For teams buying AI training data
micro1 pricing
micro1 publishes no price for buyers: companies reach it through a contact form, and experts are paid as contractors.
Read against micro1’s own pages and the press on 2 Nov 2026. Every figure below links its source.
The figures
What micro1 charges, keeps and pays
Each figure as its source published it, with whose money it is: what a buyer pays, what the vendor keeps, or what the person doing the work receives.
| Figure as published | Whose money | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100K to $500K qualified partnerships; $500K to $2M large-scale datasets; $2M+ highly unique proprietary dataenterprise operational data (for RL environments) | Paid by the buyer | Stated by the company | micro1, 30 Oct 2026 |
| $100k+ qualified partnerships; $500k+ large-scale datasets; $1M+ highly unique proprietary dataenterprise operational data (for RL environments) | Paid by the buyer | Stated by the company | micro1, 11 Oct 2026 |
| Company compensation $100K to $2M+ for approved data packagesenterprise operational data (for RL environments) | Paid by the buyer | Stated by the company | micro1, 11 Oct 2026 |
| Robotics companies spend more than $100 million a year buying real-world data from micro1 and similar firmsreal-world robotics data | Paid by the buyer | Analyst estimate | MIT Technology Review, 1 Apr 2026 |
| Net annual run rate $150M to $200M on a $500M gross run rate (about 30% to 40% retained)expert human data | Kept by the vendor | Reported by a third party | TechCrunch, 20 Aug 2026 |
| Gross margins on off-the-shelf data as high as 80% to 90%off-the-shelf datasets (resold to multiple customers) | Kept by the vendor | Reported by a third party | TechCrunch, 20 Aug 2026 |
| Margins are 30% to 40%expert human data | Kept by the vendor | Said by its founder | Henry's Best Hits (Henry Shi), interview with micro1 founder Ali Ansari, 12 Mar 2026 |
| Average across all pipelines $60 to $70 an hourexpert human data (average across all pipelines) | Paid to the worker | Said by its founder | Henry's Best Hits (Henry Shi), interview with micro1 founder Ali Ansari, 12 Mar 2026 |
| Expert-level pipelines in finance, medical and legal run at $170 to $180 an hourexpert-level pipelines in finance, medical and legal | Paid to the worker | Said by its founder | Henry's Best Hits (Henry Shi), interview with micro1 founder Ali Ansari, 12 Mar 2026 |
From our dataset of published figures on what AI companies pay for human data: every vendor’s figures in one report.
About micro1
What micro1 sells
Expert human data from doctors, lawyers, scientists and engineers, reinforcement-learning environments and evaluations for AI labs, robotics datasets, and off-the-shelf data.
micro1 supplies credentialed experts for AI training work, as its own pages describe.
TechCrunch reported in August 2026 that micro1's gross annual run rate grew from US$100 million to US$500 million in eight months.
- micro1 home page (micro1, 2 Nov 2026)
- micro1 reaches $500M gross run rate (TechCrunch, 20 Aug 2026)
What an expert hour costs
Start from what the expert is paid
Every vendor's price for an expert hour is the expert's pay plus the vendor's share. We read the pay of every open AI-training role on the major platforms every hour, so here is what each kind of US expert is paid for AI work today.
| Expert | Typical rate | Range | Measured from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physicians | $125/hr | $100 to $270 | 66 rates, 13 platforms |
| Lawyers | $110/hr | $75 to $400 | 96 rates, 20 platforms |
| Psychologists | $85/hr | $35 to $95 | 9 rates, 5 platforms |
| Accountants | $80/hr | $60 to $125 | 42 rates, 16 platforms |
| Actuaries and insurance experts | $80/hr | $50 to $125 | 18 rates, 8 platforms |
| Finance professionals | $80/hr | $60 to $150 | 166 rates, 21 platforms |
| Cybersecurity experts | $80/hr | $60 to $125 | 31 rates, 7 platforms |
| Biologists | $80/hr | $40 to $125 | 39 rates, 11 platforms |
| Environmental scientists | $80/hr | $45 to $100 | 16 rates, 7 platforms |
| Mechanical engineers | $80/hr | $55 to $135 | 37 rates, 15 platforms |
| Electrical engineers | $80/hr | $65 to $145 | 23 rates, 14 platforms |
| Chemical engineers and materials scientists | $80/hr | $40 to $135 | 18 rates, 10 platforms |
| Economists | $75/hr | $50 to $120 | 16 rates, 6 platforms |
| Software engineers | $75/hr | $40 to $150 | 206 rates, 21 platforms |
| Mathematicians | $75/hr | $40 to $200 | 46 rates, 15 platforms |
| Chemists | $70/hr | $40 to $125 | 36 rates, 13 platforms |
| Pharmacists, dentists and other clinicians | $65/hr | $40 to $135 | 68 rates, 19 platforms |
| Paralegals, law students and notaries | $65/hr | $60 to $150 | 11 rates, 5 platforms |
| Physicists | $65/hr | $45 to $200 | 30 rates, 16 platforms |
| Nurses | $60/hr | $50 to $125 | 12 rates, 8 platforms |
| Nuclear and CBRN experts | $60/hr | $40 to $130 | 19 rates, 8 platforms |
| Civil engineers and architects | $55/hr | $45 to $120 | 16 rates, 11 platforms |
| Writers and editors | $55/hr | $35 to $120 | 18 rates, 8 platforms |
| Teachers | $50/hr | $45 to $75 | 29 rates, 10 platforms |
| Translators and linguists | $30/hr | $20 to $75 | 19 rates, 6 platforms |
Typical rate: the middle of what the open roles naming that profession pay, for roles open to US experts; the range runs from the 25th percentile of those roles to the 90th-percentile advertised ceiling. Read live.
What other vendors keep
- Scale AI: Monetizes per task, marking up the cost of labor, for 50%+ gross margin (analyst estimate, Sacra, 11 Oct 2026).
- Handshake: AI data business gross margins around 30%, versus about 80% for the job board (analyst estimate, Sacra, 11 Oct 2026).
- Mercor: Percentage-based recruiting fee, typically 30%, for direct talent placements (analyst estimate, Sacra, 11 Oct 2026).
- Mercor, Handshake, micro1: Roughly 60% to 70% of top-line income paid out to domain specialists (reported by a third party, TechCrunch, 22 Sep 2026).
- Mercor: Third-party analysts estimate Mercor's take at roughly 30% to 35% of billed hours, with contractors receiving 60% to 70% of gross billings (analyst estimate, HeroHunt.ai, 6 Sep 2026).
- Handshake AI: Pays about $60 million a month to more than 30,000 individuals, on a run rate of about $1 billion (stated by the company, Handshake (job board), 5 Sep 2026).
- Mercor: Pays 60% to 70% of topline revenue to contractors; net revenue roughly $600M to $800M on a $2B gross run rate (reported by a third party, Dealroom News (summarising The Information), Jun 2026).
- Mercor: Gross margin 33% in Q2 2026; company expects 46% next year and 56% by 2030 (reported by a third party, BigGo Finance (summarising The Information), Jun 2026).
Alternatives
Alternatives to micro1
Expert data from US professionals, run end to end
Evaluations, rubrics, fine-tuning data and red-teaming by US doctors, nurses, lawyers, finance professionals, scientists and engineers from our own network. An expert hour is priced at what that kind of expert is paid today (the table above) plus our fee for running the project, and the quote shows both.
Looking for paid work at micro1 rather than buying data? micro1: open roles, pay and whether it is legit.
Questions
What teams ask about micro1
How much does micro1 charge?
micro1 publishes no price for buyers: companies reach it through a contact form, and experts are paid as contractors.
What have buyers paid micro1?
$100K to $500K qualified partnerships; $500K to $2M large-scale datasets; $2M+ highly unique proprietary data (stated by the company, micro1, 30 Oct 2026). $100k+ qualified partnerships; $500k+ large-scale datasets; $1M+ highly unique proprietary data (stated by the company, micro1, 11 Oct 2026). Company compensation $100K to $2M+ for approved data packages (stated by the company, micro1, 11 Oct 2026).
How much of the price does micro1 keep?
Net annual run rate $150M to $200M on a $500M gross run rate (about 30% to 40% retained) (reported by a third party, TechCrunch, 20 Aug 2026). Gross margins on off-the-shelf data as high as 80% to 90% (reported by a third party, TechCrunch, 20 Aug 2026).
What does micro1 sell?
Expert human data from doctors, lawyers, scientists and engineers, reinforcement-learning environments and evaluations for AI labs, robotics datasets, and off-the-shelf data.
What should a buyer know about micro1 as a company?
TechCrunch reported in August 2026 that micro1's gross annual run rate grew from US$100 million to US$500 million in eight months.