Sama review
Sama is an annotation company, founded in 2008 and based in San Francisco; it hires people from low-income areas. It makes them full-time labelers and sends that team to work on your project.
- Location
- San Francisco, California
- File types
- Video, Text, 3D laser scans (LiDAR) and photos
- Security audits by outside firms
- ISO 27001, TISAX
- Pricing method
- Each job gets its own price
Our sources: en.wikipedia.org entry on Sama (company) · sama.com main page · data security and trust at sama.com
Is Sama a good fit?
It works well for computer vision or sensor data projects that want a stable, full-time team.
A good match when
- The data you have is 3D laser scans (LiDAR), photos, video or text.
- What you need is a company whose own pages name ISO 9001, ISO 27001, TISAX.
Check with Sama first if
- Prefer a free test before anything else? Ask Sama what its pilot terms are (firms that publish one).
- Before any sales call, you need a quote; it prices each job once a sample has been reviewed.
- If you handle patient records, ask how Sama would handle them, since HIPAA is not named on its pages.
More about Sama
- What laws it says it follows
- GDPR
- Standard for quality
- ISO 9001
- The way it operates
- Workers from low-income areas hired full-time and given training in data labeling
- Team
- The team works full-time; according to Sama, people who have been trained since it began total more than 15,000.
What this kind of work costs across the market
- Per box: a box drawn around each object
- For a team outside the US: between$0.02 and $0.12For a US team, we estimate between$0.04 and $0.48
- Following objects frame to frame., per frame for each tracked object
- $0.05 to $0.25with a team outside the US.We estimate$0.10 to $1.00for a US team.
- Per document: names, places or amounts marked
- For a team outside the US: between$0.04 and $0.30A US team runs$0.08 to $1.20by our estimate.
- Per 3D box: 3D boxes drawn around cars and people
- For a team outside the US: between$0.10 and $0.50Our estimate puts a US team at$0.20 to $2.00
Other labeling companies publish prices for the jobs Sama lists. Beside them sits our estimate of what a US team costs. That is two times the low end and four times the high end, the markup range for US teams that Habile Data reports. These figures are market prices; they are not a quote from Sama.
Two things to know about Sama
- As a Certified B Corporation, Sama holds a label given to companies audited for how they treat workers; it says its customers stay eight years on average.
- It closed its centers in Kenya and Uganda on 15 September 2026, so confirm where your data would be labeled now.
What Sama offers for data annotation
- Text (NLP), images (computer vision) and mixed data
- Sensor data, vision and mixed data types
- Automotive/driver assistance (ADAS), navigation, AR/VR, biotech, agriculture, manufacturing, e-commerce
Sama and similar companies
| Company | Location | File types | Security audits by outside firms | Price and free test |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SamaThis page | San Francisco, California | Photos, Video, Text, 3D laser scans | ISO 27001, TISAX | A sample comes first, then a quote. |
 CloudFactory | Reading, England | Photos, Video, Text, Satellite photos | ISO 27001, SOC 2 (the type isn't stated) | Set a yearly budget; you pay only for work that is finished.As a trial, it labels a few of your files free. |
 Label Your Data | Wilmington, Delaware | Photos, Text, Audio, 3D laser scans, Satellite photos | ISO 27001 | Boxes from $0.02, or hourly rates from $6.Trial job free of charge; no fee to begin. |
 Scale AI | San Francisco, California | Satellite photos, photos, Video, Text, 3D laser scans and Rating chatbot answers | SOC 2 Type II | A sample comes first, then a quote.A phone call comes first. |
 Appen | Sydney, Australia and Kirkland, Washington | Rating chatbot answers, Medical scans, photos, Video, Text, Audio, 3D laser scans | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 | A sample comes first, then a quote. |
Prices and companies for the files Sama labels
What to ask Sama before you sign
- Which group would handle our labeling, and in which places do your teams work?
- What method do you use to measure accuracy, and what share of labels gets a second-person review?
- Is a pilot possible to begin with, and would it be free?
- Ahead of any file from us reaching you, will you show us the ISO 27001 report?
- How do you price this kind of work: per label, per hour or per project?
Collecting quotes for similar work
- Describe the job once: how many items, the kind of data and the labels.
- We pick up to three companies that label that kind of data, and email you their names before we pass the brief on.
- They each ask for a few sample files, then send you a quote.
A free test first? Both CloudFactory and Label Your Data publish one.
Comparing Sama with others? Describe the job once, and three annotation companies that label your kind of data reply with prices.
Get quotes from companies like SamaSend 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.