Which pays more, AfterQuery or Mercor?

Mercor advertises more: a median top rate of $100/hr against $80/hr at AfterQuery. These are the rates in open listings (227 on AfterQuery, 262 on Mercor), not earnings; each platform sets individual pay after you apply.

Which has more open roles, AfterQuery or Mercor?

Mercor has more open roles: 297 against 227 on AfterQuery. Counts are refreshed daily from each platform's public listings.

How is applying to AfterQuery different from Mercor?

AfterQuery: You apply to specific tasks, each with its own published pay, rather than waiting to be placed. Onboarding is lighter than Mercor's. Mercor: Expect an AI-led interview of 45–90 minutes, the longest of the major platforms. Most applicants are rejected; if you pass, work comes in intensive 2–8 week engagements.

AfterQuery vs Mercor

Two AI-training platforms side by side, from the roles they have open today and what we know about how each hires and pays. Numbers refresh daily.

Mercor advertises more: a median top rate of $100/hr against $80/hr at AfterQuery.
Mercor has more open roles: 297 against 227 on AfterQuery.
AfterQuery is open to more places: 100% of its roles name no country restriction, against 65%.

Side by side

	AfterQuery	Mercor
Open roles	227	297
Median top rate	$80/hr	$100/hr
Middle half of rates	$50/hr – $108/hr	$65/hr – $120/hr
Highest advertised	$175/hr	$450/hr
Open worldwide	100% of roles	65% of roles
Hires most for	Languages & translation, Medicine & healthcare, Engineering	Science & research, Software engineering, Medicine & healthcare
Kinds of work	—	—
After you apply	You apply to specific tasks, each with its own published pay, rather than waiting to be placed. Onboarding is lighter than Mercor's.	Expect an AI-led interview of 45–90 minutes, the longest of the major platforms. Most applicants are rejected; if you pass, work comes in intensive 2–8 week engagements.
How it pays	—	Weekly via Stripe

Rates are what open listings advertise (median of the top of each range), not earnings. How we measure pay

AfterQuery

Vertical-specific evaluation tasks tagged by domain — coding, finance, law, science.

AfterQuery jobs and pay →Read our review

Mercor

Frontier-lab SME placement at the highest pay tier in the market ($80–$200+/hr).

Mercor jobs and pay →Read our review