Scale AI alternatives
The closest alternatives to Scale AI are Surge AI, Turing, Mercor. This page ranks five providers by overlap with Scale AI in data types and provider type.
Five alternatives to Scale AI
1. Surge AI
Surge AI is a data labeling company that provides human-written and human-rated RLHF and evaluation data to AI labs.
Shared with Scale AI: RLHF and preference data, Supervised fine-tuning data, Evaluation sets.
Pricing models: Per-task, Per-hour expert labor, Project contract.
2. Turing
Turing is a technology company that supplies coding, reasoning and multimodal training data and engineering talent to AI labs and enterprises.
Shared with Scale AI: Supervised fine-tuning data, Evaluation sets.
Pricing models: Per-task, Per-hour expert labor, Project contract.
3. Mercor
Mercor is an expert talent marketplace that matches domain experts such as doctors, lawyers and engineers with AI labs that need human-generated training data and evaluations.
Shared with Scale AI: RLHF and preference data, Evaluation sets.
Pricing models: Per-hour expert labor, Placement fee.
4. Handshake AI
Handshake AI is the AI data business of Handshake, the career network for students and graduates, which connects university-trained experts to AI labs for human data work.
Shared with Scale AI: Evaluation sets, RLHF and preference data.
Pricing models: Per-hour expert labor, Project contract.
5. micro1
micro1 is an AI recruiting and expert-data company that vets domain experts and places them on human data projects for AI labs.
Shared with Scale AI: RLHF and preference data, Evaluation sets.
Pricing models: Per-hour expert labor, Placement fee.
Alternatives compared
| Provider | Type | Buyers | Pricing models |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scale AI | Expert data lab | Frontier labs, enterprises, government agencies | Per-task, Per-hour expert labor, Enterprise contract |
| Surge AI | Expert data lab | Frontier AI labs | Per-task, Per-hour expert labor, Project contract |
| Turing | Expert data lab | Frontier labs, enterprises | Per-task, Per-hour expert labor, Project contract |
| Mercor | Expert talent marketplace | Frontier labs and AI application companies | Per-hour expert labor, Placement fee |
| Handshake AI | Expert talent marketplace | AI labs | Per-hour expert labor, Project contract |
| micro1 | Expert talent marketplace | AI labs and AI-native companies | Per-hour expert labor, Placement fee |
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Scale AI?
Surge AI overlaps most with Scale AI on data types and provider type, but the best choice depends on the data you need and how you want to pay.
Why look for a Scale AI alternative?
Common reasons are price, access to specialist experts, neutrality concerns, or a need for a marketplace rather than a managed service. Customer neutrality questions after the Meta investment, as reported at the time.
Editorial note. No company listed here pays for placement or has reviewed its entry. AI Data Auction is building its own auction marketplace and will label any commercial relationship with a listed company. Figures are as reported by the named source on the stated date; check the primary source before relying on them. See our methodology.