Updated 8 Nov 2026
AfterQuery vs Mercor, by the numbers.
By revenue, Mercor is the larger: $2B (run rate, Jun 2026), against AfterQuery's $100M (run rate, Apr 2026).
Both sell RL environments, datasets, expert and human data and evaluations and benchmarks. Every figure below is linked to the filing or article it comes from; what each sells is in its own words, from its own pages.
Hold data companies like these buy? AIData.Broker values it free and introduces it to every buyer that takes it, at no cost to you: the buyers pay us. Where it earns more, we run the sale ourselves, for a fee only out of a sale.
- No data upload
- About two minutes
- No email needed
Side by side
Revenue over twelve months, the newest valuation, disclosed funding and what each says it does.
| AfterQuery | Mercor | |
|---|---|---|
| AfterQuery | Mercor | |
| Place on the rankings | #14 of 78 | #1 of 78 |
| Ranked on | $100M Revenue, run rate, Apr 2026 | $2B Revenue, run rate, Jun 2026 |
| Revenue, twelve months | $100M run rate, Apr 2026 over time | $2B run rate, Jun 2026 over time |
| Newest valuation | $3.2B Sep 2026 | $10B Oct 2025 |
| Disclosed funding | $30M in 1 record | $480M in 3 records |
| Sells | RL environments, Datasets, Expert and human data, Evaluations and benchmarks | RL environments, Datasets, Expert and human data, Evaluations and benchmarks |
| Works on | Coding, Computer use, Business work, Finance, Legal, Medical, Science, Speech and audio, Images and video, Languages | Coding, Business work, Finance, Legal, Medical |
| Made from | Made by experts and contractors, Recorded from people and the real world, Generated, The client's own data | Made by experts and contractors, Replicas of real software, Generated, Licensed from its owners |
| Takes data from companies | Through our introductions | Through our introductions |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, California, US |
| Founded | 2025 | 2023 |
| In its own words | “AfterQuery is an applied research lab curating data solutions for frontier foundation model development.” Its page | “We develop benchmarks, evaluation environments, and large-scale human datasets to fuel AI breakthroughs at the frontier, all through our marketplace of top-tier experts.” Its page |
- The rule.
- Each company is ranked on the first of these it has on record: its revenue over twelve months (a run rate or a year as published, or its last four quarters added up; an AI segment where the rest of its business is not AI data), then its newest valuation, then the money it disclosed raising. No company pays for a place. The full method and every change to it.
- Twelve months.
- A run rate or ARR is the company's own annualised figure; a year is the year it published. Gross revenue of a human data company includes what it pays its experts.
- Pays companies for data.
- "Through our introductions": it takes companies' data through AIData.Broker's introductions and pays us a referral fee when one goes ahead. That never moves its place: the order is the money on record. "Its own programme": a published programme for buying data. "Says it buys data": its own words, linked.
- Why this pair.
- People search for this comparison: Google suggests it, read on 8 Nov 2026. Neither company asked for or paid for this page.
Selling your company's data to AfterQuery or Mercor
What each says it pays a company for its data, what it wants and when it pays, in its own published terms.
| AfterQuery | Mercor | |
|---|---|---|
| Takes data from companies | Through our introductions | Through our introductions |
| What it says it pays | Not published | $10K to $1.5M Mercor, data page, 8 Nov 2026 |
| What it wants | "Records of how teams actually work across their tools: email, chat, tickets, CRM, support, finance and more, usually over several years. Industry systems and legacy tools count too." | Workflow data from Slack, Teams, Gmail, Outlook, Confluence, Salesforce, GitHub, Drive, Notion and 100+ other tools. |
| When it pays | Payment is the last of its six steps, after transfer and de-identification ("06 Payment Payment and ongoing partnership"), with no schedule or number of days published. It says it is "Usually a few weeks from first form to signed agreement". | By wire on delivery of the anonymised dataset to the buyer, typically within 2 to 4 weeks of the signed agreement; the same page's process step says "Get paid as soon as processing is complete." |
You need not choose one: AIData.Broker values a company's data free and introduces it to every buyer whose own rules take it. Value your data
On the same rankings
The lists both are ranked on, with each one's place.
- Synthetic training data companiesAfterQuery #4, Mercor #1 of 15
- Finance AI training data companiesAfterQuery #8, Mercor #1 of 25
- Legal AI training data companiesAfterQuery #9, Mercor #1 of 17
- Medical AI training data companiesAfterQuery #10, Mercor #1 of 26
- RL environment companiesAfterQuery #11, Mercor #1 of 36
- Coding data companies for AIAfterQuery #13, Mercor #1 of 33
- Best AI data labs and human data companiesAfterQuery #13, Mercor #1 of 41
- Best AI training data providersAfterQuery #13, Mercor #1 of 53
- AI evaluation companiesAfterQuery #13, Mercor #1 of 60
The latest money moves
The newest rounds, valuations and revenue figures of the two, each linked to its record.
- 1 Sep 2026AfterQuery was valued at $3.2B valuation
- 9 Jul 2026Mercor was acquired by Mercor
- 6 Jul 2026Mercor reported $2B revenue (run rate, Jun 2026)
- 10 Apr 2026AfterQuery raised $30M at a $300M valuation
- 9 Apr 2026AfterQuery reported $100M revenue (run rate, Apr 2026)
- 27 Oct 2025Mercor raised $350M at a $10B valuation
- 20 Feb 2025Mercor raised $100M at a $2B valuation
- 23 Sep 2024Mercor raised $30M at a $250M valuation
The questions people ask
- Is AfterQuery bigger than Mercor?
- By revenue, Mercor is the larger: $2B (run rate, Jun 2026), against AfterQuery's $100M (run rate, Apr 2026).
- What is the difference between AfterQuery and Mercor?
- AfterQuery sells expert-built training data, RL environments, and custom evaluations to frontier AI labs and enterprises. Mercor builds benchmarks, RL environments and large-scale human datasets for AI labs and enterprise model developers, sourced through its expert marketplace. Both sell RL environments, datasets, expert and human data and evaluations and benchmarks.
- Which raised more money, AfterQuery or Mercor?
- AfterQuery: $30M disclosed, valued at $3.2B (2026). Mercor: $480M disclosed, valued at $10B (2025).
- Do AfterQuery and Mercor buy data from companies?
- AfterQuery takes data from the companies that hold it, through a published programme. Mercor takes data from the companies that hold it, through a published programme.
More comparisons
Each company against its whole field, and the other comparisons people search.