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AI Data Payout

Updated November 2026

Pewter vs Mercor: a go-between or the company that pays you?

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

Pewter is a go-between: its licensing partner makes the offer, signs the license with you and pays you, and Pewter says you learn who that partner is before you sign anything. Mercor says it licenses the data and pays you itself. Pewter shows example deals of $350,000 to $650,000, reported by that partner, which it calls other firms' deals, not its own, and asks for 20+ staff in the US, while Mercor's data page shows no price or minimum. Both say you pay nothing.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

Match my companyWhat is it worth?

Side by side

Pewter and Mercor, row by row

Pewter

6.4/10

#17 in our seller ranking

Visit Pewter

We're in Pewter's referral program, so we may earn a fee if you work with them. It doesn't change our score or review. How we earn

Read our Pewter review

Mercor

7.6/10

#6 in our seller ranking

Read our Mercor review

Most cells are what each company says about itself. The numbers link to the sources.

Pewter compared with Mercor
TopicPewterMercor
Who pays youA licensing partner, unnamed on its site; you learn who before you sign1Mercor, by wire2,10
Who qualifiesUS firms with 20+ full-time staff now or at peak, 3+ years of records, mainly English5No minimum headcount or years stated on its data page7
Closed companiesTakes firms that are winding down or closed5Nothing on its data page, but it has pursued shuttered startups' archives11
Stated price$350,000 to $650,000 in its partner's three examples; many firms are offered less, it says3,12None on its data page; its LinkedIn ads say up to $10M per enterprise6,13
Time to paymentNot publishedTypically 2-4 weeks after signing, depending on extraction and processing10
Fees you payNone at any stage, Pewter says; the partner pays Pewter at close8,14None, Mercor says: no upfront costs, setup fees or deductions9
Your timeA few hours, Pewter says15Not published; you link accounts from the tools you choose16
Removing namesNames, contact details, account numbers and credentials removed; you review a sample17,18Automated; no AI lab buyer sees raw data, Mercor says19
On the recordBuzzlead.io LLC, Florida; three managing partners listed; site registered October 10, 202620,21$10B valuation; confirmed a 2026 cyberattack; contractors filed proposed class actions22,23,24

The real gap

With Pewter the company that pays comes through a go-between, and with Mercor you start there

Pewter sizes your records, brings you the offer and coordinates the deal, and it handles negotiation of price, exclusivity and scope. It also says plainly that because its partner pays its fee, it is not your lawyer or your agent. In our view that is worth weighing, since the firm doing the negotiating is paid by the other side, and we would ask early who the partner is, because that is the company you rely on to pay.1,17,14

Mercor has no one in the middle that it mentions. You link your tools, it extracts and anonymizes the data, and it pays when the anonymized dataset reaches the buyer. What its page leaves out is the deal itself, with nothing on ownership afterward, exclusivity or how long it keeps the data.16,10,2,25

Reading the numbers

Pewter's examples and Mercor's ad figure are both self-reported

Pewter's examples are a 60-person accounting firm at $350,000, a 70-person engineering firm at $450,000 and a 100-person freight broker at $650,000, reported by its licensing partner. Pewter says many firms are offered less and some get no offer. Its site was registered in October 2026, and it says deal figures come from the publishers and were not independently verified.3,12,21

Mercor's $10M per enterprise comes from its own LinkedIn ads, which also claim over 300 enterprise partners, and those ads name large enterprises, so in our view that figure says little about a 40-person firm. Its $7.5M bid for Spirit Airlines' records is a public number, from a sale process where it stands as the backup buyer.13,26,27

Risks on each side

A new company with an unnamed partner, or a large one with a breach on its record

Pewter's risk is how little there is to check. Its site lists three managing partners, it is run by Buzzlead.io LLC, a Florida LLC doing business as Pewter Labs, and it does not name the company that would pay you, which it says you learn before you sign.20,1

Mercor's is a known event. It confirmed a 2026 cyberattack tied to the LiteLLM compromise, and it says the effect on customer information was very limited and that only a very limited subset of experts had sensitive information affected. Contractors who used its platform filed proposed class actions in April, which are allegations with no ruling we have seen, and we found no reliable count of people affected. Ask Mercor whether the systems that hold seller data were involved.23,28,24

We work with Pewter and not with Mercor. The quiz checks whether your company fits Pewter and the others we work with, so you can hold a written offer next to anything Mercor sends.

FAQ

Questions, answered with sources

  • Pewter says it does not. Its licensing partner makes the offer, signs the license and pays the business, and that partner pays Pewter a fee when a deal closes.1,14

  • Pewter says it works through price, scope and exclusivity with you, and also that it is not your agent because its partner pays its fee. Mercor's data page describes no negotiation, so you would deal with Mercor directly.17,1,2

  • Mercor gives a stated time, typically 2-4 weeks after signing, depending on extraction and processing. Pewter publishes no time of its own, so ask its partner for a date before you sign.10,1

  • Pewter takes closed firms that had 20+ full-time staff at their peak and still have 3+ years of records. Mercor's data page does not mention closed companies, though it has pursued shuttered startups' Slack and Jira archives.5,11

  • Pewter's bar is 20+ now or at peak, so a 12-person firm would need to have been bigger once. Mercor states no minimum on its data page, so it is worth asking, though that is not a yes.5,7

  • Pewter says you review the process and a sample before you sign, and that no method removes every risk. Mercor says no data leaves your systems until you approve it, so ask whether you see a cleaned sample first.18,29

  • Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.

Before you sign

Questions to talk through with your buyer

Every business is different, so these are best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over them with you before anything is signed.

Questions for this kind of business

  • Which company is on the license with us, and which one answers for how the data is handled?
  • How do CCPA, GDPR, UK GDPR and state privacy laws apply, and is de-identified data still personal information?
  • Do customer, supplier 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

Figures come from the published sources listed below, and what a buyer says about itself is its own claim. Anything marked as our estimate is ours, not a buyer quote. Drafted with AI help from our research, then checked against each source. Updated October 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 (29)

  1. 1.Pewter website. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  2. 2.Mercor Data page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  3. 3.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  4. 4.Pewter website. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  5. 5.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  6. 6.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  7. 7.Mercor Data. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  8. 8.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  9. 9.Mercor Data page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  10. 10.Mercor Data page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  11. 11.AI Weekly, summarising The Information, published 15 Aug 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  12. 12.Pewter website. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  13. 13.LinkedIn Ad Library, Mercor. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  14. 14.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  15. 15.Pewter website. Accessed 31 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  16. 16.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  17. 17.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  18. 18.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  19. 19.Mercor Data page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  20. 20.Pewter privacy policy, published 12 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  21. 21.RDAP domain record. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  22. 22.TechCrunch, published 27 Oct 2025. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  23. 23.TechCrunch, published 31 Mar 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  24. 24.HR Dive, published 13 Apr 2026. Accessed 30 Oct 2026.
  25. 25.Mercor Data. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  26. 26.LinkedIn and Meta Ad Libraries, Mercor. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  27. 27.Bloomberg Law, published 17 Aug 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  28. 28.Mercor blog, published 25 Jun 2026. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  29. 29.Mercor Data. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.