Help center
How a project runs from first enquiry to delivery, and what to put in a specification so the first quote is a real one.
The process, step by step
- You send a specification. Language, hours, minimum distinct speaker count, recording conditions, annotation depth, delivery format. The more specific, the more useful the reply.
- We match and quote. We go to producers we vet against the spec, confirm they can hit it, and come back with a real cost and timeline. Where a language has an established producer pool, that is typically a few days.
- We agree the quality bar. The annotation guideline is written or reviewed, and the delivery format is fixed, before anyone records anything.
- Pilot batch. A small batch is produced and sent to you for review. This is where specification gaps surface.
- Production. The full run proceeds against the approved pilot, with quality control as the data comes in rather than as a final pass.
- Delivery and documentation. Audio, text, metadata, the annotation guideline, consent records and the quality report.
What to put in a specification
A specification that answers these questions gets a faster and more accurate quote than one that does not.
- Language and variety — including dialect where it matters, and script where the language has more than one writing system.
- Volume — total hours, and the minimum number of distinct speakers. The second number constrains the project far more than the first.
- Recording conditions — studio, home, mobile, or a named environment with a target signal-to-noise ratio.
- Annotation depth — transcription only, transcription plus intent, phoneme-level, or diarization.
- Delivery format — audio container and sampling rate, segmentation length, metadata schema.
- Compliance scope — where the speakers are, where the data will be used, and whether the model will be distributed.
Common questions
How long does a project take?
Where a language has an established producer pool, a quote usually takes a few days and production is scheduled from the agreed start date. For a low-resource language or an unusual specification, speaker recruitment sets the timeline and it is genuinely hard to predict in advance. We will give an honest range rather than a date we cannot hold.
What is a pilot batch?
A small batch recorded and annotated before the full run begins, which you review and can reject. It costs little and it surfaces specification gaps while there is still time to fix them.
What if the delivery does not meet specification?
Re-work is covered in the agreement before production starts. Because the specification is written down and the pilot batch is approved, disputes about what was promised are rare — and when they occur, the specification is the reference.
Do you publish prices?
No. Every project is quoted from its specification. Hours, distinct speaker count, recording conditions and annotation depth all change the cost substantially, so a published number would be fiction.
Can I get a sample before committing?
Yes. Select a free sample in the request form. For most projects the pilot batch serves this purpose and is more informative than a generic sample file.
Do you work with suppliers as well as buyers?
Yes. If you have recording capability, annotation capacity or native-speaker access in a language we cover, see the sell AI training data page.
Still stuck?
Email hello@linguacorpus.com or use the form below. If your question is about whether a specific requirement is sourceable, include the language and the approximate volume and you will get a concrete answer rather than a general 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.