Closed · Kept for the Record
Stellar AI
Stellar AI closed permanently in October 2026. It was software engineering as a service, $35 to $120 an hour for developers who could write automated verifiers, not just answers. There is nothing to apply to now.
The "Developer's Playground" Standard
Stellar AI is built by developers, for high-level technical AI training. This is not data labeling — it is software engineering as a service.
- →The PR-to-Task Pipeline: A common task involves taking a real GitHub Pull Request and turning it into a challenge for an AI agent to solve.
- →Automated Verifiers: They don't just want correct answers — they want you to write the code that verifies the answer programmatically.
Prepare for the Skill Match Wall and Rolling Onboarding
Getting into Stellar AI is harder than almost any other platform.
- →The Skill Match Wall: If you don't pass their initial technical screening with a high score, your application is effectively closed — there is no second attempt.
- →Rolling Onboarding: They only onboard new contributors when a client specifically needs your language or stack (e.g., Rust, Go, or specialized Python libraries).
Stellar AI Pay Rates — Highest for Developers
If you get in, the pay is among the best in the AI training space for technical workers.
- →ML Engineers: $80–$120/hr.
- →Junior Developers: $35–$70/hr.
- →The Catch: You must demonstrate Senior-level thinking and code quality to access the top-tier rates.
Reality Check — Rigorous, Remote, Weekly Pay
Stellar AI operates differently from most platforms in the best possible ways.
- →Intellectual Rigor: This isn't labeling work. Expect the cognitive load of a real engineering role.
- →Location Independence: Truly remote-first with weekly payments — rare in this space.
The Verdict
This one is over. Stellar AI announced its permanent shutdown on October 10, 2026, and the work had already thinned out for most people after June. While it ran it was the hard mode king, the most intellectually stimulating work in the field, and one of the few platforms workers spoke about with real affection. Everything below is kept as a record of what the bar looked like, not as advice to apply.