Mercor is a San Francisco-based company, legal name Mercor.io Corporation, that runs an expert-contributor marketplace for AI labs and, through Mercor Data, licenses de-identified company data from businesses for AI training. For a company weighing AI training data licensing, the relevant side of Mercor is Mercor Data, which its home page advertises as "Sell data: Monetize your business data".
Mercor states deal ranges of USD 10,000 to USD 1,500,000 per company across 25 industry listings, checked 2026-11-09, but publishes no license terms, and its own feed shows two totals paid to companies, USD 50,000,000 and USD 17,000,000. Its public record holds a March 2026 security incident, breach litigation stayed pending mediation, and an alternate bid of USD 7,500,000 for Spirit Airlines' de-identified data on 2026-08-14.
Every Mercor figure here is Mercor's claim with its check date. DataPacts is not a broker, takes no cut of any sale, has joined no referral program yet, and covers Mercor like every other buyer.
Each number below carries its source and check date, and how DataPacts sources and dates every figure is set out in the methodology.
What Mercor Buys From Companies: The Mercor Data Program
Mercor buys licenses to operational data that companies hold in workplace tools, which it extracts, de-identifies and passes to AI labs it does not name. Mercor states that "connecting more tools generally results in a higher payout", checked 2026-11-09.
The tools Mercor names on its program page are listed below.
- Slack and MS Teams for chat
- Gmail and Outlook for email
- Salesforce for CRM records
- GitHub for code
- Notion, Confluence and Drive for documents and wikis
- "100+ supported tools" beyond these nine
Which systems do the companies Mercor works with actually hold? Brendan Foody, who describes himself as Mercor's CEO, states in a LinkedIn post that Mercor works with more than 300 enterprises and that, among 90 systems encountered, Slack appears at 55 %, GitHub and Google Drive at 53 % each, Gmail at 50 %, Figma at 40 % and Jira at 35 %. These shares are his claim, checked 2026-11-09.
Mercor's program page targets eight industries, from legal and healthcare to real estate and logistics, while its listings feed names 25 company types, from law firms to game studios. Mercor is therefore one answer to who buys AI training data from operating companies, alongside frontier labs and data vendors.
Mercor Company Identity
Mercor.io Corporation is a Delaware corporation, according to the Alternate Bill of Sale filed as Exhibit B to the Notice of Auction Results in the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. No. 25-11897 (SHL), Dkt. 1463, 2026-08-14). The identity table lists each attribute with its source, as of 2026-11-09.
| Attribute | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Legal name | Mercor.io Corporation | Notice of Auction Results, Dkt. 1463; White v. Mercor.io Corporation, N.D. Tex., Dkt. 16 |
| Legal form | Delaware corporation | Alternate Bill of Sale, Dkt. 1463 Ex. B |
| State file number | Not published in the sources checked | n/a |
| Website | https://www.mercor.com | mercor.com |
| Address | 181 Fremont St., San Francisco, CA 94105 | Terms of Service s.18.5 |
| Founded | 2023 | Consumer Privacy Ombudsman Supplemental Report, Dkt. 1684 |
| Terms of Service last updated | 2026-08-26 | Terms of Service |
| CEO | Brendan Foody, as he describes himself in his own posts | LinkedIn post |
| Type | Expert-contributor marketplace for AI labs with a company data program (Mercor Data) | mercor.com, mercor.com/data |
No Delaware file number and no founders' names appear in the sources checked, so neither is stated.
Mercor Program Terms, Dated
Mercor publishes no license terms and no dollar amounts on its program page; the table below lists every term Mercor states, each with the date it was checked. All values are Mercor's claims, as of 2026-11-09.
| Term | Mercor's stated value | Program | Checked | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payout amount on program page | None stated; "Connecting more tools generally results in a higher payout" | Mercor Data | 2026-11-09 | mercor.com/data |
| Deal range per company | USD 10,000 (Chem / Mat Science R&D records) to USD 1,500,000 (Manufacturing & Industrial Company) | Company listings | 2026-11-09 | Listings feed |
| Payment trigger and timing | Wire on delivery of the anonymized dataset, "typically within 2-4 weeks of the signed agreement"; the same page also says payment comes "as soon as processing is complete" | Mercor Data | 2026-11-09 | mercor.com/data |
| Costs and fees | Mercor covers extraction, anonymization and transfer costs; no setup fees or deductions | Mercor Data | 2026-11-09 | mercor.com/data |
| License scope, term, exclusivity, deletion | Not stated on the program page | Mercor Data | 2026-11-09 | mercor.com/data |
| Raw-data access | "No AI lab buyer or third-party vendor ever sees your raw data"; engineers do not manually review the data | Mercor Data | 2026-11-09 | mercor.com/data |
| Security | SOC 2 Type II; AWS KMS keys | Mercor Data | 2026-11-09 | mercor.com/data |
| Target industries | Legal, healthcare, finance and insurance, professional services, manufacturing, retail and e-commerce, real estate, logistics | Mercor Data | 2026-11-09 | mercor.com/data |
| Referral base per listing | USD 15,000 (Hedge Fund or Quant Firm) to USD 75,000 (Law Firm); none set for R&D records | Company referral | 2026-11-09 | Listings feed |
| Fast-signing booster | USD 10,000 to the referrer and the company, 1-day window, on 24 of 25 listings | Company referral | 2026-11-09 | Listings feed |
| Referral maximum in feed | "Earn up to" USD 100,000 (figures block) | Company referral | 2026-11-09 | Listings feed |
| Referral timing on program page | Referral bonus when the referred company goes live; amount not stated | Mercor Data | 2026-11-09 | mercor.com/data |
The program page leaves out the four terms that decide what a company gives up: license scope, term, exclusivity, and deletion or retraining rights. It also names no AI lab that receives the data, so the agreement Mercor sends, not the program page, is the document to read.
Mercor's second program offers third parties a fee for referring a company: the program page promises a bonus without an amount, while the feed states a base per listing, a USD 10,000 booster and "earn up to" USD 100,000, checked 2026-11-09. Mercor's figures appear with micro1's and Handshake AI's in the program terms compared table.
Mercor's 25 Industry Listings: Deal Ranges and Referral Bases
Mercor's listings feed holds 25 industry listings, each stating a deal range to the company and a referral base, and most adding a company size band and a location preference, checked 2026-11-09. The table orders them alphabetically by listing name; every value is Mercor's claim, as of 2026-11-09.
| Listing | Deal range to company (USD) | Referral base (USD) | Company size band (employees unless stated) | Location | Published | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accounting & Tax Firm | 25,000-865,000 | 70,000 | 5-200 | United States | 2026-10-17 | feed /accounting |
| AI Product Company | 20,000-480,000 | 45,000 | 5-200 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /ai-product |
| Biotech & Life Sciences Lab | 50,000-875,000 | 25,000 | 10-1,000 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /research-lab |
| Call Center or BPO | 20,000-250,000 | 30,000 | 50-5,000 agents | India, France and francophone markets, Latin America, U.S. Hispanic markets, Japan | 2026-10-17 | feed /call-center |
| Chem / Mat Science R&D records: hypotheses, experiments, results and failed work | 10,000-300,000 | None set | Not recorded | Not recorded | 2026-10-31 | feed /company-rd-research-records |
| Construction Company | 115,000-1,000,000 | 40,000 | 50-2,000 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /construction |
| Consulting & Advisory Firm | 150,000-300,000 | 30,000 | 10-500 | Anywhere, English-language work preferred | 2026-10-17 | feed /consulting |
| Consumer Brand or Photo Studio | 30,000-800,000 | 30,000 | 10-500 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /consumer-brand |
| Cybersecurity Company | 20,000-750,000 | 65,000 | 20-2,000 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /cybersecurity |
| Design & Web Agency | 20,000-890,000 | 45,000 | 10-200 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /design-agency |
| Digital Health Company | 100,000-900,000 | 60,000 | 10-500 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /telehealth |
| Game Studio | 100,000-1,000,000 | 40,000 | 10-500 | Anywhere, international studios welcome | 2026-10-17 | feed /game-studio |
| Hardware Engineering Company | 45,000-1,350,000 | 40,000 | 20-2,000 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /hardware |
| Hedge Fund or Quant Firm | 25,000-1,150,000 | 15,000 | 5-500 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /trading-firm |
| Imaging & Diagnostics Center | 80,000-620,000 | 60,000 | Any size | United States preferred | 2026-10-17 | feed /imaging-center |
| Investment Firm | 50,000-800,000 | 70,000 | 5-200 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /investment-firm |
| Law Firm | 50,000-1,250,000 | 75,000 | 5-300 attorneys and staff | United States preferred | 2026-10-17 | feed /law-firm |
| Manufacturing & Industrial Company | 100,000-1,500,000 | 55,000 | 20-2,000 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /manufacturing |
| Medical Practice or Health System | 80,000-820,000 | 60,000 | 10+ clinicians or 2,500+ patients | United States preferred, other countries considered | 2026-10-17 | feed /medical-practice |
| Payments & Fintech Company | 80,000-900,000 | 70,000 | Not recorded | Not recorded | 2026-10-20 | feed /payments-fintech |
| Publisher or Education Company | 35,000-370,000 | 40,000 | 10-500 | Anywhere, multilingual content welcome | 2026-10-17 | feed /publisher |
| SaaS & Subscription Company | 55,000-350,000 | 40,000 | 50-1,000, with a data team | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /saas-data |
| Semiconductor & Materials Company | 100,000-750,000 | 60,000 | 10-2,000 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /semiconductor |
| Software Company | 50,000-500,000 | 25,000 | 15-500 | Anywhere | 2026-10-17 | feed /software-company |
| Video Production Studio | 95,000-870,000 | 35,000 | 5-500 | Anywhere, multilingual content welcome | 2026-10-17 | feed /video-studio |
Referral bases are Mercor's offer to a third party who refers a company, not payments to the company itself; 24 of the 25 listings add the USD 10,000 fast-signing booster.
A deal range is a span Mercor publishes for a company type, not an offer to a specific company. Mercor ties each range to drivers, for example "Depends on matter size and completeness" for law firms, checked 2026-11-09. Most listings also name cases that are "not a fit", such as active matters and privileged material clients won't release for law firms, recordings made without consent for call centers, and forks of open-source projects or code mostly written by AI tools for software companies. Mercor published 23 listings on 2026-10-17, the Payments & Fintech listing on 2026-10-20 and the R&D records listing on 2026-10-31.
How a Mercor Data Deal Works: Scope, Connect, De-identification, Payout
Mercor describes four steps: the company scopes which tools to share, connects them, Mercor extracts and de-identifies the data automatically, and the company is paid by wire once the anonymized dataset reaches the buyer. The four steps, as Mercor states them on mercor.com/data (checked 2026-11-09), are listed below.
- Scope: choose which tools and record types the license covers.
- Connect: link those tools, such as Slack, Gmail or GitHub, to Mercor.
- Process: let Mercor run automated extraction and de-identification; Mercor states its engineers do not manually review the data and no AI lab buyer sees raw data.
- Payout: receive a wire on delivery of the anonymized dataset to the buyer, typically within 2-4 weeks of the signed agreement.
The process leaves the rights questions with the company. Mercor's listings set conditions only the seller can meet: client consent or full anonymization for law firms, consent covering secondary use for digital health, and de-identification to HIPAA Safe Harbor or Expert Determination for medical practices. Automated processing does not replace the seller's own review, and de-identification before licensing data still decides what a company may lawfully hand over; the guide to de-identification before licensing data covers the methods.
Mercor Payouts and Referral Fees: Claims, Contradictions and Data Valuation
Mercor states deal ranges from USD 10,000 to USD 1,500,000 per company across its listings, and its own surfaces give conflicting totals for what it has paid, checked 2026-11-09. The lowest minimum belongs to the Chem / Mat Science R&D records listing and the highest maximum to the Manufacturing & Industrial Company listing. Brendan Foody's LinkedIn post, checked 2026-11-09, states a higher ceiling, paying "up to $10M per enterprise", which no listing reaches.
Referral fees follow the same pattern of claims. The referral base runs from USD 15,000 to USD 75,000 per listing, and on 8 of the 25 listings it exceeds the listing's minimum deal to the company, for example USD 70,000 against USD 25,000 for the Accounting & Tax Firm listing and USD 75,000 against USD 50,000 for the Law Firm listing, checked 2026-11-09. The feed's referral counters show submitted referrals, not closed deals: their sum read between 1,201 and 1,221 on 2026-11-09, a counter that moves during the day. The table sets Mercor's conflicting figures side by side, as of 2026-11-09.
| Figure | Value A (where) | Value B (where) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid to companies | USD 50,000,000 "paid to companies for their data" (feed, figures block) | USD 17,000,000 (feed, stats block) | Listings feed |
| Paid to referrers | USD 2,000,000 "paid to referrers in 2026" (feed, figures block) | USD 90,000 (feed, stats block) | Listings feed |
| Payment timing | "Typically within 2-4 weeks of the signed agreement" (mercor.com/data) | "As soon as processing is complete" (same page) | mercor.com/data |
| Maximum per company | "Up to $10M per enterprise" (Brendan Foody, LinkedIn post) | USD 1,500,000, highest listing maximum (feed) | LinkedIn post; listings feed |
The feed does not document what its stats block measures, so DataPacts shows both values and chooses neither.
A published range is Mercor's claim, not a valuation of company data. Methods and public price points for the valuation of company data, including how to test a buyer's range against other dated offers, are compared on the valuation of company data page.
Mercor Reputation: Data Breach, Lawsuits and the Spirit Airlines Bid
Mercor's public record holds four entries: a March 2026 security incident, a consolidated breach class action, a contractor classification suit, and its alternate bid in the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy. The table lists them by date, with status as of 2026-11-09.
| Date | Event | Forum / docket | Status as of 2026-11-09 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-03-24 and 2026-03-30 | Unauthorized access through compromised LiteLLM versions; reported to the California Attorney General 2026-06-25, notices to affected experts 2026-06-25 and 2026-06-26 | California AG breach report sb24-625431 | Notices sent; 24 months of TransUnion credit monitoring offered | California AG |
| 2026-05-08 | White v. Mercor.io Corporation filed (contractor classification) | N.D. Tex. No. 6:26-cv-00201-H | Pending; first amended complaint 2026-06-25 (Dkt. 16); order on extension 2026-07-31 (Dkt. 24) | Dkt. 16 |
| 2026-05-19 | Breach suits consolidated (ECF 29) | N.D. Cal. Lead Case No. 3:26-cv-02821-WHO | Stay pending mediation stipulated 2026-07-21 (Dkt. 44); no ruling on the merits | Dkt. 44 |
| 2026-08-14 | Mercor.io Corporation alternate bid USD 7,500,000; Google LLC successful bid USD 10,000,000 | Bankr. S.D.N.Y. No. 25-11897 (SHL), Dkt. 1463 | Sale not approved; hearing adjourned to 2026-11-17 (Dkt. 1779) | Dkt. 1463 |
| 2026-10-05 | Consumer Privacy Ombudsman asks for further review of Mercor | Bankr. S.D.N.Y. No. 25-11897 (SHL), Dkt. 1684 | Part of the pending sale record | Dkt. 1684 |
The March 2026 Security Incident
Mercor reported to the California Attorney General that unauthorized access through compromised versions of the open-source LiteLLM library occurred on 2026-03-24 and 2026-03-30. Mercor filed that report on 2026-06-25 and sent notices to affected experts on 2026-06-25 and 2026-06-26, offering 24 months of TransUnion credit monitoring with enrollment by 2026-10-01. Mercor's own update of 2026-06-25 states that "a very limited subset" of its "nearly five million" experts had sensitive information affected.
TechCrunch reported on 2026-03-31 that the group Lapsus$ claimed responsibility and that a sample it saw referenced Slack data, ticketing data and two videos; Mercor spokesperson Heidi Hagberg declined to link the claim to the incident, according to the same report. Slack data and ticket records are record types Mercor Data asks companies to connect, although the notices went to experts.
Breach Litigation and Its Status
The breach suits are consolidated as In re Mercor.io Corporation Data Breach Litigation, N.D. Cal. Lead Case No. 3:26-cv-02821-WHO (Orrick, J.), by an order of 2026-05-19. The parties stipulated on 2026-07-21 to stay proceedings pending mediation (Dkt. 44), no court has ruled on the merits as of 2026-11-09, and the Mercor data breach class actions are tracked claim by claim on their own page.
White v. Mercor.io Corporation: Contractor Classification Lawsuit
Heidi L. White sued Mercor.io Corporation in the Northern District of Texas on 2026-05-08 (No. 6:26-cv-00201-H), alleging that Mercor misclassified experts as independent contractors. The first amended complaint of 2026-06-25 (Dkt. 16) pleads a subclass under 26 U.S.C. § 7434 for fraudulent information returns and claims for excess self-employment tax, unpaid monitored time and benefits. The case is pending as of 2026-11-09 (last order 2026-07-31, Dkt. 24), and no court has decided the allegations. The suit concerns Mercor's contributors, not the terms on which it licenses company data.
Spirit Airlines' Data Archive Sale: Mercor's Alternate Bid
Mercor.io Corporation was the alternate bidder, at USD 7,500,000, in the 2026-08-14 auction of Spirit Airlines' de-identified enterprise data; Google LLC's USD 10,000,000 bid was the successful bid (Notice of Auction Results, Bankr. S.D.N.Y. No. 25-11897 (SHL), Dkt. 1463, 2026-08-14). Mercor's Alternate Sale Agreement is Exhibit B to that notice, and Exhibit C provides for delivery through a secure upload at data.mercor.com.
The assets are de-identified business records of the airline: the form of bill of sale filed with Dkt. 1463 for the successful bid excludes personal data and requires the records to pass through a de-identification agent before transfer, and passenger data was excluded from the sale. The full terms of Spirit Airlines' data archive sale sit on the deal page.
The Consumer Privacy Ombudsman's Supplemental Report (Dkt. 1684, 2026-10-05) asked for further research into Mercor's security incident and into whether Mercor.io is an appropriate, qualified buyer if the Court considers it as successful bidder. The same report found approval of the de-identified data sale appropriate from a privacy perspective once passenger data was excluded.
micro1 filed a Notice of Intent to submit a competing and superior bid (Dkt. 1556, 2026-09-03, as recited in Dkt. 1684). Dkt. 1684 recites the notice without an amount.
The sale is not approved as of 2026-11-09, and the hearing is adjourned to 2026-11-17 (Notice of Adjournment, Dkt. 1779). The ombudsman's request shows a court-appointed privacy review examining a bidder's own security record, which concerns every trustee or administrator who must sell data assets in insolvency.
Is Mercor Legitimate as a Buyer of Company Data?
Mercor is a real, identifiable company: Mercor.io Corporation appears under that name as a bidder in federal bankruptcy filings and as the defendant in federal suits, and it publishes its company data program openly. Its Terms of Service, last updated 2026-08-26, give a San Francisco address.
What stays open is the part a seller signs. Mercor's license terms are not public, the consolidated breach litigation is stayed pending mediation without a ruling, and the ombudsman's question of 2026-10-05 about whether Mercor.io is an appropriate, qualified buyer sits in a sale record with no approval as of 2026-11-09.
A seller can check four points before connecting any tool: the counterparty is Mercor.io Corporation, the agreement states scope, term, exclusivity and deletion, the outreach comes from a mercor.com address, and whether the receiving AI labs are named. These points follow the general checks for whether a data licensing email is legitimate.
Benefits, Risks and Alternatives to Licensing Data to Mercor
Licensing to Mercor offers a published process with no stated fees, but the license terms are not public and the company's incident record is unresolved. The four lists below separate benefits, risks, downsides and alternatives, with Mercor's claims checked 2026-11-09.
Benefits (as Mercor states them, checked 2026-11-09):
- No setup fees or deductions, with extraction, anonymization and transfer costs carried by Mercor.
- Payment by wire on delivery, typically within 2-4 weeks of signing.
- Published deal ranges per industry, USD 10,000 to USD 1,500,000 in the 2026-11-09 feed.
- Automated de-identification, with Mercor stating that no AI lab buyer sees raw data.
Risks:
- License scope, term, exclusivity and deletion are not stated publicly.
- The consolidated litigation over the March 2026 security incident is unresolved, with proceedings stayed pending mediation.
- The Spirit ombudsman asked on 2026-10-05 whether Mercor.io is an appropriate, qualified buyer.
- Sector rules can block a license: under 26 CFR 301.7216-2(o)(2) (eCFR text as of 2026-10-01), a tax return preparer may not sell or exchange for value a statistical compilation, in whole or in part, except with a transfer of assets on the sale of the business, which sits in tension with the Accounting & Tax Firm listing's request for anonymized returns. This is information, not legal or tax advice.
Downsides:
- The AI labs that receive the data are not named.
- Payment timing appears in two conflicting phrasings on the same page.
- Mercor states that connecting more tools raises the payout, so a higher price means more company data leaves the business.
Alternatives:
- Other company data programs, such as micro1 and Handshake AI.
- Aggregators such as Endless, which names micro1, Mercor and Handshake as buyers.
- Not licensing at all, which keeps every record and every option inside the company.
A seller compares any Mercor agreement against a full clause list; the guide to the AI data licensing agreement sets out each clause, from field of use to deletion.
Mercor Among Company Data Partnership Programs
Mercor is one of several companies that run company data partnership programs alongside expert-contributor work. Its program sits with the company data partnership programs that also run at micro1, which publishes tiered company payouts and a referral formula, and at Handshake AI, which runs a comparable data partnership program. Side-by-side pages set out micro1 vs Mercor on company data terms and Mercor vs Handshake AI on the same points. Aggregators such as Endless name Mercor as one of their buyers. A company that wants options beyond Mercor finds Mercor alternatives for licensing company data, and the wider set of alternatives to selling data, including keeping it.
More About Mercor
Mercor Jobs and Contributor Work
Mercor's job listings, interviews and contractor pay concern its expert-contributor marketplace, not the sale of company data. Its pay and assessments are compared under AI training jobs and platforms. White v. Mercor sits with other contributor lawsuits, and expert contributor work is one way labs buy human data.
Mercor Acquisitions: Sepal AI and Deeptune
Mercor.io Corporation acquired Sepal AI, a training-data, benchmark and RL-environment company, according to Orrick's announcement of 2026-02-06, at an undisclosed price. Mercor's blog of 2026-07-09 states that Mercor "will acquire" Deeptune, which builds training gyms that replicate enterprise software such as Slack and Salesforce; Deeptune's site states that "Deeptune is joining Mercor", and no value is disclosed and no closing is confirmed in the sources checked. Both targets build RL environments and training data for AI labs. Sepal AI and Deeptune have their own profiles, and funding figures for such companies are covered under funding and valuations of AI data companies.
Frequently Asked Questions About Mercor
Does Mercor sell data?
Mercor licenses de-identified company data to AI labs, which it does not name on its program page. Mercor states that no AI lab buyer or third-party vendor ever sees a company's raw data, checked 2026-11-09.
What data does Mercor collect from companies?
Mercor collects records from workplace tools such as Slack, Gmail, Salesforce, GitHub and Notion, plus the industry records its 25 listings name. Examples include closed law firm matter files, EHR physician notes and private code repositories.
Is Mercor a data labeling company?
Mercor runs an expert-contributor marketplace for AI labs, and it also runs a company data program, Mercor Data. Its expert network numbers "nearly five million" people, according to Mercor's update of 2026-06-25.
Does Mercor charge companies fees?
Mercor states it charges no setup fees or deductions and covers extraction, anonymization and transfer costs, checked 2026-11-09. The program page states no fee, but no license agreement is published either.
Who is the CEO of Mercor?
Brendan Foody describes himself as Mercor's CEO in his own posts. No filing among the sources checked names Mercor's officers or founders.