Mercor Pay in 2026
Mercor connects domain experts, engineers, and scientists with frontier labs for data labeling, model training, and evaluation work. The rates below come from live Mercor listings on NearSkill, refreshed daily, not from marketing pages.
Ankit KumarFounder, NearSkillWritten and reviewed by the NearSkill founder. Every rate is sourced and dated on this page.LinkedInPublished range
$10–$380/hr
across 260 hourly roles
About Mercor
mercor.com- Company type
- AI talent platform
- Headquarters
- United States
- Valuation
- $10B, paying contractors $1.5M a day (CNBC, Oct 2025)
- Payout model
- Weekly, through the platform; hourly and fixed-project rates
- Hiring
- Domain experts, engineers, and scientists for frontier AI labs
- Track record
- Late-2025 contractor cut with lower-pay rehires; Mar 2026 supply-chain breach
What Mercor is
Mercor is a US AI talent platform that connects domain experts, engineers, and scientists with frontier labs for data labeling, model training, and evaluation work. Pay is hourly or fixed-project. NearSkill tracks live Mercor roles with published rates, so the numbers on this page come from actual listings, not marketing copy.
300
Active roles tracked
300
With published pay
100%
Pay disclosed
How pay works
- Every role posts its own rate. NearSkill shows the published hourly range or fixed amount directly on the listing.
- Expert track roles pay the most: credentialed domain experts, senior engineers, and scientists sit above generalist project work.
- Some projects pay a fixed one-time amount per task batch instead of an hourly rate. Both shapes appear on this page without being merged.
- Payment runs through the platform. Weekly payout is the documented pattern; disputes cluster around project cuts, not missing payments.
Engagement mix
Mercor pay, by shape
Hourly, monthly, yearly, and one-time amounts are kept separate. They are not interchangeable, so the page never merges them into one invented number.
| Shape | Live range | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly roles | $10–$380/hr | 260 |
| Monthly roles | Listed per role or competitive | — |
| Yearly roles | $15000–$50000/yr | 3 |
| One-time / fixed | $60–$2200 per project | 36 |
| Pay not disclosed | Listed per role or competitive | — |
Computed from live Mercor roles on NearSkill. Figures are USD unless stated, updated through the day, and reflect the rates employers published on each listing. Roles without a published rate are counted separately and never estimated. Implausible outliers (hourly above $500, yearly above $2M, flipped ranges) are excluded from the range math so one bad row cannot distort the band.
How roles split by pay shape
Hourly
$10–$380/hr
Monthly
No monthly roles
Yearly
$15000–$50000/yr
One-time
$60–$2200 per project
What Mercor is hiring for right now
Live roles grouped by category, with the hourly band each category actually advertises.
AI Training
155 roles
$10–$380/hr
Machine Learning & AI
74 roles
$30–$380/hr
Other
63 roles
$0–$230/hr
Talent Acquisition & Recruiting
29 roles
$45–$250/hr
Software Engineering
26 roles
$40–$200/hr
Sales Engineering & Solutions Consulting
26 roles
$45–$150/hr
Hardware & Embedded Systems
23 roles
$45–$250/hr
Language & Linguistics
21 roles
$10–$250/hr
Live Mercor roles
The most recent active listings on NearSkill. Roles without a published rate show the current market band instead of an empty field.
STEM Researchers - MSc/PhD (Must own MacBook)
remote
$50–$60/hr
3D Artists & Video Editors (Must own MacBook)
remote
$50–$60/hr
Data Analysts & Spreadsheet Specialists (Must own MacBook)
remote
$50–$60/hr
Software Developers (Must own MacBook)
remote
$50–$60/hr
Mechanical & CAD Engineers (Must own MacBook)
remote
$50–$60/hr
Computer Power Users & Automation Builders (Must own MacBook)
remote
$50–$60/hr
Industrial & Manufacturing Engineers (Must own MacBook)
remote
$50–$60/hr
Civil Engineers & Architects (Must own MacBook)
remote
$50–$60/hr
Graphic Designers (Must own MacBook)
remote
$50–$60/hr
UI/UX Designers (Must own MacBook)
remote
$50–$60/hr
AI Assistant User – Weekly Feedback Study
remote
$30–$35/hr
Local Political Expert (Iowa) — Elections Forecasting & Political Risk
remote
$100–$200/hr
How Mercor compares on pay
Where each platform sits on the same USD/hour scale, from the lowest generalist floor to the top expert ceiling.
Mercor
$10.00–$380.00/hr
This page
Micro1
$20–$150/hr
Remote-first AI talent marketplace where you set your own billing rate
Turing
$15–$150/hr
Steady AGI training pipeline with standardized pay and expert-track ceilings
SME Careers
$15–$130/hr
Expert-led AI training roles with published hourly rates and weekly Deel payouts
Terac
$2–$220/hr
Credentialed expert marketplace for paid studies and AI evaluation work
AfterQuery
$10–$250/hr
Expert reasoning data for frontier labs, paid hourly or per approved task
Handshake AI
$17–$300/hr
The highest verified expert rates in AI training, paired with the least predictable work
Meridial
$6–$150/hr
A wide expert marketplace where your location sets the rate
Mercor pay, answered
How much does Mercor pay per hour in 2026?
Mercor expert-track roles pay $50–$150/hr, with an advertised average above $85/hr (platform-published, 2026). Live Mercor listings on NearSkill show the actual per-role ranges, including generalist project work at lower rates and fixed one-time project amounts. The table on this page is computed from those live listings.
Is Mercor legit?
Yes. Mercor is a company valued at $10 billion paying out $1.5 million a day to contractors (CNBC, October 2025). The documented caveats are a late-2025 contractor cut with rehires at lower pay, and a March 2026 supply-chain breach that exposed contractor records. Legit and low risk are different questions.
Does Mercor pay for one-time tasks?
Yes. Some Mercor projects pay a fixed amount per completed task batch instead of an hourly rate, for example $800 per project. NearSkill shows these as one-time amounts on the listing and keeps them separate from hourly rates, because the two shapes are not comparable.
How do I get hired on Mercor?
Create a profile, pass the assessment for your track, then complete a trial project at a lower rate before the full rate applies. Expert track placement depends on credentials and the trial result. Browse live Mercor roles on NearSkill to see which tracks are hiring now and at what published rates.
How does Mercor pay its contractors?
Through the platform, weekly, after you complete eligible work. The strongest documented complaint pattern is about project cuts and rate changes on rehires, not about missing payouts. Keep your own hours log and screenshot task batches before submission.
See which Mercor roles fit you
Upload your resume and get every live Mercor role ranked by fit score, with the published pay attached. Free, no account, results in under 20 seconds.