micro1 fits companies that have closed or want a published price range; Mercor fits operating companies in the industries it names that are happy to connect their tools. micro1 publishes a 30-employee minimum, runs a separate program for companies that are no longer operating and states a payout range of $100K to $3M+ per approved data package. Mercor publishes no minimum or payout figure, names eight target industries, connects to more than 100 tools and says it typically pays within 2–4 weeks of a signed agreement.
Which fits which company
| Your company | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Closed, accounts still live | micro1 | Its Defunct Company Data Partnership is for companies no longer operating; Mercor does not address closed companies |
| Law firm, healthcare, finance, professional services | Either; Mercor names these industries | Mercor lists them; micro1 does not limit industries |
| 30 to 99 employees | micro1 | micro1 publishes 30+; Mercor publishes no minimum, and our routing sends it larger companies |
| Wants a published payout range before talking | micro1 | Mercor publishes no figure |
| Wants a fast, mostly automated process | Mercor | It states 2–4 weeks from signed agreement, via connected tools |
| Does not want a third party connecting to its systems | micro1 | Mercor’s process connects your tools; micro1 uses a secure transfer after contracting |
Both de-identify the data themselves, and neither publishes fees charged to the company; Mercor states it charges none.
Side by side
| Attribute | micro1 | Mercor |
|---|---|---|
| Company minimums | 30+ full-time employees and substantial historical data; several years of records across systems is a stronger fit. No fixed minimum file count or size. | Not stated. Names target industries: legal, healthcare, finance and insurance, professional services, manufacturing, retail, real estate, logistics. |
| Operating or closed | Both. Operating companies apply to the Enterprise Data Partnership; companies no longer operating apply to the Defunct Company Data Partnership. | Not stated |
| Geography | US companies first, then other Western markets. Data should be mainly in English. | Not stated |
| What they license | Operational records: internal communications, SOPs, project histories, CRM records, support tickets, engineering workflows and other business documentation | Workflow data from connected tools (100+ supported, including Slack, Teams, Gmail, Outlook, Drive, Confluence, Notion, Salesforce, GitHub) |
| Published payout | micro1 states $100K to $3M+ per approved data package (as published November 2026). Not a guarantee; the final offer depends on sources, size, quality and due diligence. | No figure published. Mercor says pay depends on data volume, the tools you connect and the depth of the data. |
| Who de-identifies | micro1. You do not need to anonymise before transfer; personal and identifying information is removed or transformed before data reaches third parties. | Mercor, through an automated extraction and anonymisation pipeline. It states no buyer sees raw data. |
| Process | Discovery and pricing, contracting, secure transfer, review for completeness, payment | Scope, connect tools, Mercor extracts and de-identifies, payout |
| Timeline | No guaranteed timeframe. After transfer, micro1 has 30 days to review and approve the data. | Typically 2–4 weeks from the signed agreement, depending on extraction and processing |
| Payment | After approval you invoice; payment within 30 days of invoicing | Wire transfer on delivery of the anonymised dataset to the buyer |
| Fees to you | Not stated | None. Mercor states it covers extraction, anonymisation and transfer costs. |
| Exclusivity | Not stated. Data is licensed only to labs and enterprises in the US and allied countries. | Not stated |
Questions people ask
Can I apply to both?
Neither buyer publishes an exclusivity rule. Read each licence before you sign: a second licence of the same records may conflict with the first.
Which pays more?
We cannot say. micro1 publishes $100K to $3M+ per approved data package; Mercor publishes no figure and bases pay on data volume, tools connected and depth.