Updated 8 Nov 2026
Prolific vs Mercor, by the numbers.
By revenue, Mercor is the larger: $2B (run rate, Jun 2026), against Prolific's $500M (run rate, May 2026).
Both sell evaluations and benchmarks, expert and human data and datasets. Only Prolific sells annotation. Only Mercor sells RL environments. 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.
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Side by side
Revenue over twelve months, the newest valuation, disclosed funding and what each says it does.
| Prolific | Mercor | |
|---|---|---|
| Prolific | Mercor | |
| Place on the rankings | #6 of 78 | #1 of 78 |
| Ranked on | $500M Revenue, run rate, May 2026 | $2B Revenue, run rate, Jun 2026 |
| Revenue, twelve months | $500M run rate, May 2026 over time | $2B run rate, Jun 2026 over time |
| Newest valuation | Not on record | $10B Oct 2025 |
| Disclosed funding | $32M in 1 record | $480M in 3 records |
| Sells | Evaluations and benchmarks, Expert and human data, Datasets, Annotation | RL environments, Datasets, Expert and human data, Evaluations and benchmarks |
| Works on | Coding, Medical, Languages | Coding, Business work, Finance, Legal, Medical |
| Made from | Made by experts and contractors | Made by experts and contractors, Replicas of real software, Generated, Licensed from its owners |
| Takes data from companies | Does not say so | Through our introductions |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK | San Francisco, California, US |
| Founded | 2014 | 2023 |
| In its own words | “Run rigorous evaluations with verified people and domain experts.” 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 Prolific or Mercor
What each says it pays a company for its data, what it wants and when it pays, in its own published terms.
| Prolific | Mercor | |
|---|---|---|
| Takes data from companies | Does not say so | Through our introductions |
| What it says it pays | Not published | $10K to $1.5M Mercor, data page, 8 Nov 2026 |
| What it wants | Not published | Workflow data from Slack, Teams, Gmail, Outlook, Confluence, Salesforce, GitHub, Drive, Notion and 100+ other tools. |
| When it pays | Not published | 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.
- Medical AI training data companiesProlific #5, Mercor #1 of 26
- Best AI training data providersProlific #5, Mercor #1 of 53
- Coding data companies for AIProlific #6, Mercor #1 of 33
- Best AI data labs and human data companiesProlific #6, Mercor #1 of 41
- AI evaluation companiesProlific #6, Mercor #1 of 60
The latest money moves
The newest rounds, valuations and revenue figures of the two, each linked to its record.
- 9 Jul 2026Mercor was acquired by Mercor
- 6 Jul 2026Mercor reported $2B revenue (run rate, Jun 2026)
- 15 May 2026Prolific reported $500M revenue (run rate, May 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
- 11 Jul 2023Prolific raised $32M
The questions people ask
- Is Prolific bigger than Mercor?
- By revenue, Mercor is the larger: $2B (run rate, Jun 2026), against Prolific's $500M (run rate, May 2026).
- What is the difference between Prolific and Mercor?
- Prolific supplies human data, evaluations and human feedback for AI developers and labs, via API or managed services. Mercor builds benchmarks, RL environments and large-scale human datasets for AI labs and enterprise model developers, sourced through its expert marketplace. Both sell evaluations and benchmarks, expert and human data and datasets. Only Prolific sells annotation. Only Mercor sells RL environments.
- Which raised more money, Prolific or Mercor?
- Prolific: $32M disclosed. Mercor: $480M disclosed, valued at $10B (2025).
- Do Prolific and Mercor buy data from companies?
- Prolific does not say it buys data from companies. 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.