Mercor

The company is Mercor.io Corporation, headquartered in San Francisco. It was founded in 2023 by Brendan Foody (CEO), Adarsh Hiremath (CTO) and Surya Midha (chairman).

It started as an AI hiring platform and moved into AI-training work. It charges an hourly finder's fee on its experts' work.

In October 2025 it raised a $350M Series C at a $10B valuation, led by Felicis, with Benchmark, General Catalyst and Robinhood Ventures. The prior Series B was $100M at a $2B valuation.

Size in October 2025: more than 30,000 experts, average pay above $85/hr, more than $1.5M paid to contractors per day. These are company figures reported by TechCrunch.

Standing "Software Engineering Expert" listing: independent-contractor, part-time, remote, on your own schedule. Work includes writing engineering problems with reference answers, grading model-written code and designs, and flagging production risks. Specialties cover frontend, backend, mobile, embedded, DevOps, QA and security. The listing is a talent-pool entry point: it says it is closed to direct applications, makes no accept/reject decision, and invites people to project listings that match their stack.

"Software Engineering, Data Science, and Systems Design Experts" listing: $60–$100/hr, remote, open to US and non-US applicants, full- or part-time contract, fluent English required. The work is evaluating how models reason about code.

Contract type: independent contractor. Projects can be extended, shortened or ended early.

Mercor offers no W-2 roles. US contractors fill in a W-9 and receive a 1099-NEC through Stripe if they earn more than $600. Non-US contractors fill in a W-8BEN. Mercor withholds no tax.

Countries: Mercor publishes a supported-country list for payouts. It includes the US, Canada, the UK, most of the EU, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria and others. Any country not on the list is unsupported, and the page says not to begin work from one. Explicitly unsupported locations include China, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Kenya, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and many others.

Default region for listings: if a listing names no location, Mercor presumes it is open to the US, Canada, the UK and the EU.

Visas: Mercor sponsors no visas. The SWE listing says Mercor cannot currently support H-1B or STEM OPT candidates. H-4 EAD holders can contract.

Experience: the live SWE listing asks for professional experience building and shipping software. It no longer states a year count; an older snapshot said 2+ years (see section 2).

Steps for the SWE pool: (1) apply with your resume and confirm your work location; (2) take a short AI interview, about 20 minutes; (3) pass background verification and join the software-engineering pool; (4) get invited to project listings that match your stack.

AI interview format: a live, camera-on, voice conversation with an AI interviewer. Questions are generated from your resume and the job description. It runs about 20 minutes and may require full-screen sharing; Chrome is recommended. You can retake it up to 3 times, a retake resets your progress, and hiring managers can see your retake count. Practice interviews are unlimited and are not shared with companies. A result carries over to other listings that use the same interview.

Assessments: separate written, multiple-choice or task-style assessments are now a main entry point. Passing a recommended assessment can get you considered for roles without a formal application.

Instant offers: the matching system can surface pre-qualified profiles, and hiring managers can extend offers directly.

Time to hear back: there is no official SLA. The submission screen shows an "anticipated timeline" per listing.

Schedule: weekly. The pay week runs Saturday 00:00 to Friday 23:59 IST. Payouts for the prior week are processed by the end of Wednesday (PST), and most funds arrive Thursday. The FAQ says arrival takes 2–10 days depending on provider and bank.

Minor conflict: the referral policy page says work earnings are paid "every Wednesday at 12:00 PM PST".

Provider: Stripe Connect (Express) by default. Wise is used where Stripe is unavailable: Brazil, Kosovo, UAE, Nepal, Turkey and Ghana. PayPal, Payoneer and crypto are not supported. Rates are in USD.

First payout: Stripe holds the first payout for 7 days, and Mercor cannot override the hold.

Official position: projects end because of completion, scope changes or budget, and an ending does not affect your standing. Tool access is revoked soon after.

Meta "Musen" project ended, Nov 11, 2025: thousands of contractors (more than 5,000 at peak, per workers) were told the project was ending over "project scope changes". They had recently been told it would run to year-end. A replacement project, "Nova", was offered at $16/hr, $5/hr less than Musen. Mercor called the reporting "inaccurate" but did not say which details it disputed, and said the work is temporary and project-based.

Meta pause after the breach, early April 2026: Meta paused work indefinitely, per Wired as cited by other outlets. Contractors on Meta work were told of the pause, and Mercor was reportedly looking for other assignments for them.

Recurring patterns: no projects after passing the interview, client-side pauses of several weeks, and abrupt project endings with little notice. A Reddit-sentiment newsletter for the week of Mar 11–18, 2026 flagged low first-contract pay (11% of posts) and unpredictable availability (8%).

N.D. Cal.: *Esson v. Mercor.io Corp.*, 3:26-cv-02839; *Gill v. Mercor.io Corp.*, 3:26-cv-02831; *Deboni v. Mercor.io Corp.*, 3:26-cv-02821 (filed Apr 1, 2026). *Lofton v. Mercor.io Corp.* is also reported, docket unconfirmed.

Claims include negligence, unjust enrichment, breach of implied contract, invasion of privacy and California UCL.

Contrast with policy: Mercor's docs say it does not use interview data to train external AI models and does not sell resume or interview data. It does use the data to train internal recommendation models.

Worker misclassification suit: *White v. Mercor.io Corporation*, N.D. Tex., No. 6:26-cv-00201, filed May 8, 2026. It is a proposed class action alleging that workers were misclassified as contractors. Mercor moved to compel individual arbitration (reported June 10, 2026). Outcome unknown.

Terms: you earn 20% of your referral's earnings, including hourly pay and bonuses. The cap is 4× the referral's hourly rate on their first accepted offer, unless the contract sets a different cap. The cap does not change if they move projects. One-time-payment listings do not count toward earnings or the cap. Only the first referrer qualifies, and hours worked before the referral is recorded do not count.

Attribution window: the referral link must be claimed soon after the person creates an account, generally within 7 days.

Payout: referral earnings are released on Wednesdays and Fridays via Stripe or Wise. Persona ID verification is required first.

Ratings: Trustpilot (mercor.io) shows 4.5/5 from 1,158 reviews, 73% 5-star and 9% 1-star. Older regional snapshots showed 4.1 from about 226 reviews, so the profile has grown recently. A separate mercor.com profile has 5 reviews at 2.5/5. Mercor-solicited reviews may push the score up.

Positive (common): quick onboarding, helpful project managers, and reliable weekly pay.

Negative, top theme: abrupt project removal or offboarding with little or no warning, and contracts that end early. Reported on Trustpilot (Oct 2026) and in press coverage of the Musen ending.

Negative: getting in is a black box. Candidates report silence after the AI interview and no feedback.

Negative: volatile workload and pay. Reports describe busy and idle cycles and lower rates on newer or replacement projects. A Reddit-sentiment tracker scored Mercor "Mixed" in March 2026. Press accounts (The Verge, NY Mag, Wired, as summarized on Wikipedia) describe stress, poor management and declining pay.