Rates get all the attention. The mechanics of receiving the money get almost none, and they differ enough between platforms to change what a contract is worth to you.
Three things decide when money reaches you: the unit you are paid in, the platform’s payout cycle, and whether your work has been approved.
The unit comes first
Of the 680 open roles this site tracks, 597 pay by the hour, 43 pay a fixed fee per session, and 39 pay per completed task.
That distinction is not cosmetic. Hourly work pays for time that has been recorded and accepted. Session and task work pays on approval of a deliverable, which means the clock you care about is the reviewer’s, not your own.
What each platform publishes
Mercor is the most specific. Hours are counted from Saturday to Friday on Indian Standard Time, and that week is processed the following Wednesday through Stripe. Your first payout carries a seven-day hold imposed by Stripe. Deliverable-based contracts are paid after the work is approved, entering the next payout cycle, typically within three business days of completion.
The IST cutoff is worth a second look if you are not in that timezone. A Friday 11:59pm IST deadline falls on Friday afternoon in London and Friday morning in New York, so the week closes earlier than a European or American contractor might assume.
Terac pays on approval, not on a cycle. Approved submissions land in your balance immediately, and you can cash out once that balance reaches $12.50. A cash-out request processes within 24 hours, with a redemption email following within 24 to 48. In the US the methods are PayPal, Venmo, a prepaid Visa card or direct cash-out. Outside the US, PayPal is the primary route.
micro1 commits to nothing publicly. What we have seen is pay arriving monthly on some projects and twice a month on others, through either Deel or Stripe. What decides which rail you are on is not stated anywhere, so confirm both the timing and the method for your own contract.
AfterQuery says its payouts are fast and reliable but does not publish a cadence or method either.
Only Mercor and Terac publish a cadence at all. That two of four commit to nothing in writing is a fact about this market, not a gap in this page.
Hourly pay depends on tracked time
On Mercor’s hourly contracts, hours are recorded through a monitoring tool called Insightful, and its documentation is blunt about the consequence: hours not captured through it are not eligible for payment. Working without the tracker running means working for free, regardless of what you produced.
Contractors also report hours being reduced after the fact following a review. One described disputing a deduction that took a logged 4.43 hours down to 0.18 after being accused of using AI on the task, which they attributed to having an AI coding tool open in another window while waiting for work to load.
What that software records, and how to work with it without losing hours, deserves its own treatment and will get one. For payment purposes the rule is narrow: on an hourly contract, tracked and approved time is the only time that pays.
The tax forms you will be asked for
Every platform here treats you as an independent contractor, so nothing is withheld and the paperwork lands on you.
Mercor’s policy sets out the split clearly, and it is the pattern across this market. If you have US tax status you complete a W-9 with your SSN, and if you earn $600 or more in a year you receive a 1099. If you are not a US person you complete a W-8BEN, which verifies foreign status and lets you claim any treaty benefit that applies, and you do not receive a 1099.
That last point catches people out. No 1099 does not mean no tax. It means there is no US form summarising what you earned, and you are responsible for reporting the income under your own country’s rules.
Mercor also states that it compensates individuals, not business entities, so invoicing through a company is not an option there.
Getting paid from outside the US
The constraint is rarely eligibility for the role. It is whether the payout rail reaches you.
Stripe carries much of this market: Mercor runs on it, and some micro1 contractors are paid through it too. It does not operate in every country, so it is the first thing to check. Terac routes international payouts through PayPal, which does not reach everywhere either, and requires a verified government ID before you can apply at all.
Identity documents are their own gate, separately from payment. One contractor described clearing micro1’s certification steps and then stalling because a national ID card was not accepted and only a passport was. Passing screening and being able to complete onboarding are different things.
Check three things before you invest hours in assessments: whether the platform’s processor operates in your country, what identity document it accepts, and whether your local rules treat this as self-employment income you must declare.
Before your first task
- Confirm whether the contract pays hourly, per session or per task, because that decides when you are paid
- On hourly work, confirm what counts as tracked time and keep the tracker running
- Check the payout method works where you live before starting
- Expect a hold on a first payout, which is a processor rule rather than a platform stalling
- File the right form, and remember that no 1099 does not mean no obligation
Rates are only half the picture. What AI training work pays covers the other half, and whether it adds up to a living covers what neither number tells you about available hours.