Mercor alternatives: companies that pay for the same records

micro1 prints three tiers, $100K-500K, $500K-2M and $2M+, for established companies with 30+ full-time staff, and says its payments typically run from $150K to over $2M. Replay prints bands by headcount, $10K-$100K for 20-50 people, $100K-$1M for 50-250 and $1,000,000+ for 250+, and says headcount is only a stand-in for what you hold.^20,21,22

Polyshares quotes $100K-$2M+, and Scale AI shows an illustrative $10K-$1M+ per partnership that grows with how often you deliver. Every one of these is the company's own figure and none is an offer, but each gives you something to hold up against a Mercor quote, which is more than Mercor's own page gives you.^23,24,8

Mercor confirmed a cyberattack tied to the compromise of the open-source LiteLLM project, and its June update says only a very limited subset of its experts had sensitive information affected and that the impact on customer information was very limited. We found no reliable count of people affected. Contractors who used its platform filed proposed class actions, which are allegations with no ruling we have seen. If that is your reason, compare who touches your raw records and how long they keep them.^10,25,26

Scale AI says it strips personal details inside your own environment before anything is pulled out, though its page also says chat keeps participants intact and files keep authorship, so ask whether those are replaced with codes. Ooak Data says only Ooak sees raw data and it deletes the raw archive within 30 days of delivery, as a contract duty with written confirmation. Grepped says it uses read-only access to approved sources and deletes the originals after processing, so ask how its name removal is tested and leave out anything you cannot risk sharing.^{27,28,29,30,31}

micro1 publishes its license: nonexclusive, irrevocable and perpetual, one it can pass on to others, with data deleted within 120 days of final delivery but trained models left in place. Appen says it grants a defined license for a defined use and that retention and deletion are agreed in writing before extraction. Polyshares describes defined systems for a defined term, exclusive by default, although its track record page calls its deals perpetual and exclusive, so get that one settled in writing.^{32,33,34,35,36}

Nyne says it beats written offers from other buyers, comparing net contracted cash for the same data and rights, with no promised amount on top, and calculator estimates or "up to" amounts do not count. It takes 20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years in business. Pewter says it handles the written offer and negotiates price, exclusivity and scope with its licensing partner, for US firms with 20+ full-time staff now or at their peak, though it also says its partner pays its fee, so it is not your agent.^{37,38,39,40,41,42}

Buyers do bid against each other. For Spirit Airlines' archive, Google won the auction at $10M with Mercor's $7.5M bid as backup, then micro1 filed a late $12.5M bid, and the court had not ruled as of late October.^43,44,45

Your headcount and your reason for leaving settle most of this. The quiz asks about your size, systems and history and introduces you to the buyers we work with that take a company like yours, while the seller ranking and our reviews cover every company named here, including those that pay us nothing. Of the companies on this page, micro1, Polyshares, Ventra, Mode, Grepped and Pewter pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it.