Defined.ai vs Scale AI (2026): Pricing, Features & Which to Choose

Who comes out ahead

Based only on the facts in our directory. The right pick still depends on the job you need done.

Lower starting price
Not comparable
Not comparable: Defined.ai does not list a price
Free plan
Scale AI
Only Scale AI has one
Higher rating
Scale AI
3.6 against 4.0
Same job?
Yes
Both are AI Infrastructure & Agent Tooling tools

Side by side

Compared on	Defined.ai	Scale AI
Our rating	3.6	4.0Better
Starts at	Not listed	Free
Free plan	No	YesBetter
Category	AI Infrastructure & Agent Tooling	AI Infrastructure & Agent Tooling
Plans	See pricing	Free
Key features	Datasets across audio, image, video, text, and multimodal formats Custom data collection across 150+ countries and 500+ languages Model-in-the-loop data annotation and evaluation ISO 27001/27701/42001, GDPR, and HIPAA compliance Named trusted clients - Adobe, Amazon, Google, Meta, OpenAI	Data labeling and annotation infrastructure for machine learning training sets Self-serve tier with a free monthly allowance before per-unit pricing kicks in Enterprise volume pricing for large-scale labeling projects Meta holds a roughly 49% stake following a 2025 investment Long track record supplying autonomous-vehicle and foundation-model programs
Pros	Real, verifiable major-company client roster Ethical, privacy-first sourcing stance rather than unlicensed scraping Comprehensive compliance credentials for regulated industries	Long operating history gives it deep experience across autonomous vehicle and LLM training use cases Self-serve free tier lowers the barrier for smaller teams to test the platform Meta's investment adds financial backing most data-labeling vendors lack
Cons	Pricing isn't public - requires a custom quote Built for enterprise AI teams, not individual developers Data quality evaluation still requires domain expertise to apply correctly	Meta's large stake raises questions about neutrality for competing AI labs Enterprise pricing requires a sales conversation for anything beyond small jobs Data-labeling work is inherently commoditizing as automated labeling tools mature
Company	Defined.ai	Scale AI, founded 2016

Prices come from each vendor's pricing page, last checked 20260826. Check the vendor before you buy.

FAQ

Questions people ask

Is Defined.ai better than Scale AI?

In our reviews Defined.ai scores 3.6 and Scale AI scores 4.0. The better pick depends on the job. Defined.ai: The world's largest ethically-sourced AI data marketplace - trusted by Adobe, Amazon, Google, Meta, and OpenAI, custom data collection across 150+ countries and 500+ languages. Scale AI: Data-labeling infrastructure that trained early GPT and Waymo models, now backed by Meta.

Which is cheaper, Defined.ai or Scale AI?

Defined.ai: see pricing. Scale AI: free.

Do Defined.ai and Scale AI have free plans?

Only Scale AI has a free plan.

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