Skip to content
AI Data Payout

Updated October 2026

micro1 vs Mercor: which should license your company's data?

Independent and sourced. We feature companies that pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it. How we earn

They are different companies. micro1 publishes a price, $100K-$2M+ per package, but no payment timeline. Mercor publishes no price, but says it wires payment 2-4 weeks after signing and charges no fees. Mercor also confirmed a cyberattack in 2026.1,2,3,4,5

Match my companyWhat is it worth?

Side by side

micro1 and Mercor, row by row

micro1 compared with Mercor
Topicmicro1Mercor
What it buysInternal docs, SOPs and playbooks, knowledge bases, project workflows, internal comms, templates, CRM and workflow metadata, task histories6Slack, Teams, Gmail, Outlook, Confluence, Salesforce, GitHub, Drive, Notion and 100+ other tools7
Industries namedTechnology, BPOs and recruiting, financial services, consulting, professional services, legal and compliance, healthcare administration, logistics and operations8Legal, healthcare, finance and insurance, professional services, manufacturing, retail and e-commerce, real estate, logistics and supply chain9
Who qualifies30 to 200 employees on its partnership page; 30+ on its referral page10Not published
Published price$100K-$2M+ per data package; over $1M for unique data1Not published2
Fees to the sellerNot publishedNo fees4
Time to paymentNot publishedWire 2-4 weeks after signing3
Personal dataPII removed "when relevant"11SOC 2 Type II; removal method not published12
OwnershipThe company keeps ownership and reviews samples before release13Not published
Incidents on recordNone on record with usConfirmed a cyberattack tied to the LiteLLM compromise; class actions filed5,14

Same or different

Two separate companies with similar programs

micro1 and Mercor are unrelated companies that both pay businesses for operating data and license it on to AI labs. Both are large: micro1 raised $100M+ at a $4B valuation, and Mercor was valued at $10B after a $350M Series C. They have even bid against each other: for Spirit Airlines' internal archive, Mercor bid $7.5M and micro1 filed a late $12.5M bid.15,16,17,18

Choosing

Which fits which company

If your company has 30 to 200 staff and keeps its method in documents, micro1's published list matches closely: SOPs, playbooks, knowledge bases and templates. If speed of payment matters most, Mercor is the only one of the two that publishes a timeline. If your records sit mostly in chat and email, both take them; Mercor names the tools, micro1 names internal comms.10,6,3,7

Nothing stops you asking both. Get each offer in writing, and ask each one the same questions about personal data, exclusivity and which labs will receive the data.

FAQ

Questions, answered with sources

  • No. They are separate companies with separate programs. Both license company data to AI labs, and both bid for Spirit Airlines' archive: Mercor $7.5M, micro1 a late $12.5M.17,18

  • Only micro1 publishes a range: $100K-$2M+ per package. Mercor does not publish a price, so the only way to compare is a written offer from each.1,2

  • Mercor says it wires payment 2-4 weeks after signing. micro1 does not publish a payment timeline.3

  • We do not rate safety. The facts: Mercor holds SOC 2 Type II and confirmed a cyberattack in 2026; micro1 says PII is removed when relevant, and we have no incident on record for it.12,5,11

  • You can ask both for offers. Before signing either, ask whether the license is exclusive; micro1 says the seller keeps ownership of the data.13

  • We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company: their team reviews this with you before anything is signed.

Before you sign

Legal questions go to the licensing company

We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company before you sign: their team reviews these with you.

Questions for this kind of business

  • Is the license exclusive, and does it bar licensing the same data to another buyer?
  • Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?

Questions for any buyer

  • Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
  • Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
  • Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
  • How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
  • What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
  • Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
  • Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?

How this page was made

Every figure comes from a published source listed below, each with the date we checked it. Buyer statements are the buyer's own claims and are marked so in the source list. Firm counts come from the US Census Bureau's Statistics of US Businesses. Anything marked as our estimate is ours, not a buyer quote.

Drafted with AI assistance from our research files, then checked against each source. Reviewed 14 Oct 2026. Last updated 14 Oct 2026.

We feature companies that pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it. See how we earn and how we rank. This site does not give legal, tax or financial advice.

Sources (18)

  1. 1.micro1 company referral page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  2. 2.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  3. 3.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  4. 4.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  5. 5.TechCrunch, published 31 Mar 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  6. 6.micro1 Enterprise Data Partnership page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  7. 7.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  8. 8.micro1 Enterprise Data Partnership page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  9. 9.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  10. 10.micro1 Enterprise Data Partnership page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  11. 11.beri.net, published 10 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  12. 12.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  13. 13.beri.net, published 10 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  14. 14.HR Dive, published 13 Apr 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  15. 15.Forbes, published 22 Sep 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  16. 16.TechCrunch, published 27 Oct 2025. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  17. 17.Bloomberg Law, published 17 Aug 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  18. 18.AI Weekly. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.