# Mercor data licensing: what it buys and what it pays

> Mercor data licensing: it buys workplace data through 100+ connectors and pays by wire after delivery. Reported offers reach $300,000. The terms, dated.

By Matt Burns, Vaultfish. Canonical: https://vaultfish.com/answers/mercor-data-licensing  
Published: 2026-08-25  
Updated: 2026-10-14

## The short answer

Mercor data licensing is how Mercor buys work data from businesses. It pays by wire after delivery, usually in two to four weeks. Reported offers reach $300,000 for shut-down startups. Its security claims are its own. A March 2026 breach hit its contractor data.

[Mercor](/buyers/mercor) is best known for hiring experts. Its data arm is a second business. It is one of the few buyers with named, reported offers for company archives.

> **Data licensing means Mercor gets to use your records for a fee, under rules.** It works like renting out a spare room. You keep the house.

## What does Mercor buy?

Mercor's [data page](https://www.mercor.com/data/) says it wants the workflow data your business generates. It lists 100+ connectors, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Confluence, Salesforce, Outlook, GitHub, Google Drive and Notion.

The page names no minimum company size. It says Mercor covers the cost of extraction, anonymization and transfer.

Press reports add a second stream. Mercor reportedly approached acquired and shuttered startups for Slack chat logs, Google Drive files, email and Zoom recordings. Individual offers reached as high as $300,000 ([BigGo Finance](https://finance.biggo.com/news/d34746c0-e437-4855-93c5-09c6e850550d)).

## What are Mercor's payment terms?

The data page says pay depends on data volume, the tools connected and data depth. Payment is a wire transfer on delivery, usually within two to four weeks of agreement. No price list is published.

_Wire on delivery. Your finance team will want that in writing._

Mercor bid $7.5 million for Spirit Airlines' archive of about 100 million emails, 500 million Teams messages and 30 million lines of code.

Google won the auction with $10 million, pending court approval. [micro1](/buyers/micro1) offered a higher $12.5 million after the auction closed ([Time](https://time.com/article/2026/08/25/google-spirit-airlines-ai-data-RL/)).

## What does Mercor say about security?

The page claims SOC 2 Type II certification, encryption in transit, keys held in AWS KMS and credentials isolated per session. It says no AI lab buyer or third-party vendor sees your raw data. All of that is self-reported, and I could not verify the audit's scope.

The incident that exposed contractor data in March 2026 is in [Mercor data breach](/answers/mercor-data-breach).

## How does it compare?

[micro1](/answers/what-is-micro1) and [Handshake AI](/buyers/handshake-ai) run direct data partnerships with published tiers. Troveo shares revenue on repeat sales. The [buyers directory](/buyers) lays them out side by side. [Reps and warranties](/answers/what-reps-and-warranties-does-an-ai-data-buyer-ask-for) shows what any of them will ask you to promise.

The evidence on the company is in [is Mercor legit](/answers/is-mercor-legit). Run the [rights check](/rights-check) before you connect any account.

Figure: steps Scope tools, connect accounts -> Mercor says it de-identifies -> Wire after delivery. Mercor describes a company data deal that ends in a wire after delivery.

micro1 may pay us a referral fee if a company we introduce goes ahead with it. [How we are paid](https://vaultfish.com/disclosure)

Have a lawyer read any contract before you sign. They like that.

[Apply to micro1's data partnership (paid link)](https://req.micro1.ai/post/74520e8b-4673-4da5-b855-53609aaf6710?referralCode=f82e519e-5d64-4e0e-9574-760c84371cf2&utm_source=referral&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=data_referral) · [micro1's own data-partnerships page](https://www.micro1.ai/data-partnerships)

_Paid link. [How we are paid](https://vaultfish.com/disclosure)_

_Vaultfish helps you run the process. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. If you need counsel who knows this area, we can point you to one._

## Sources

- [data page](https://www.mercor.com/data/)
- [BigGo Finance](https://finance.biggo.com/news/d34746c0-e437-4855-93c5-09c6e850550d)
- [Time](https://time.com/article/2026/08/25/google-spirit-airlines-ai-data-RL/)
- [Mercor security incident update](https://www.mercor.com/blog/update-on-mercor-security-incident/)
- [The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/meta-mercor-breach-ai-training-secrets-risk)
- [CourtListener docket, Deboni v. Mercor.io Corp.](https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73129103/deboni-v-mercorio-corporation/)