Mercor's Monetize your data program: a review for business owners

What Mercor is

Mercor is a San Francisco AI training-data company founded in 2023 by Brendan Foody (CEO), Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha (source: Wikipedia, Mercor). It raised $350 million at a $10 billion valuation in October 2025, and it reported more than $2 billion in gross annualized revenue in June 2026 (source: Dealroom, Jul 6, 2026, Wikipedia, Mercor). By revenue, it is one of the largest companies in the business of supplying data to AI labs. Its customers have included Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic (source: Fortune, Apr 2, 2026).

Most of that revenue comes from recruiting experts who create training data for AI labs. That is the business the contractor reviews describe. The company-data program is a separate line that lives on its own page, mercor.com/data, under the headline “Monetize your data” (source: Mercor, Monetize your data). Mercor has also approached companies directly: in August 2026 AI Weekly reported that it offered to buy or license the code base of Warmly after Warmly's acquisition by HubSpot (source: AI Weekly, Aug 15, 2026).

If Mercor or someone referring you to it has reached out, the rest of this page walks through what the program says it does, in its own words, and where the published terms stop.

How the Mercor data program works

Mercor buys a de-identified copy of the records your team creates while doing its work, then delivers it to AI lab buyers for training. You do not hand over your systems, and you do not sell your originals. Based on Mercor's page, the process runs like this (source: Mercor, Monetize your data):

1. Qualification. You fill in Mercor's “Check if you qualify” form. It publishes no fixed size, age or location requirement.
2. Scoping. You choose which tools and data are in scope. Mercor describes scoping as opt-in and says no data leaves your systems until you approve it.
3. Extraction and de-identification. Mercor connects to the approved tools, extracts the data and runs automated de-identification. It covers the cost of this step.
4. Delivery and payment. The anonymized dataset goes to the buyer, and Mercor pays you by wire on delivery, typically 2 to 4 weeks after the agreement is signed.

Two features stand out against other programs. First, Mercor publishes a payment timeline, which most large buyers do not. Second, it publishes no price range at all, so you will not know what your data is worth to Mercor until you are well into the process. For a broader view of who else buys this kind of record, see our directory of companies buying business data for AI.

The tools Mercor connects to

Mercor names nine tools on its page and says it supports 100+ in total (source: Mercor, Monetize your data):

The page states it plainly: “The more tools you share, the higher your payout will be” (source: Mercor, Monetize your data). That makes sense from a buyer's side. A support ticket is worth more when it can be tied to the Slack thread where the team worked it out and the Salesforce record that shows how the account turned out. Records that connect across systems show how work actually gets done.

It also means the incentive pushes you toward sharing more. Each extra tool adds value and adds exposure: more customer names to scrub, more personnel conversations, more material that may sit under an NDA. Decide what stays out before you decide what goes in. Mercor says it holds connection credentials per session and does not share them between connections (source: Mercor, Monetize your data). Ask whether access is read-only, which channels and date ranges it covers, and how and when it is revoked.

The 8 industries in Mercor's data program

Mercor names eight target industries, each with example data (source: Mercor, Monetize your data). The third column is ours: the first thing an owner in that industry should check before treating those examples as licensable.

Mercor's page says that if your company operates in one of these spaces, “there's a good chance your workflow data is exactly what labs need” (source: Mercor, Monetize your data). That is likely true for the internal side of the business: your procedures, your scheduling and dispatch patterns, your QA steps, how your team handles a problem from first message to resolution. The examples Mercor lists lean toward documents that belong to or describe your clients, which is where the legal limits sit.

Restaurants and hospitality are not on Mercor's list. If you run an operating business outside these eight, the full buyer directory shows which programs name your industry.

How Mercor prices your data

Mercor publishes no dollar figures for sellers. Its FAQ says compensation depends on three things (source: Mercor, Monetize your data):

• Volume. How much data you have, which usually tracks headcount and years of history.
• Tools connected. How many systems you share, with more tools meaning a higher payout.
• Depth. How rich and connected the records are.

On fees, Mercor is clear. It says there are no upfront costs, no setup fees and no deductions from the payment, and that it covers extraction, anonymization and transfer (source: Mercor, Monetize your data). Payment is by wire on delivery of the anonymized dataset to the buyer, typically 2 to 4 weeks after signing (source: Mercor, Monetize your data).

Without a published range, the useful benchmark is what other buyers advertise for similar records. micro1 advertises $100K+ for a qualified partnership, $500K+ for large datasets and $1M+ for highly unique data (source: micro1, data partnerships). Handshake AI says its partnerships range from $100K to $4M+ (source: Handshake AI, data partnerships). Those are advertised figures, not offers, and they do not tell you what Mercor will pay. They do tell you that a single offer with nothing to compare it against is weak ground to negotiate from. Our company data value checker shows which programs you likely qualify for and what each one advertises.

How Mercor says your data is handled

Mercor makes these statements about security and handling on its data page (source: Mercor, Monetize your data):

• Extraction and de-identification are fully automated.
• No AI lab buyer or third-party vendor ever sees your raw data.
• Mercor's engineers oversee the infrastructure but do not manually review data.
• No data leaves your systems until you approve it, and scoping is opt-in.
• Access is audited and logged end to end, and data is encrypted in transit.
• Mercor holds SOC 2 Type II and manages encryption keys in AWS KMS.

These are Mercor's own claims. The page does not include an audit report or independent verification. A SOC 2 Type II report is normally available to customers under an NDA, so ask for the most recent one and check its date and scope.

Mercor data review: the 2026 security incident and lawsuits

Anyone weighing whether the Mercor data program is legit should know its 2026 record. Here is what was reported, stated as it was reported.

The March 2026 security incident. Mercor was hit by a supply-chain attack on LiteLLM, an open-source library for connecting software to AI services. Mercor said it was one of thousands of companies affected and that it moved promptly to contain and fix the incident, with a third-party forensic investigation under way. The extortion group Lapsus$ later claimed to hold up to 4 terabytes of Mercor data and published samples that included Slack data and internal ticketing information. Mercor did not confirm those claims (source: Fortune, Apr 2, 2026).

Meta's pause. Meta paused all of its contracts with Mercor pending further investigation after the breach (source: Social Media Today, Apr 5, 2026).

Contractor class actions. Contractors filed at least five lawsuits in federal courts in California and Texas, alleging that Mercor failed to protect their personal information (source: Business Insider via AOL, Apr 2026, Staffing Industry Analysts). By late April, the Wall Street Journal counted at least seven class actions. Some of them make broader claims about Mercor's data practices, and some workers allege Mercor encouraged them to share “real-world” examples that may have included proprietary corporate data. Mercor denies wrongdoing, calls the claims speculative, and says it follows privacy laws and limits its use of confidential information (source: Newser, citing the Wall Street Journal, Apr 23, 2026). These are allegations, not findings.

The reports describe contractor personal information, Mercor's internal Slack and ticket data, and possibly some customers' project data. We found no report that the incident involved records from the company-data program. Still, you would be handing Mercor access to your Slack and email, so the record is fair to raise. Useful questions: what changed in its security after March 2026, the date of its current SOC 2 report, how quickly it must tell you about an incident that touches your data, and what liability it accepts if one happens.

If you run a law firm or an accounting firm

Mercor lists Legal first among its target industries, with contracts, case files and discovery documents as examples (source: Mercor, Monetize your data). For a law firm, those are client materials. ABA Model Rule 1.6 bars a lawyer from revealing information relating to the representation of a client without informed consent (source: ABA Model Rule 1.6), and that covers the contents of case files, client contracts and discovery. A law firm cannot license them, de-identified or not.

Accounting firms fit Mercor's Finance and Professional Services categories, and the same logic applies. Client books are client information, and IRC 7216 makes it a crime for a tax return preparer to disclose tax return information without the client's consent (source: 26 U.S.C. 7216). Client books and anything derived from a tax return stay out.

Our guides for law firms licensing data to AI and accounting firms and IRC 7216 cover what can qualify in more detail.

Mercor referral cap: the bonus and the removed $100K line

Mercor also pays people who refer companies to the data program. The current page says that when a referred company becomes a paid partner, the referrer is rewarded too, and that the bonus is paid once the company goes live and starts earning (source: Mercor, Monetize your data). It publishes no amount, no cap and no written referral terms.

The amount has moved. A third-party tracker of the page recorded these changes (source: UsagePricing tracker of Mercor's page):

• July 21, 2026: “If it works out, we'll pay you a referral bonus.” No amount.
• July 29, 2026: “Earn up to $100K per referral,” paid once the company's payout settles.
• September 2026: the page was rebuilt and the $100K figure was removed.

The tracker's captures have not been confirmed by a second source. Either way, “up to $100K” is not Mercor's current published term, so nobody should quote it to you as one. If you are an accountant, broker or advisor thinking of referring a client, get the amount, the trigger and the conditions in writing first, and read the professional rules on referral fees in our comparison of AI data referral programs.

Selling company data to Mercor: what to get in writing

Mercor publishes its tools, industries, fee policy and payment timing, but not a price range, exclusivity terms, or the identity of the buyer (source: Mercor, Monetize your data). Ask for each of these in the written offer:

1. Price and the payment trigger. The total, and a clear definition of “delivery to the buyer.” If the buyer can reject the data, find out what happens to your payment.
2. Exact scope. Which tools, which channels or folders, which date ranges and which teams.
3. Access terms. Read-only or not, how long the connection stays open, and how it is revoked.
4. Exclusions. What never leaves your systems (client files, personnel and HR records, anything under an NDA, privileged material), named in the contract.
5. Exclusivity and term. Whether you can license the same records to another buyer, and for how long.
6. The end buyer and permitted uses. Who receives the dataset, what they may do with it, and whether it can be resold.
7. Security and incident terms. The current SOC 2 report, breach notification timing, and who pays if your data is exposed.
8. Deletion. What happens to Mercor's copy and the buyer's copy at the end, and how you can confirm it.
9. Warranties and liability. What you promise about your right to license the data, and the cap on your liability.

The strongest position is more than one written offer. Buyers price the same records differently, and the terms vary as much as the price. Getting competing offers and negotiating them is the work a sell-side advisor does.

Mercor vs micro1 vs Handshake

Mercor names the most industries and the fastest payment. micro1 and Handshake publish what they pay and who qualifies. Read our profiles of the micro1 data partnership program and Handshake AI data partnerships, or the full side by side in micro1 vs Mercor vs Handshake.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Program terms checked against each company's own pages on October 15, 2026.

1. Mercor, Monetize your data
2. UsagePricing tracker of Mercor's page
3. Fortune, Apr 2, 2026
4. Staffing Industry Analysts
5. Wikipedia, Mercor
6. Dealroom, Jul 6, 2026
7. Social Media Today, Apr 5, 2026
8. Business Insider via AOL, Apr 2026
9. Newser, citing the Wall Street Journal, Apr 23, 2026
10. AI Weekly, Aug 15, 2026
11. ABA Model Rule 1.6
12. 26 U.S.C. 7216
13. HHS, HIPAA de-identification guidance
14. micro1, data partnerships
15. micro1, company referral
16. Handshake AI, data partnerships
17. Handshake AI, license your data
18. Handshake AI, refer a company