- Mercor matches AI labs with domain experts and charges an hourly finder's fee and matching rate.
- Scale AI delivers labeled and expert-written data using its own contract workforce.
- Mercor reported more than 30,000 experts earning an average of over $85 an hour; Scale AI said about 12% of its contractors hold a PhD.
At a glance
| Mercor | Scale AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Expert network: supplies people, charges hourly finder's fee and matching rate | Data vendor: delivers labeled and created data |
| Workforce | 30,000+ experts, average over $85 an hour | Contract workers; about 12% hold a PhD, about 40% a master's, law degree or MBA |
| Valuation or revenue | $10 billion valuation (October 2025) | About $870 million revenue (2024) |
| Payments to workers | More than $1.5 million a day | Not published |
Sources: TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE.
Which fits
- You want control over guidelines, tasks and quality review, with experts working inside your process: an expert network such as Mercor.
- You want finished data delivered to a specification: a data vendor such as Scale AI.
- You want real-world data that already exists, such as years of expert work product: license it from the holder. See expert-annotated data.
Things to check with either
- Who owns work product and guidelines
- How expert credentials are verified
- Confidentiality terms for people who see your prompts and outputs
- Separation from competitors' projects
Read next
Questions
How does Mercor charge?
TechCrunch reported that Mercor charges an hourly finder's fee and matching rate for the experts it supplies.