chain undefined, tend to stall for the same reason.
Questions we get asked
Can you beat the price of a large provider?
Sometimes, but price is not the axis we compete on. Large providers amortize existing inventory across many buyers, which we cannot do. We compete on specifications they will not take on — uncommon languages, unusual recording conditions, small runs.
What is your minimum project size?
There is no fixed minimum, but small projects carry proportionally higher setup cost. A few hours in a well-documented language is straightforward; a few hours in an undocumented dialect may not be worth doing at all, and we will say so.
Do you work with buyers outside the US and EU?
Yes. Compliance requirements differ by jurisdiction, so tell us where you are and where the data will be used, and we will build the consent chain to satisfy both ends.
Keep reading
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AI Data Brokerage
A data broker sits between the people who need training data and the people who can produce it. We source to order — no inventory, no license resale, no recycled datasets.
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AI Training Data Marketplace
Marketplaces sell what already exists. We source what you actually need. Here is when each model makes sense.
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Buy AI Training Data
A practical guide to buying training data without overpaying for hours you cannot use.
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Full data catalog
36 data categories across 120 languages, and how to specify each one.
Submit a sourcing request
Tell us the language, the hours, and what the data needs to look like. You will get a real number and a real timeline — not a range. If we cannot source it well, we will tell you that instead.
- Pilot batch before the full run, so problems surface early.
- Consent documentation delivered with the data.
- No medical or clinical data. No recorded telephone calls.