Appen vs Mercor
Side by side from today's live listings and each platform's own documentation. Plenty of people work on both.
| Appen | Mercor | |
|---|---|---|
| Live roles | Behind login | 300 |
| Median hourly | n/a | $80 |
| Top rate | n/a | $450 |
| How it pays | Monthly. Appen says it charges no payout fees itself, but payment providers do: in the US, the first ACH or PayPal payment each month is free, with small fees after that. Methods include PayPal, Payoneer, Airtm, local bank transfer and gift cards, depending on your country. | Weekly. Payouts for the prior work week are processed by Wednesday, mostly through Stripe (Wise where Stripe isn't offered). Stripe holds a first payout for 7 days, and banks can take 3 to 7 business days after a payout shows as paid. |
| Hiring | Create a CrowdGen account, complete your profile, and apply to projects that match your language and location. Many projects add a qualification exam before you can start. | You apply to a specific listing, upload a resume, then do a short AI interview. Some roles add a paid assessment or work trial. |
| Run by | Appen, an Australian AI data company listed on the ASX. Its contributor platform is CrowdGen, which replaced Appen Connect in 2024. | Mercor, a San Francisco company that sells expert human data to AI labs. |
Median hourly by field
| Field | Appen | Mercor |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine & health | n/a | $126 (26) |
| Mental health | n/a | $79 (2) |
| Law | n/a | $100 (13) |
| Finance & accounting | n/a | $90 (26) |
| Chemistry | n/a | $85 (12) |
| Biology & life sciences | n/a | $118 (5) |
| Physics | n/a | $95 (12) |
| Math & statistics | n/a | $70 (3) |
| General STEM | n/a | $50 (12) |
| Business & operations | n/a | $68 (22) |
| Engineering | n/a | $84 (26) |
| Software & coding | n/a | $65 (28) |
| Machine learning | n/a | $103 (6) |
| Data & analytics | n/a | $75 (4) |
| Cybersecurity | n/a | $81 (6) |
| Design & media | n/a | $63 (10) |
| Voice & audio | n/a | $43 (33) |
| Teaching | n/a | $60 (2) |
| Humanities & policy | n/a | $150 (5) |
| Generalist | n/a | $55 (9) |
Number of hourly listings in brackets.