AIPayList

Head to head · 2026-08-23

Mercor vs Outlier (Scale AI): what each one actually pays

Mercor advertises a median of $78/hr across 139 distinct advertised rates; Outlier (Scale AI) publishes no public job feed, so no rate can be verified. Read from each platform's own listings on 2026-08-23.

Mercor

median verified
$78/hr
typical band
$44–$110/hr
top verified
$250/hr
distinct rates
139
live roles
433

Outlier (Scale AI)

No public job feed, so nothing here can be independently verified. The platform itself advertises: ““Up to” rates by domain (e.g. up to $150/hr for specialists) — real project rates assigned inside”.

What each side excludes

  • Mercor: no “up to” ceilings in its live listings — every published rate is concrete. 9 pay per task and are never converted to hourly. 4 publish no pay at all.
  • Outlier (Scale AI): no live listings to measure.

What Mercor hires for

Most country-specific roles: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Netherlands · 80 worldwide-remote

What Outlier (Scale AI) hires for

No live listings to categorise.

Best-paid live roles on each

Mercor

Outlier (Scale AI)

No listings with a verifiable hourly rate right now.

Which suits you

  • ▲ These two cannot be compared on pay: only Mercor publishes rates we can verify. Anyone ranking them against each other on a single number is comparing a measurement to a marketing claim.
  • ▪ Rates here are what platforms advertise, not what you will earn: task availability, unpaid onboarding and review time all cut the effective hourly. How we measure.

Keep comparing