Amazon Mechanical Turk is shutting down: what workers should do now

Amazon has announced that Mechanical Turk will close permanently on September 30, 2026. If you earn money on the platform, this affects you directly. There are a few things you should handle before that date.

This post covers what Amazon announced, what to do with your account, and where to go next.

It also explains why the platform closed, because the reason matters for anyone who earns money online.

Key points

Amazon will close Mechanical Turk on September 30, 2026, after 21 years.
Work you submitted and got approved is still paid on your normal schedule.
Requesters can approve or reject submitted HITs until October 30, 2026.
Your transaction history stays available until January 28, 2027.
Amazon has not named a replacement platform or offered severance.
Check your payment method and transfer schedule now, not in September.

What Amazon announced

On August 25, 2026, Amazon posted a notice on the Mechanical Turk website:

The service will close on September 30, 2026.

Amazon said the decision followed an internal assessment of its programs and services, and gave no other reason.

Mechanical Turk launched in 2005. It connected companies with workers who completed small jobs called Human Intelligence Tasks, or HITs. These tasks included labeling data, transcribing audio and video, moderating content, and answering surveys. Most paid a few cents each.

The news is sudden, but it did not come without warning. Amazon stopped accepting new customers on July 30, 2026. Many workers read that as a sign the platform would close soon.

Amazon has not announced severance payments, a transition program, or a recommended replacement. Workers have been directed to an FAQ page.

At its peak, the platform listed more than 500,000 workers across 190 countries. That figure comes from Amazon's own older documentation. The company has not said how many people are still active today.

What to do with your account before September 30

The date is fixed, so your account needs attention before it arrives. Your balance will not move to another Amazon service automatically.

Check these five things now, not in late September:

Confirm your payment method. Open the Worker Portal and go to Account Settings. Make sure both a payment method and a transfer schedule are set.
Submit your work before the deadline. HIT submission closes on September 30, 2026. Do not leave work unsubmitted in the final week.
Expect approvals to continue briefly. Requesters have until October 30, 2026 to approve or reject your submitted work. Bonuses can also be awarded until then.
Approved work still pays. Completed and approved HITs are paid on your normal disbursement schedule.
Save your records. Your transaction history stays available until January 28, 2027. Download what you need for taxes before that date.

Start earning on JumpTask

AI training tasks, micro-tasks, and more. Sign up with an email and see what is available in your country.

Why Mechanical Turk is shutting down

Amazon did not explain in detail. But the wider picture is clear enough. Three things worked against the platform at once.

1. AI took over the work. Mechanical Turk was built for a time when computers could not handle certain tasks reliably. Humans filled the gap. 21 years later, AI models handle much of that work on their own. Demand for cheap, repetitive tasks dropped as a result.

2. Data quality fell. A 2023 study by researchers in Switzerland estimated that between 33% and 46% of Mechanical Turk workers in one experiment used AI models to complete writing tasks. Companies were paying for human judgment and sometimes receiving machine output instead. That made the platform less valuable to the businesses posting work.

3. Competitors moved in. A newer group of data labeling companies entered the market and drew workers away. Amazon put fewer resources into improving the platform. It was competing for the same workers with less investment behind it.

There is a lesson in how fast this happened. A platform can post a closure notice and be gone in five weeks. If online tasks are part of your income, keep at least two places to work. When one slows down or closes, the other keeps running.

Where earners go next

Finding somewhere else to work is on you. The good news is that the work itself has not gone away. Companies still need people to label data, review AI output, and check machine answers against human judgment. That demand moved to other platforms. JumpTask is one AI training platform picking it up.

If you did AI and data work on MTurk, you have two broad options.

Specialist AI training platforms. These focus on data labeling and model evaluation only. Most run an application process. Some have skills tests or waiting lists before you get access. The work can pay well, but you may wait days or weeks before your first task.

Platforms that combine AI work with other task types. You sign up and get access straight away. You pick from AI training tasks alongside other ways to earn. JumpTask works this way. If AI task supply is low in your region on a given day, you still have something to work on.

Neither option is automatically better. It depends on whether you want to specialise or keep your income steady across task types.

For a wider list of platforms taking on this work, see our guide to sites like MTurk.

How JumpTask compares to Mechanical Turk

JumpTask is a task earning platform where you complete AI training tasks, data annotation work, and product testing projects, then get paid to gift cards, bank transfer, or crypto.

The AI work will look familiar if you came from MTurk:

You review AI responses and flag what is wrong.
You check and label data.
You test products and report what breaks.

Here is what is different:

No approval queue. You create a free account with an email or a social login. There is no requester approval and no qualification score to build first.
A fixed earning unit. You earn credits. 1,000 credits = $1.00, and that rate does not change.
Payouts you can pick. Cash out the way you want, with thousands of gift cards, PayPal, bank transfer, or crypto in over 100 countries. See the full list on the payouts page.
A low first payout. Your first payout starts at $1. After that, the minimum is $0.50.
AI work is not the only work. Video tasks, micro-tasks, surveys, games, and social media tasks sit in the same account. A slow day for AI tasks is not a day with nothing to do.

Two honest points. JumpTask is not a requester marketplace, so you do not post work or pick from an academic survey queue the way you did on MTurk. Businesses that need this kind of work done go through Acquirox instead. And task availability depends on your region, the same as it did on MTurk.

This is the short version. For a task-by-task and payout-by-payout breakdown, read our full MTurk vs JumpTask comparison.

Earnings vary and are not guaranteed. Results depend on task availability, effort, and time invested.

Your next platform, ready today

No application and no waiting list. First payout at $1, then $0.50, to gift cards, bank transfer, or crypto.

What to check before you commit to any platform

Use the same questions on every option, including this one:

What is the minimum payout, and how long does it take to reach it?
Which payout methods work in your country?
Are task rates shown before you start the task?
What happens to your balance if the platform changes or closes?

MTurk workers already know why that last question matters.

In closing

For the people who relied on it, Mechanical Turk closing after 21 years is a real loss, and Amazon has offered them very little. The practical response is to secure your balance first, then spread your work across more than one platform so that the next announcement does not affect you as much.

Create a free JumpTask account and see what tasks are available in your country.

FAQs

Yes. Amazon confirmed on August 25, 2026 that the platform closes permanently on September 30, 2026. The company said the decision followed an internal assessment and gave no other reason.

Yes. Completed and approved HITs are paid on your normal disbursement schedule. Check that a payment method and transfer schedule are set in your Worker Portal, because your balance does not move anywhere automatically.

No. Amazon has not announced severance, a transition program, or a recommended replacement. Workers have been pointed to an FAQ page and nothing further.

There are specialist AI training platforms and general task platforms. Specialist platforms often need an application. General platforms let you start the same day. See our guide to sites like MTurk for a wider list.

This post is written for workers, but requesters need somewhere to go too. Acquirox handles the business side of this kind of work.

Gabriele Zundaite

Digital Marketing Manager

Meet Gabriele, a marketing specialist focused on digital growth and social media. As a Digital Marketing Manager at JumpTask, she helps others discover new ways to earn online by turning creative ideas into real results. With a degree in Marketing Management and a background in growth marketing and community building, Gabriele shares clear, practical advice for anyone ready to start earning or grow their online presence.