Live pay ranking · Domain experts · September 2026

The highest-paying domain experts platforms, ranked by live rates

Ranked by the median top advertised hourly rate in domain experts listings, counted as distinct advertised rates at the top of each pay band. A platform re-posting one pay band across hundreds of country variants counts once (methodology).

Ranked by typical top rate (live feeds)

1.Mercormedian $120/hr · $90–$160 typicaltop $250/hr · 58 distinct rates (162 listings)
One of the largest AI-work marketplaces; $10B valuation (Oct 2025). Rates and roles verified from their public listings.
see live roles →Join Mercor ↗
2.AfterQuerymedian $105/hr · $80–$150 typicaltop $200/hr · 45 distinct rates (81 listings)
YC-backed expert data platform. Its public board showed 126 open listings on 2026-08-26, each printing its own rate, no account needed.
see live roles →Join AfterQuery ↗
3.micro1median $95/hr · $65–$130 typicaltop $400/hr · 67 distinct rates (147 listings)
Fast-growing Scale AI challenger ($500M valuation). Apply once, AI interview, then matched to projects.
see live roles →Join micro1 ↗
4.Handshake AImedian $88/hr · $60–$125 typicaltop $300/hr · 22 distinct rates (78 listings)
PhD and graduate-focused AI training fellowship. Its own board showed 203 open roles on 2026-08-26, each on its own public page with a rate, no account needed.
see live roles →Join Handshake AI ↗
5.Alignerrmedian $80/hr · $60–$110 typicaltop $200/hr · 33 distinct rates (149 listings)
Alignerr advertises each job many times over. Its board showed 5,530 listings on 2026-08-26 but only 469 separate jobs. Some are copied once per city, with the city name dropped into a single sentence of an otherwise identical posting, and every listing still says Remote. Others are simply repeated, word for word or lightly reworded. This directory lists each job once. Listings carry no date, and some workers report slow payment resolution, so apply with that in mind.
see live roles →Join Alignerr ↗
6.Meridial (Invisible)median $70/hr · $65–$100 typicaltop $200/hr · 11 distinct rates (71 listings)
Invisible Technologies' expert-contractor network. 800+ open freelance AI-trainer projects.
see live roles →Join Meridial (Invisible) ↗
7.Teracmedian $55/hr · $20–$80 typicaltop $100/hr · 5 distinct rates (6 listings)
AI-native expert panel blending market research with frontier-AI evaluation work. The public board at terac.com/opportunities is readable without an account. Its board showed 73 open opportunities on 2026-08-26. Only 17 of them pay by the hour, 46 pay a one-time fee and 10 pay per task.
see live roles →Join Terac ↗

Frequently asked

Which platforms pay the most for domain experts work?

Mercor currently advertises the highest median top rate in this field ($120/hr, n=58 distinct rates) among platforms with enough published rates to rank, as of 2026-09-09. The table on this page recomputes from live feeds.

Are these rates real or marketing numbers?

Every figure is the top of an advertised band read from the platform's own public job feed, counted once per distinct rate. Per-task pay is never converted into an hourly equivalent. Full rules are on the methodology page.

Where are the live domain experts roles?

The domain experts job page lists every open role in this field with its advertised rate. This ranking only covers platforms that publish enough distinct rates to support a median.

Browse live domain experts roles on the domain experts page. Site-wide ranking: highest-paying platforms. Some outbound links are referral links; they are never a ranking factor (disclosure).