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Labelling Cost Calculator

Work out labelling cost instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Labelling Cost Calculator

Labelling cost is driven by redundancy as much as by volume: three annotators per item triples both the hours and the bill, but is what makes majority voting and agreement measurement possible. Converting seconds per label into hours and multiplying by the loaded hourly rate gives the true figure, and cost per item is the number to compare against the value of the model it enables.

Formula

Labelling cost

annotations = items x annotators per item; hours = annotations x seconds / 3600; cost = hours x hourly rate

Worked example

With the default values below, Labelling Cost Calculator returns Total labelling cost of $5,000.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Items to labelminimum 1
20,000
Seconds per labelminimum 1 s
25 s
Annotator hourly rateminimum 0.5
12
Annotators per itemaccepts 1–10
3

Results

Total labelling cost
$5,000.00
Annotator hours required
416.7 h
Cost per labelled item
$0.2500
Individual annotations produced
60,000

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Labelling cost
  3. 3Total labelling cost= 5,000.00
  4. 4Annotator hours required= 416.7 h
  5. 5Cost per labelled item= 0.2500
  6. 6Individual annotations produced= 60,000

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 4 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is triple redundancy worth the cost?

For subjective or ambiguous tasks yes, because it lets you measure agreement and resolve ties. For unambiguous tasks, single labelling with a small audited sample is far cheaper.

What drives seconds per item up?

Bounding boxes, segmentation masks, long documents and tasks requiring a guideline lookup. Pilot on 100 items and measure before extrapolating.

Related Calculators

Labelling Cost Calculator – Calculate Total labelling cost