Image annotation services
With Image annotation services, your photos get tags, boxes, outlines, points or pixel masks so a vision model can spot and name their contents. Pick a label type to price your job, and send your brief to three vendors that handle image labeling.
What would your image annotation cost?
50,000 boxes overall, drawn as squares of 1,000 boxes
That makes 50,000 boxes across 10,000 images. What a team outside the US would charge, roughly:
$1,000 to $6,000
Teams abroad list between $0.02 and $0.12 for each box.
Get quotes for this jobThe calculation behind this
The published low and high price for that label type gets multiplied by the label count. Another review adds 20 to 50 percent, while a US team costs two to four times the outside-US range.
Prices for image tags come from Kili Technology for the low end and BasicAI for the high end.
Prices for bounding boxes come from Label Your Data for the low end and Habile Data for the high end.
Prices for polygons come from AnnotationBox for the low end and Habile Data for the high end.
Prices for keypoints come from Label Your Data for the low end and Habile Data for the high end.
Prices for pixel masks come from Habile Data for the low end and GDS Online for the high end.
What label type should you pick?
- Tags: the cheapest choice, one or more words that describe the whole image.
- Bounding boxes: for detection, a rectangle drawn around each object.
- Polygons: for odd shapes like roofs or tools, an outline traced around them.
- Keypoints: for pose and faces, dots placed on joints or landmarks.
- Pixel masks: for scene understanding, with every pixel colored by class.
Vendors listing this work
Audit names explained
- SOC 2 a check by an outside auditor of how a company protects its clients' files. Type I checks a single day; Type II checks several months, so it tells you more.
- ISO 27001 a worldwide data-safety standard; an independent auditor confirms the company follows it.
- ISO 27701 adds checks on personal details, such as names and addresses, on top of ISO 27001.
- ISO 9001 checks the steps a company uses to keep its work consistent. It does not cover keeping your files safe.
- HIPAA a US law that protects patients' medical records.
- TISAX a security check that car manufacturers ask their suppliers to pass.
- GDPR the EU's data protection law.
- CCPA a California law on consumer privacy.
| Company | Based in | Kinds of files | Audits and laws it names | How it prices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scale AIscale.com | San Francisco, California | Photos, Video, Text, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Satellite and map images, Rating AI chatbot answers | SOC 2 Type II | Per project |
| Appenappen.com | Sydney, Australia and Kirkland, Washington | Photos, Video, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Medical scans, Rating AI chatbot answers | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR | Per project |
| TELUS Digitaltelusdigital.com | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | Photos, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Rating AI chatbot answers | SOC 2, TISAX, ISO 27001 | Per project |
| iMeritimerit.ai | San Jose, California | Photos, Video, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Medical scans, Rating AI chatbot answers | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 9001, HIPAA, GDPR, TISAX | Per project |
| Samasama.com | San Francisco, California | Photos, Video, Text, 3D laser scans (LiDAR) | ISO 9001, ISO 27001, TISAX, GDPR | Per project |
| CloudFactorycloudfactory.com | Reading, England | Photos, Video, Text, Satellite and map images | ISO 9001, ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR | You agree a yearly budget with them and pay only for the work they finish; a few of your files labeled free as a test |
| Label Your Datalabelyourdata.com | Wilmington, Delaware | Photos, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Satellite and map images | ISO 27001, GDPR | From $0.02 per box, or from $6 for each hour a labeler works; free trial job; no setup fees |
| Shaipshaip.com | New York, New York | Photos, Video, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Medical scans, Rating AI chatbot answers | ISO 27001, ISO 9001, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA | Per project |
| Cogito Techcogitotech.com | Levittown, New York | Photos, Text, Medical scans, Rating AI chatbot answers | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 9001, HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA | Per project |
| Mindy Supportmindy-support.com | Limassol, Cyprus | Photos, Video, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Rating AI chatbot answers | SOC 2, GDPR | Per project; teams start at about 5 people working full time on your files |
| Tolokatoloka.ai | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Photos, Video, Text, Sound, Rating AI chatbot answers | SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27701 | Per project |
| Innodatainnodata.com | Ridgefield Park, New Jersey | Photos, Video, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Medical scans, Satellite and map images, Rating AI chatbot answers | ISO 9001, ISO 27001 | Per project |
| Keymakrkeymakr.com | New York, New York | Photos, Video, 3D laser scans (LiDAR) | ISO 9001, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA | Per project; a few labeled examples you can check first |
| Anolyticsanolytics.ai | Levittown, New York | Photos, Video, Text, Sound | SOC 2 Type I | Per project |
Most companies first look at a sample of your files, then give you one price for the whole job ("per project"). Fill in the short form one time and get prices back from three of them.
Common questions about image annotation services
What does image annotation cost?
For pixel masks, offshore rates run $0.20 to $3.00 per image; tagged images cost $0.01 to $0.10 each and boxes $0.02 to $0.12 each. A US-based team charges two to four times as much.
Is there a way to try a vendor before signing?
Yes. With most vendors a small pilot comes first; CloudFactory analyzes your sample files at no cost and Label Your Data offers a free pilot.
What is the cheapest label type?
Tags for the whole image, since one decision is needed per image. Because every pixel gets a class, pixel masks cost the most.
What companies provide image labeling?
On their own sites, this work is listed by Scale AI, Appen, TELUS Digital, Anolytics, Keymakr, Innodata, Toloka, Mindy Support, Cogito Tech, Shaip, Label Your Data, CloudFactory, Sama and iMerit. Every row in the vendor table shows a company's home country and how it sets the price.
Which of these vendors mention SOC 2 or ISO 27001?
On their own pages, 10 of the 14 mention a SOC 2 report and 11 mention ISO 27001. An outside audit, SOC 2, reviews how a company keeps client data safe; for running information security, the international standard is ISO 27001.
Send one brief, hear from three vendors
Describe your data once and we pass it to three annotation vendors that label that kind of data, so you can compare quotes side by side.
- One short form instead of three sales calls
- Matched on data type, volume and security needs
- You choose who to talk to