Review for experts
Mercor for experts: is it legit, and what should you watch for?
Mercor is one of the largest employers of expert contractors for AI labs. Investors valued it at $10B in October 2025, and by June 2026 its gross run rate had passed $2B, so there is a lot of genuine work on offer.
Against that, a March 2026 cyberattack exposed data belonging to some of its experts and led to several class actions. Weigh both.
- Valuation
- $10B (Oct 2025)
- Avg contracted rate
- $97/hr (Mercor's figure)
- Paid
- Weekly, Wednesdays
- Incidents
- Breach, Mar 2026
In this guide
01
Our verdict
Mercor offers the largest pool of hourly expert work we track, with customers that include Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta. The March 2026 breach is a genuine mark against it: affected experts only heard about it roughly three months later, and Mercor has never said how many people were hit.
02
The facts
Valuation
$10B after a $350M Series C (TechCrunch, Oct 2025)
Run rate
Above $2B gross (Dealroom, Jun 2026)
Contractor referral bonus
20% of the referred person's earnings, capped at $250 to $15,000 depending on role. Its referral policy sets the cap for hourly contracts at 4x the referral's hourly rate
Acquisitions
Sepal AI (Feb 2026) and Deeptune, to build training environments (Jul 2026)
Spirit Airlines bid
Backup bidder at $7.5M after Google's $10M win
Security
Reports a SOC 2 Type II audit
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Valuation | $10B after a $350M Series C (TechCrunch, Oct 2025) |
| Run rate | Above $2B gross (Dealroom, Jun 2026) |
| Contractor referral bonus | 20% of the referred person's earnings, capped at $250 to $15,000 depending on role. Its referral policy sets the cap for hourly contracts at 4x the referral's hourly rate |
| Acquisitions | Sepal AI (Feb 2026) and Deeptune, to build training environments (Jul 2026) |
| Spirit Airlines bid | Backup bidder at $7.5M after Google's $10M win |
| Security | Reports a SOC 2 Type II audit |
03
What the work involves
Mercor hires doctors, lawyers, engineers, finance specialists and other professionals as hourly contractors on AI lab projects: writing expert answers, grading model output and building evaluation tasks in their field. Mercor says it has nearly five million experts on file.
04
What Mercor offers experts
Mercor matches professionals to contract projects for AI companies and shows the pay on every listing before you apply. Its help center describes two contract types: hourly contracts tracked with a desktop timer, and deliverable-based contracts paid per task. Projects run from weeks to months and can be extended or cut short.
Hourly contracts
Who it's for
Credentialed professionals and generalists; many roles ask for years of experience or an advanced degree
Published pay (examples)
Generalist (must own a MacBook) $40 to $80/hr; sample roles on its experts page $60 to $250/hr
Deliverable-based contracts
Who it's for
Experts writing defined pieces such as rubrics or assessments
Published pay (examples)
Chemistry, safety and nuclear security roles at $65 to $75 per task
Paid work trials
Who it's for
Candidates for some roles, before a full offer
Published pay (examples)
A fixed trial payment shown on the trial page; some trials last six hours
Studies
Who it's for
Specific groups, such as US parents with children aged 9 to 13
Published pay (examples)
$110/hr on the listing we saw
Expert referrals
Who it's for
Anyone, including people who do not work for Mercor
Published pay (examples)
20% of what your referral earns, up to a cap of 4x their hourly rate on hourly work
| Program | Who it's for | Published pay (examples) |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly contracts | Credentialed professionals and generalists; many roles ask for years of experience or an advanced degree | Generalist (must own a MacBook) $40 to $80/hr; sample roles on its experts page $60 to $250/hr |
| Deliverable-based contracts | Experts writing defined pieces such as rubrics or assessments | Chemistry, safety and nuclear security roles at $65 to $75 per task |
| Paid work trials | Candidates for some roles, before a full offer | A fixed trial payment shown on the trial page; some trials last six hours |
| Studies | Specific groups, such as US parents with children aged 9 to 13 | $110/hr on the listing we saw |
| Expert referrals | Anyone, including people who do not work for Mercor | 20% of what your referral earns, up to a cap of 4x their hourly rate on hourly work |
- 1
Create an account and upload a resume
Mercor recommends assessments based on your resume and the roles that are open.
- 2
Take the AI interview and assessments
The AI interview takes about 20 minutes and is the only screening route; there is no human alternative. A free practice interview does not count, and you get up to three retakes. Some roles add a cognitive or task test.
- 3
Accept an offer or a paid trial
Sign the terms of work and a confidentiality and inventions agreement, add tax forms and verify your work authorization where needed.
- 4
Set up payments and tracking
Payouts go through Stripe, or Wise where Stripe is not supported. Hourly work is logged in the Insightful desktop app, which can take screenshots.
- 5
Get paid weekly
Hours from Saturday to Friday (India time) are paid the following Wednesday. Stripe holds your first payout for 7 days.
$97/hr
Average contracted rate
Mercor experts page
$4M+
Paid out daily
Mercor experts page
~20 min
Typical AI interview
Mercor talent docs
7 days
Stripe hold on your first payout
Mercor talent docs
05
The breach, briefly
Tampered releases of LiteLLM, a free software library, let attackers into Mercor, which disclosed the attack in late March 2026. Lapsus$, an extortion group, said it had taken as much as 4TB. Mercor describes the exposure of sensitive expert data as narrow, sent notices on 25 and 26 June, and offered affected people TransUnion identity protection. It lists security changes made since.
06
How we scored it
Pay (30%)
Rate shown on each listing and a stated $97/hr average. Its own pages also cite $106/hr, and hours are not guaranteed. Low confidence.
Reliability (25%)
Very large, well-funded business. Docked for the 2026 breach and slow notification.
Transparency (25%)
Publishes referral terms and security changes. No count of affected people.
Access (20%)
Broad range of professions recruited.
| Criterion (weight) | What we found |
|---|---|
| Pay (30%) | Rate shown on each listing and a stated $97/hr average. Its own pages also cite $106/hr, and hours are not guaranteed. Low confidence. |
| Reliability (25%) | Very large, well-funded business. Docked for the 2026 breach and slow notification. |
| Transparency (25%) | Publishes referral terms and security changes. No count of affected people. |
| Access (20%) | Broad range of professions recruited. |
FAQ
Questions, answered
Is Mercor legit?
Yes. It carried a $10B valuation from October 2025 and a run rate over $2B by June 2026, though it suffered a security incident in March 2026.
How does Mercor's referral program work?
You receive 20% of your referral's earnings, capped somewhere between $250 and $15,000 according to the role. Mercor funds the bonus; your referral's pay is untouched.
Was my data affected by the breach?
Mercor notified affected experts on 25 and 26 June 2026. If you were not notified, Mercor's position is that your sensitive data was not affected.
Does Mercor publish pay rates?
Each listing shows its rate, hourly or per task. There is no standard rate card. Mercor's experts page cites a $97/hr average contracted rate; its referrals page cites $106/hr (both seen 28 October 2026).
How and when does Mercor pay?
Weekly. Hours logged Saturday to Friday (India time) are paid the following Wednesday through Stripe, or Wise where Stripe is not available. Stripe holds the first payout for 7 days, and standard transfers can take up to 5 business days to reach your bank.
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Sources
Every number on this page links back to one of these.
- 1TechCrunch: Mercor quintuples valuation to $10B (27 Oct 2025)techcrunch.com
- 2Dealroom: Mercor doubles to $2B gross revenue run rate (June 2026)dealroom.co
- 3Mercor: Referrals pagemercor.com
- 4Orrick: Mercor acquires Sepal AI (Feb 2026)orrick.com
- 5SiliconANGLE: Mercor buys Deeptune to build training environments (9 Jul 2026)siliconangle.com
- 6Bloomberg Law: Google aims to boost AI with purchase of Spirit Airlines data (17 Aug 2026)news.bloomberglaw.com
- 7Mercor: Data pagemercor.com
- 8TechCrunch: Mercor hit by cyberattack tied to LiteLLM compromise (31 Mar 2026)techcrunch.com
- 9Mercor blog: Update on Mercor security incident (25 Jun 2026)mercor.com
- 10Fortune: Mercor security incident (2 Apr 2026)fortune.com
- 11HR Dive: AI recruiting platform faces lawsuits over data breach (13 Apr 2026)hrdive.com
- 12Mercor: experts pagemercor.com
- 13Mercor: open listingswork.mercor.com
- 14Mercor talent docs: paymentstalent.docs.mercor.com
- 15Mercor talent docs: time tracking and paytalent.docs.mercor.com
- 16Mercor talent docs: contractstalent.docs.mercor.com
- 17Mercor talent docs: AI interview FAQtalent.docs.mercor.com
- 18Mercor talent docs: work trialstalent.docs.mercor.com
- 19Mercor talent docs: referral policytalent.docs.mercor.com
- 20Business Insider: Lawyers are working nights and weekends to train AI (2 Jul 2026)businessinsider.com
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