If you're entering AI evaluation work, you'll meet these two names first. Both connect experts with lab projects; they differ in emphasis.
Mercor
Mercor positions itself as an AI talent marketplace for credentialed professionals — its strongest demand is in legal, medical, and finance evaluation, where licenses and degrees are verified.
- Screening: CV + credential verification + AI-led video interview.
- Pay: Published per listing. The rates page on this site shows Mercor's current median and range against micro1's.
- Friction points: Competitive screening for the best-paid tracks.
Fits best: lawyers, physicians, finance professionals, and senior engineers with verifiable credentials and polished written English.
micro1
micro1 recruits a wider funnel — experts and skilled generalists — using its AI interviewer ("Zara") for the first pass. Role variety is broader: evaluation, annotation, red-teaming, multilingual work.
- Screening: Skills assessment + AI interview.
- Pay: Published per listing, across a wide range of role types. The rates page shows the current median and range.
- Friction points: Project availability fluctuates visibly; more competition on generalist tasks.
Fits best: engineers, developers, multilingual professionals, and experts who want a broad range of task types.
Our recommendation
- Apply to both. Project flow is wave-based everywhere; two pipelines beat one.
- Match the role page to your strongest credential — both platforms' AI screens probe depth, and overclaiming costs more than a narrow, accurate profile.
- Prepare for the AI interview like a real one. Each role page on this site includes practice questions for exactly this.