Payment trigger
If cash timing matters, Mercor publishes wire on buyer delivery, typically 2–4 weeks after signing. Defined.ai: Four-stage onboarding; no fixed elapsed-time or payout commitment
Defined.ai vs Mercor
Managed marketplace meets direct licensing. Neither advertised amounts nor a public seller route establish what your business will receive.
Jump to the terms ledger ↓Research comparison; limited public terms. Pair-level evidence and scenario review is pending. Published fields alone do not meet our indexing threshold. This page is noindex and absent from the sitemap, not a negative verdict.
The terms ledger.
| Criterion | Defined.ai | Mercor |
|---|---|---|
| Operating records | Published Audio/video/images/text/multimodal; sales, stock, shipping, code, STEM, cinematic/anime Source ↗ | Published Slack, Gmail, Salesforce, GitHub, Notion, contracts, clinical notes and QA logs Source ↗ |
| Company eligibility | Published No fixed minimum; quality/metadata/rights, consent and compliance/cybersecurity vetting Source ↗ | Unknown Not published / not established Not established in inspected sources: No numerical employee minimum published on inspected data page. Ask the provider; missing terms do not establish acceptance, free fees or a payment deadline. Inspection URLs remain in the profile source list. |
| Seller geography | Published Applicable rights/regulatory compliance; no blanket country acceptance verified Source ↗ | Unknown Not published / not established Not established in inspected sources. Ask for the actual agreement; unknown does not mean free, unrestricted or accepted. |
| Published compensation | Provider claim Licensing fees driven by marketplace demand; terms partner-approved. $600K+ average revenue is a vendor statistic; currency context and period not independently established, not a guarantee Source ↗ | Provider claim Individually quoted; no public dollar rate card. Source ↗ |
| Fees & net proceeds | Unknown Not published / not established Not established in inspected sources: Not published. Ask the provider; missing terms do not establish acceptance, free fees or a payment deadline. Inspection URLs remain in the profile source list. | Published No upfront/setup fees or deductions; provider covers extraction, anonymization and transfer. Source ↗ |
| Timeline & payment trigger | Provider claim Four-stage onboarding; no fixed elapsed-time or payout commitment Source ↗ | Provider claim Wire upon delivery of anonymized dataset to buyer; typically 2–4 weeks from signed agreement. Source ↗ |
| Preparation & seller effort | Published Apply as Data Partner via Jira portal; login needed Source ↗ | Published Scope → connect 100+ supported tools → extraction/de-identification → delivery/payment. Source ↗ |
| Ownership & permitted use | Unknown Not published / not established Not established in inspected sources; confirm in contract. | Unknown Not published / not established Not established in inspected sources. Ask for the actual agreement; unknown does not mean free, unrestricted or accepted. |
| Privacy & approval | Provider claim Consent, compliance, cybersecurity and rights vetting; samples may be showcased under a free nonexclusive license. Confirm the Data Partner contract, not service-supplier project terms. Source ↗ | Provider claim No data leaves until approval; encryption, access logs, session-isolated credentials; SOC 2 Type II claimed, audit not inspected. Source ↗ |
| Exclusivity | Unknown Not published / not established Not established in inspected sources; confirm in contract. | Unknown Not published / not established Not established in inspected sources. Ask for the actual agreement; unknown does not mean free, unrestricted or accepted. |
| Retention & deletion | Unknown Not published / not established Not established in inspected sources; confirm in contract. | Unknown Not published / not established Not established in inspected sources. Ask for the actual agreement; unknown does not mean free, unrestricted or accepted. |
| HQ / published contact | Published US; Seattle, with Lisbon office; seller eligibility is separate. Source ↗ | Published San Francisco, CA named in program footer; US. Source ↗ |
Operating records
Company eligibility
Defined.aiPublished
No fixed minimum; quality/metadata/rights, consent and compliance/cybersecurity vetting
Source ↗MercorUnknown
Not published / not established
Not established in inspected sources: No numerical employee minimum published on inspected data page. Ask the provider; missing terms do not establish acceptance, free fees or a payment deadline. Inspection URLs remain in the profile source list.Seller geography
Defined.aiPublished
Applicable rights/regulatory compliance; no blanket country acceptance verified
Source ↗MercorUnknown
Not published / not established
Not established in inspected sources. Ask for the actual agreement; unknown does not mean free, unrestricted or accepted.Published compensation
Fees & net proceeds
Defined.aiUnknown
Not published / not established
Not established in inspected sources: Not published. Ask the provider; missing terms do not establish acceptance, free fees or a payment deadline. Inspection URLs remain in the profile source list.MercorPublished
No upfront/setup fees or deductions; provider covers extraction, anonymization and transfer.
Source ↗Timeline & payment trigger
Preparation & seller effort
Ownership & permitted use
Defined.aiUnknown
Not published / not established
Not established in inspected sources; confirm in contract.MercorUnknown
Not published / not established
Not established in inspected sources. Ask for the actual agreement; unknown does not mean free, unrestricted or accepted.Privacy & approval
Defined.aiProvider claim
Consent, compliance, cybersecurity and rights vetting; samples may be showcased under a free nonexclusive license. Confirm the Data Partner contract, not service-supplier project terms.
Source ↗MercorProvider claim
No data leaves until approval; encryption, access logs, session-isolated credentials; SOC 2 Type II claimed, audit not inspected.
Source ↗Exclusivity
Defined.aiUnknown
Not published / not established
Not established in inspected sources; confirm in contract.MercorUnknown
Not published / not established
Not established in inspected sources. Ask for the actual agreement; unknown does not mean free, unrestricted or accepted.Retention & deletion
Defined.aiUnknown
Not published / not established
Not established in inspected sources; confirm in contract.MercorUnknown
Not published / not established
Not established in inspected sources. Ask for the actual agreement; unknown does not mean free, unrestricted or accepted.HQ / published contact
Which difference matters to your company?
Buyer relationship
If you already have a marketable data product, compare distribution rather than headline payouts: Defined.ai is managed marketplace, while Mercor is direct licensing. Listing or matching creates no purchase commitment; ask who actually signs and pays.
Shared diligence, not shared guarantees.
Both routes need lawful rights to the material. Removing names does not remove confidentiality obligations or re-identification risk. Require sample approval, buyer-use restrictions, precise payment triggers and downstream retention/deletion terms.
Seller-outcome evidence
Defined.ai: No independently verified operating-business seller payout found. Marketplace listing or matching is not a purchase commitment.
Mercor: No independently audited operating-business payout established in this research. Provider cases and partnership confirmations do not establish a typical seller outcome.