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Mercor reviews · checked 10 Oct 2026

Is Mercor legit?

Yes. Mercor is a genuine San Francisco company (valued at $10 billion in October 2025). Its robotics program pays businesses rather than individuals, per approved hour of footage their staff record. Individuals cannot sign up to record: the business is paid, and what a participating employee receives is up to the business. The March 2026 breach also showed that personal details uploaded to Mercor can leak.

Join Mercor (opens the job details)

Mercor, reviewed

Researched October 2026 · 32 sources

It pays $12–$18 per approved hour, paid to the business (stated by the employer).

Joined through its own application (it publishes no job postings)

Who is behind it

Brendan Foody (CEO), Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha started Mercor in 2023. A February 2025 round brought in $100 million at a $2 billion valuation, an October 2025 round added $350 million at $10 billion, and in 2026 it acquired Sepal AI and Deeptune. Mercor states it pays more than $2 million a day to over 30,000 contractors active each week (May 2026). OpenAI and Anthropic are among its customers.

Getting paid

The robotics program pays the business a set rate for every approved hour of footage, $12 to $18 depending on the kind of work, paid bi-weekly. An approved hour is well lit, with hands visible, showing the task. There is no fee or equipment cost, and someone who refers an approved business earns a bonus based on its hours.

Worker ratings

Trustpilot 4.4/5 (999 reviews) · Glassdoor 4.2/5 (195 reviews) · Indeed 3.9/5 (26 reviews). Read October 2026.

Who can join

For businesses: the application asks for the business's country, and the program lists hands-on business types such as restaurants, bakeries, salons, auto repair, warehouses, construction and manufacturing.

Fake Mercor recruiters

Genuine Mercor email comes from @mercor.com, and Mercor says it charges no fees; businesses apply and make referrals at mercor.com/robotics. Treat an offer from any other or misspelled domain as fake and forward it to support@mercor.com. Job scams tend to open with a text, WhatsApp or Telegram message and ask for money later.

What people praise

  • Mercor ships the capture kit at no cost and supplies, maintains and replaces it, so a business pays no fee and no equipment cost.
  • Mercor says employees do not have to take part and asks businesses not to require it; each participant signs a consent form and can stop at any time.
  • The business reviews and approves every recording before it is uploaded, and Mercor says the vast majority of footage passes.

What people complain about

  • Experts on Mercor's main marketplace describe projects that stop or close without warning, at times with nothing more than an automated email, and patchy work in the gaps between them.
  • A number of expert contractors say hours they had already logged were taken off and payment was denied once the work was finished.
  • Help comes mostly from automated replies, and applicants who are turned down say no reason is given.

What has gone wrong

  • March 2026. Between March 24 and 30, 2026, an attacker got in through a tampered copy of LiteLLM, an open-source tool, and pulled Mercor data that state filings say included Social Security and government ID numbers. Meta put its Mercor work on hold. Mercor's account: only a very limited subset of experts was affected, it found no sign of fraud, and it offered credit monitoring.
  • April 2026. Within a week of the breach, contractors had filed five lawsuits over the exposed personal data in federal courts in California and Texas, and Mercor gave no comment. A proposed class action filed in Texas federal court in May 2026 claims Mercor misclassified more than 30,000 experts as contractors; Mercor wants the case moved to arbitration.
  • November 2025. Musen, a Meta project that peaked at more than 5,000 people, was shut down by Mercor over 'project scope changes'. Workers were then offered comparable tasks on a new project paying $16 an hour, down from $21. Mercor's response was that it makes plain from day one that this is 'temporary, project-based work.'
Who it suits

Best for: Owners of hands-on businesses (restaurants, salons, repair shops, warehouses, construction and the like) whose staff are willing to wear a camera during their normal shifts. Not for: Individual job seekers looking for recording work: the program pays businesses, and an individual can only refer a business for a bonus.

Honest catches

  • Pay here is stated by the employer, not measured live from a job feed, so treat it as a benchmark rather than a guaranteed rate.
Sources for this review

Got a message from Mercor?

Its real sites: mercor.com. Real email from @mercor.com (for example support@mercor.com). Paste the message to check the links, the sender and the pay.

Check a message

Mercor has no public job board for us to measure, so everything in this review comes from the sources it cites.

Common questions about Mercor

Is Mercor legit?

Yes. Mercor is a genuine San Francisco company (valued at $10 billion in October 2025). Its robotics program pays businesses rather than individuals, per approved hour of footage their staff record. Individuals cannot sign up to record: the business is paid, and what a participating employee receives is up to the business. The March 2026 breach also showed that personal details uploaded to Mercor can leak.

Is Mercor a scam?

No. Mercor is a real company. Genuine Mercor email comes from @mercor.com, and Mercor says it charges no fees; businesses apply and make referrals at mercor.com/robotics. Treat an offer from any other or misspelled domain as fake and forward it to support@mercor.com. Job scams tend to open with a text, WhatsApp or Telegram message and ask for money later.

Does Mercor pay?

Yes. Fast-growing data marketplace positioning itself around physical-AI data. Payouts: Bi-weekly, to the business, for approved hours. The robotics program pays the business a set rate for every approved hour of footage, $12 to $18 depending on the kind of work, paid bi-weekly. An approved hour is well lit, with hands visible, showing the task. There is no fee or equipment cost, and someone who refers an approved business earns a bonus based on its hours.

How do workers rate Mercor?

Trustpilot 4.4/5 (999 reviews) · Glassdoor 4.2/5 (195 reviews) · Indeed 3.9/5 (26 reviews), as read in October 2026. Praised: Mercor ships the capture kit at no cost and supplies, maintains and replaces it, so a business pays no fee and no equipment cost. Criticised: Experts on Mercor's main marketplace describe projects that stop or close without warning, at times with nothing more than an automated email, and patchy work in the gaps between them.

Has Mercor had any problems or incidents?

March 2026: Between March 24 and 30, 2026, an attacker got in through a tampered copy of LiteLLM, an open-source tool, and pulled Mercor data that state filings say included Social Security and government ID numbers. Meta put its Mercor work on hold. Mercor's account: only a very limited subset of experts was affected, it found no sign of fraud, and it offered credit monitoring. April 2026: Within a week of the breach, contractors had filed five lawsuits over the exposed personal data in federal courts in California and Texas, and Mercor gave no comment. A proposed class action filed in Texas federal court in May 2026 claims Mercor misclassified more than 30,000 experts as contractors; Mercor wants the case moved to arbitration. November 2025: Musen, a Meta project that peaked at more than 5,000 people, was shut down by Mercor over 'project scope changes'. Workers were then offered comparable tasks on a new project paying $16 an hour, down from $21. Mercor's response was that it makes plain from day one that this is 'temporary, project-based work.'

How can I tell a real Mercor recruiter from a fake one?

Genuine Mercor email comes from @mercor.com, and Mercor says it charges no fees; businesses apply and make referrals at mercor.com/robotics. Treat an offer from any other or misspelled domain as fake and forward it to support@mercor.com. Job scams tend to open with a text, WhatsApp or Telegram message and ask for money later.

Who is Mercor a good fit for?

A good fit: Owners of hands-on businesses (restaurants, salons, repair shops, warehouses, construction and the like) whose staff are willing to wear a camera during their normal shifts. A poor fit: Individual job seekers looking for recording work: the program pays businesses, and an individual can only refer a business for a bonus.

Keep reading about Mercor

Sorted by what an application to either employer is likely worth to you, with a referral lift for an employer that pays us a referral fee; your pay is never affected.