Updated November 2026
Scale AI alternatives: who else pays for your company's records
micro1, Nyne, Labelbox Prism, SuperAnnotate and Polyshares also say they pay businesses for their records, and Pewter connects firms with a licensing partner that does. You might look past Scale AI if you have fewer than 40 staff, if Meta's reported 49% stake gives you pause, or if you want the license and payment terms its page leaves out.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
What you are comparing
What Scale AI's data partnership says
Scale AI calls 40+ employees its preferred starting point, assessed case by case, and shows an illustrative $10K-$1M+ per partnership that scales with how often you deliver. It says partnerships can start with very limited scope and are designed for recurring revenue. Its page states no license or sale structure, exclusivity, retention, payment timing or seller fees, and it names no seller or finished deal, so those are the questions to ask first.8,11,10
Under 40 people
If you have fewer than 40 staff
Scale's 40 is a preference and not a wall, so a smaller company can still ask. For a firmer yes, micro1 takes established companies with 30+ full-time staff, and Ventra takes 30+ but says it cannot take legal, healthcare, financial services or accounting companies right now.8,12,13,14
Below 30 the list gets shorter. Nyne wants 20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years in business, and Pewter takes US firms with 20+ full-time staff now or at their peak and 3+ years of records. Mode goes down to 6 for legal firms and 10 for accounting, finance and medical firms, and Grepped, Mercor, Appen and Centific state no headcount minimum, which is not the same as a yes.15,16,17,18,19,20,21
Who ends up with it
If Meta's stake in Scale AI bothers you
Meta holds a reported 49% of Scale AI, a stake reported to carry no voting rights, and Scale's then interim CEO wrote that it stays independent. Scale's FAQ says AI companies will not use your data to compete because they are modeling personas, and it names no buyers and does not mention Meta. Ask Scale directly who would receive your records.9,22,23
Other buyers put that choice in your hands. SuperAnnotate says you approve each buyer and can block competitors permanently. Labelbox Prism says you approve the data brief before any buyer sees it and buyer identities are disclosed before signing. The General Data Company says you decide in writing who may receive results and are told who the licensee is. If Meta itself is the worry, Fortune reported in April 2026 that Mercor's customers include Meta, so ask any buyer who receives your records.24,25,26,27
Written terms
If you want terms and a payment date up front
micro1 publishes a nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable license and says it pays in full within 30 days of acceptance. Mercor says it charges no fees and wires payment on delivery, typically within 2-4 weeks of signing, though its page, like Scale's, says nothing on exclusivity or how long the rights run. Polyshares says an offer comes within one to two weeks and payment follows on net 30 to 60 once the data is approved, anonymized and delivered, and its licenses are exclusive by default.28,29,30,31,32,33,34
Paid once
If you want one payment and not a recurring program
Scale AI built its program around recurring delivery, which in our view suits a company with records still piling up and suits a closing company less well. Mode buys an agreed copy of your records directly and its written agreement sets the amount and payment schedule, so ask whether that means one sum. Collinear describes a one-time export that works as a snapshot of a still-operating company, and says any access you grant can be removed once the transfer is done, so ask whether it pays once too.11,35,36
If recurring money is what you want, Centific says most partners move to a quarterly refresh after acceptance, and it pays for extraction, cleaning and transfer with no setup fees or deductions.37
Names in the data
If names in your chat and email worry you
Scale AI says employee and customer identities never leave, yet also says chat keeps participants intact and email keeps senders and recipients, without saying whether those are swapped for codes. Labelbox Prism says names, emails and IDs are replaced with tokens before anything leaves, and it leaves out HR data and compensation by default. Pewter shows a before-and-after sample with names replaced by placeholders, and says no method removes every risk, so you review a sample before you sign.38,39,40
Next step
Picking a Scale AI alternative for your company
Start from the reason that sent you here, then check your headcount against each bar. The quiz does that sorting for you and connects you with the buyers we work with that take a company like yours, and the seller ranking shows every company on this page, whether or not it pays us. Here, micro1, Ventra, Mode, Grepped, Pewter and Polyshares pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it.
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
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
- Is this a license or a sale, and does the agreement bind us to future deliveries?
- Who are the recipients of our records, and does that include any investor in your company?
- 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?