Mercor Hiring Data

Method and definitions

The public job boards of the AI training platforms this site tracks, read every hour. Mercor's figures come from its own public listings only; full descriptions and application forms are read where its job board publishes them. Every figure is computed by one database query over the window shown, the same query for the live report and for every edition. Each figure states its sample beneath it.

Other platforms

Every platform this site reads other than Mercor, over the same window and pooled: counts are summed and medians are taken over all their rates together. Mercor is compared with the rest of the market, not with a market that includes it.

Rank

Its place among the platforms with open roles on the last day of the window, highest first (longest first for days listed). A share is ranked where the platform's open roles read on their own among the platforms (they reach the weight of the platforms' average share, fitted on their own counts), a pay median from 3 distinct advertised rates and days listed from 3 removed roles, so a platform below one is not ranked on that measure.

Open role

A role listed by a given day and still in its platform's feed that day. Week by week, open roles are counted at the end of each week (Sunday, UTC).

Back catalogue

The roles already listed in the week a platform was first tracked. That week is marked in the weekly series and its roles are not counted as new listings; weeks before it are left out.

New listing

A role that first appeared during the window on a platform already tracked before that week, other than with a change in how this site reads its board (below).

Removed listing

A role that left its platform's feed during the window, other than with a change in how this site reads its board (below). When most removals or new listings fall on one day, the figure says so: one large change to a board moves the window's flow.

Change in our reading

When this site changes how it reads a platform's board (a cap lifted, a page kind or department read too, a relevance rule changed), the roles that came into view or left it from that change to the end of its week are this site's reading, not the platform's hiring: they are not new listings or removals, and changes in open roles are measured like for like across it. Each platform's report says what changed. This site has read Mercor's board the same way since the index began.

Days listed

From a removed role's listing date to the last day it was seen in its feed. A median needs at least 3 removed roles with a known listing date.

Advertised pay

Measured exactly as the job board measures any list of roles, so a median here is the median Mercor's pay page states for the same roles: one sample per distinct advertised rate (the middle of a stated range; a role posted again at the same rate counts once), and an advertised maximum ("up to $X/hr") is a ceiling, not a rate, so it is counted and left out. Typical pay is the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each advertised range) to the 90th-percentile advertised ceiling; it and the median are rounded to $5 ($1 under $20) and need at least 3 distinct rates.

Compared within the same kinds of work

For each kind of work where both the platform and the other platforms state at least 3 distinct hourly rates, its median over theirs, minus one; averaged across those kinds, weighted by the platform's distinct rates, so a platform listing better-paid work is not read as paying more for the same work. It needs two such kinds.

Location rule

Read from each posting's location text and, where that names no country, from what the posting's own description states: open worldwide, worldwide except listed countries, only listed countries, or no rule stated.

Kind of work

Each role is classified from its title and description into one of the twelve kinds of AI training work this site tracks. Every kind links to its own page.

Title word, language, field

Read from titles as whole words with the vocabularies of the job titles, languages and expert fields reports; a title can count for several.

Mention

A description mentions a degree, credential, step or term when it contains one of the patterns published in the requirements report. A mention may be a requirement or a preference.

Application form

The fields an applicant fills in on the platform's own application page, read from its applicant-tracking system. Required: the form will not submit without the field.

Window

Live: the last 28 complete days, in UTC, with the weekly series over the last twelve complete ISO weeks from the week of 3 Aug 2026 at the earliest. Edition: one calendar month, in UTC, its weeks cut at the month's edges.

What this data cannot tell you

• Platforms that recruit without a public job board are not counted, and a platform may staff projects it never lists: its listings are what it advertises, not everything it hires for.
• A listing is not a hire. Some platforms keep evergreen roles open for months, and some post one listing per language or country.
• Listings only: how many people apply to a platform is never published here.
• Pay is what postings advertise, not what workers are paid after bonuses, tiers or rejected tasks.
• Full descriptions and application forms are published by some job boards only, so those figures appear only for the platforms whose boards publish them, and describe the roles open on the day they were read.
• A removed listing may have been filled, paused or closed: platforms do not say which.

How the job feeds are read and roles are classified: site methodology. How fresh, complete and consistent the data is, checked every day: data quality and coverage.

Editions

The live report covers the last 28 complete days and changes every day. Each complete month is also published as an edition, frozen two days after the month ends, so a figure you cite from an edition never moves.

• Live dataLast 28 complete days, recomputed daily
• October 2026 edition (this page)Freezes on first reading
• September 2026 editionFrozen 10 Oct 2026
• August 2026 editionFrozen 10 Oct 2026

Cite and reuse

Free to quote, chart and republish under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. This edition is frozen, so its figures will read the same later.

@misc{aitrainingjobs_mercor_hiring_data_2026_10,
  author = {{AITraining.jobs}},
  title = {Mercor Hiring Data, October 2026 edition},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://aitraining.jobs/research/mercor-hiring-data/2026-10}},
}

More research

The same figures for every other platform:

• OpenTrain AI hiring data
• Invisible hiring data
• micro1 hiring data
• Welo Data hiring data
• AfterQuery hiring data
• Sigma AI hiring data
• Braintrust hiring data
• Alignerr hiring data
• TransPerfect DataForce hiring data
• Appen hiring data
• Mindrift hiring data
• xAI (SpaceXAI) hiring data
• Terac hiring data
• SuperAnnotate (SME) hiring data
• Turing hiring data
• Handshake AI hiring data
• Anyone AI hiring data
• Perle Labs hiring data
• Claru hiring data
• Babel Audio hiring data
• RemoExperts hiring data

• Which AI Labs Are Hiring for Human DataWhich AI labs are hiring for the teams that buy, run and evaluate human data, and for what roles?Read the report
• Who Is Buying AI Training DataWhich AI labs and data vendors have people whose job is to source, license or acquire training data right now?Read the report
• Where Human-Data Vendors Are BuildingHow fast are the human-data vendors hiring their own staff, and for which functions?Read the report
• What AI Labs Pay for Human DataWhat do AI labs spend on human data, what do vendors bill, what do the experts receive, and what do RL environments and tasks cost?Read the report
• What AI Labs Are BuyingWhich kinds of training data are in rising demand, and which are cooling?Read the report
• AI Training Data Licensing DealsWho has licensed content and data to which AI companies, on what terms and for how much?Read the report
• The State of AI Training PayWhat does AI training work pay, by kind of work and by platform?Read the report

All 81 research reports