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platform review

Is Mercor legit?

Yes, Mercor is legit; it's a $10 billion company that pays contractors weekly through Stripe or Wise and lists expert rates around $70–250 an hour. The catches: projects can end early, and a 2026 data breach brought lawsuits.

Legit Score

Not rated yet

We publish a score once we have checked the evidence behind each input. How we score

Updated 8 days ago ·

Reviewed by Rez Karim · See how we scored it

Advertised pay (our data)
$15–500/hr
Open to
Most countries
First payout
About 6 days

key facts

Mercor key facts

Key facts about Mercor
What it isExperts in law, medicine, finance and coding get matched to AI-training contracts after a résumé review, a 20-minute AI interview and assessments.
Parent companyNo parent company
Official websitemercor.com
Advertised pay (our data)$15–500/hr · median $80/hr · 296 of 297 open roles state pay
PayoutStripe (bank transfer), Wise. Weekly, every Wednesday, for the previous week's approved hours; Stripe or Wise is assigned by region. First payment: about 6 days.
CountriesCoverage spans 107 countries; Kenya, Pakistan, China and Russia are excluded, and some listings hire in the US only. Open worldwide, except China, Russia, Pakistan, Kenya.
Open roles297 open roles
Requirements
  • Credentials depend on the listing; legal roles, for instance, demand a law degree and current licence
  • A computer with a working camera and microphone (Chrome, Edge or Safari)
  • Residency in one of the countries Mercor supports

apply

How do you apply to Mercor?

Applying takes 5 steps, starting with: upload your résumé on work.mercor.com. The button opens Mercor's own site in a new tab.

live jobs

Live Mercor jobs

297 open roles we track right now.

See all 297 Mercor jobs

pay

How much does Mercor pay?

Median advertised pay $80/hr across the 296 listings that state pay, from $15–500/hr.

Pay in USD per hour from 296 live listings we track on Mercor, 25 shown. See all 296
RolePay (USD/hr)
Agent Engineer$100–500/hr
Oncologist$350–450/hr
Retail Trader$400/hr
Orthopedic Surgeon$350/hr
Radiologist$350/hr
Cardiologist$350/hr
Dermatologist$275/hr
Cybersecurity Research Expert – Offensive Security & Vulnerability Research$200–250/hr
Equity Research Expert — Single-Name Analyst Publications$150–250/hr
Central Bank Expert — Non-G7 Policy Communication$150–250/hr
Company Analysis Expert — Event Propagation$150–250/hr
Physician Talent Network$110–250/hr
Machine Learning Engineer Talent Network$70–250/hr
Disease-Area Clinician — Trial Endpoints & Prescribing$150–230/hr
Pharma Commercial Forecasting Expert — Launch Curves$130–210/hr
Rheumatologist$200/hr
Critical Care Physician$200/hr
Neurologist$200/hr
Nephrologist$200/hr
Obstetrician-Gynecologist (OB/GYN)$200/hr
General Surgeon$200/hr
Endocrinologist$200/hr
Infectious Disease Physician$200/hr
Clinical Survey Research & Methodology Expert (Physician / PhD)$200/hr
Infrastructure / Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)$200/hr
How much does Mercor pay? Trend and comparison

worker reports

What do Mercor workers report?

Payout days, hours offered and screening, from people who worked there.

We're collecting reports (0 so far)

We show payout days, hours offered and screening experience once 10 workers have reported on Mercor. Each report is checked by a person and shown only as part of the totals, never on its own.

legit score

How we scored Mercor

We have not published a Legit Score (our 0–100 rating of how safe a platform is to work for, based on published inputs) for Mercor yet. It will be the weighted average of these five inputs, once we have checked the evidence behind each one.

How we score
InputWeight
Payout reliability
Share of worker reports paid on time, from approved reports
35%
Pay transparency
Share of listings that state pay, and whether pay matches reports
20%
Time in market
Years the platform has been paying AI-training workers
15%
Third-party ratings
Trustpilot, Glassdoor and BBB, normalised to 0–100
20%
Complaint volume
Unresolved payment complaints per 1,000 workers, inverted
10%

pros and cons

Mercor pros and cons

Pros · 3

  • Pay appears on the listings themselves: $100–150/hr for law and medicine
  • Weekly Wednesday payouts
  • Open in 107 countries

Cons · 3

  • Projects can be cut short or ended early
  • No human gets involved until after the AI interview
  • A 2026 data breach plus lawsuits that remain pending

get accepted

How do you get accepted on Mercor?

Steps to apply

  1. 1Upload your résumé on work.mercor.com
  2. 2Confirm your work authorization
  3. 3Sit the AI interview, which takes about 20 minutes
  4. 4Complete any written assessment attached to the listing
  5. 5On receiving an offer, sign it, configure payouts and verify your identity

What the screening involves

  • Résumé review
  • An AI interview of about 20 minutes, with up to three retakes
  • Some listings add a written or domain assessment
  • ID verification plus any other checks the project requires

scam warnings

Is Mercor a scam? Red flags to check

Got a message that says it is from Mercor? Check these first.

  • Mercor takes applications only through its own platform, at work.mercor.com
  • Real offers land in your Offers tab and arrive from an @mercor.com email address
  • Assume any "recruiter" who asks for ID or bank details outside the platform is a scam
  • Mercor's official website is mercor.com. Links to any other address are not from Mercor.

faq

Mercor questions, answered

Does Mercor actually pay?

Yes, it does. Every Wednesday, Mercor pays its hourly contractors for the prior week's approved hours, with Stripe or Wise handling the transfer based on your region. Funds typically arrive Thursday, though Stripe holds your first payout for 7 days.

How much does Mercor pay?

Mercor's homepage puts the average contracted rate at $110 an hour. As of October 2026, a generalist role listed at $50–60 an hour, legal and medical experts at $100–150, and the physician network at $110–250.

How do I pass the Mercor AI interview?

Set aside about 20 minutes. Use a computer with a working camera and microphone, open Chrome, Edge or Safari, and sit somewhere quiet with your face in view. You get up to three retakes, but each one resets your application.

Is Mercor Instant Offer legit?

Yes, it's real. Mercor runs Instant Work Offers as an official feature, delivering a pre-qualified offer with no application involved. A genuine one will show up in your Offers tab on work.mercor.com.

Has Mercor had any problems?

Yes. In March 2026, Mercor disclosed a data breach traced to a compromised open-source library, which drew several class-action lawsuits; per Wired, Meta put its Mercor contracts on hold in April 2026. A separate lawsuit over worker classification was filed in May 2026.

Who owns Mercor?

Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha founded Mercor in 2023, and the company is headquartered in San Francisco. Its October 2025 round brought in $350 million at a $10 billion valuation.

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