Our Toloka review rates the platform 2.8 stars — our lowest rating, reflecting historically poor pay and a troubled reputation. A significant 2025 development is worth addressing honestly: Toloka raised $72 million in a round led by Jeff Bezos's Bezos Expeditions, with Shopify's Mikhail Parakhin joining as executive chairman.
What Changed
According to The AI Rankings' June 2026 analysis, Toloka has materially changed since its days as a Yandex subsidiary — it is now Amsterdam-based, has completed a significant funding round from credible investors, and has undergone leadership changes. The $72M raise and the involvement of Bezos Expeditions and Parakhin represent a genuine signal of institutional interest that was not present when our original review was written.
What Hasn't Changed
The crowd-contributor pay structure remains at the low end of the market — the AI Rankings analysis notes pay remains largely in the sub-$15/hr range for crowd work. The funding round is more likely to fund the platform's enterprise pivot and technology investment than to dramatically raise contractor pay rates in the near term. Significant funding does not automatically translate to better pay for individual contributors.
A $72M funding round from credible investors is a genuine legitimacy signal. It is not a contractor pay raise. These are different things.
Does This Change Our Rating?
Not yet. Our rating system is based on verified pay, task availability, and contractor experience — not funding rounds. The investment reduces our concern about platform longevity and legitimacy (previously a real issue given Toloka's Yandex origins during the Russia-Ukraine conflict), but the pay structure that drove our 2.8-star rating has not been confirmed as changed. We will update our full review when we have new verified contractor experience data from the post-pivot platform.
The Bottom Line
If you previously dismissed Toloka based on its Yandex origins and reputation concerns, the 2025 funding and leadership changes are worth noting as genuine positive signals. We would still recommend starting with our higher-rated platforms — Mercor, SME Careers, Outlier AI — before adding Toloka as a speculative supplement, particularly given that we have not yet verified the post-pivot pay rates independently.
What This Means for Contractors
Bezos Expeditions' investment signals that serious capital sees long-term value in the crowdsourced data market — but it doesn't change Toloka's day-to-day contractor experience materially. Task availability and rates on Toloka remain in the lower tier of platforms we review ($5-18/hr for most tasks). The investment is strategically meaningful for the company's expansion plans but isn't a pay increase signal for existing contractors.
Is Toloka Worth Joining in 2026?
Toloka is worth having as a third or fourth platform — not as a primary income source. Its task volume is high, its acceptance criteria are broad, and it provides useful backup income when primary platforms like Mercor or DataAnnotation.tech are in slower project cycles. The rates remain below average, but the low barrier and consistent volume make it a reasonable part of a multi-platform stack. See our full platform rankings for where Toloka sits relative to all 14 platforms we tested.
The Multi-Platform Approach
The highest-earning AI training contractors don't rely on a single platform. Task availability on any platform varies by project cycle — some weeks are busy, some are slow. Running 2-3 platforms simultaneously means your weekly income is smoothed across multiple task pools. The application investment (typically 20-45 minutes per platform) is paid back within the first week of active work on each new platform. See our full platform guide for the complete ranked list and Platform Picker for a personalised recommendation based on your background.
Getting Started This Week
The most common mistake is applying to one platform and waiting for full approval before applying to the next. Apply to 3 platforms in the same week: Mercor (AI video interview, 20 min), DataAnnotation.tech (skills assessment, 30-45 min), and one specialist platform matched to your background. All three approval processes run in parallel, and you'll have at least one active within 2 weeks rather than waiting 6 weeks sequentially.
Ready to Start?
Apply directly or explore our top-ranked platforms.