Amazon Closes Mechanical Turk to New Customers

Amazon says Mechanical Turk will close to new customers on July 30, 2026 while existing users can continue. AWS maintenance status means the service keeps operating and receiving support, but new onboarding and new functionality stop for a marketplace used in microtasks, data labeling, surveys, moderation, and human review.

1. Frame 1July 30 becomes the gate: Mechanical Turk closes to new customers while existing users keep the microtask marketplace.
2. Frame 2The data path starts when requesters break surveys, labels, moderation, and research into paid worker tasks.
3. Frame 3Maintenance keeps the service running but blocks new onboarding and added functionality, creating a frozen capacity lane.
4. Frame 4In SageMaker, the public workforce handled Ground Truth labeling and A2I review only when inputs were PII-free.
5. Frame 5The failure mode is messy: AI workflows still need people for labels, checks, deduping, and quality review.
6. Frame 6Watch the handoff map: requesters may shift work toward Ground Truth workflows, private workforces, vendors, or fewer tasks.