Which pays more, Mercor or Prolific?

Mercor advertises more: a median top rate of $100/hr against $26/hr at Prolific. These are the rates in open listings (262 on Mercor, 389 on Prolific), not earnings; each platform sets individual pay after you apply.

Which has more open roles, Mercor or Prolific?

Prolific has more open roles: 553 against 297 on Mercor. Counts are refreshed daily from each platform's public listings.

How is applying to Mercor different from Prolific?

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. Prolific: Recruitment runs through Prolific's Participant Recruitment program; expect your language fluency or developer skills to be checked.

Mercor vs Prolific

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 $26/hr at Prolific.
Prolific has more open roles: 553 against 297 on Mercor.
Prolific is open to more places: 100% of its roles name no country restriction, against 65%.

Side by side

	Mercor	Prolific
Open roles	297	553
Median top rate	$100/hr	$26/hr
Middle half of rates	$65/hr – $120/hr	$26/hr – $40/hr
Highest advertised	$450/hr	$120/hr
Open worldwide	65% of roles	100% of roles
Hires most for	Science & research, Software engineering, Medicine & healthcare	Languages & translation, Science & research, Engineering
Kinds of work	—	—
After you apply	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.	Recruitment runs through Prolific's Participant Recruitment program; expect your language fluency or developer skills to be checked.
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

Mercor

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

Mercor jobs and pay →Read our review

Prolific

Participant-recruitment AI Trainer roles — language fluency and developer tasks.

Prolific jobs and pay →Read our review