People leave Outlier because its Terms promise no continuity: you are “not required to use the Services or perform Tasks at any specified time or day,” and Outlier may “remove any Task listings at any time, immediately without prior notice for any reason.” The platforms below post a role with the pay written on it before you apply. We do not list Outlier and earn nothing if you apply there. For the platforms below, if you are hired through a link on this site, the platform pays this site a referral fee, and your pay is unaffected.
A listed rate is not promised hours or income. None of these platforms guarantees how much work reaches you.
Why people look past Outlier
Outlier’s own wording, from its Terms of Use, is that it may “deactivate or suspend your account” and remove task listings “immediately without prior notice for any reason.” Its FAQ adds that available projects “vary and may not always match your specific field.” Pay is set per track, with no platform-wide rate, and the FAQ does not give a minimum payout.
What people report is separate from that wording and unverified. Contributors describe an “empty queue,” a gap of days or weeks with no tasks after a batch ends or a quality flag lands. Others report accounts closed over an alleged duplicate with no appeal, and wages held back after a ban. Outlier does not use the term “empty queue” itself.
Where to look, by background
Outlier sorts its work into tracks: general tasks with no specialism, coding, languages, and STEM or research. The groups below follow those tracks.
No specialism
Outlier’s English generalist page says “Earn up to $15 USD/hr.” Here, generalist roles number 50 open, with hourly pay $8–180 where a role pays hourly.
Coding
Outlier’s Latin America coding page shows “$34/hr.” On this site, software engineer roles number 91 open ($25–300 hourly), machine learning engineer roles number 22 ($60–280) and QA engineer roles number 6 ($20–175).
Languages
Outlier’s Japan track page says “Earn Up to $31 USD/hr.” Here, bilingual speaker roles number 84 open (up to $200 hourly) and transcriber roles number 14 ($8–36). Each role states the language it needs and the countries it is open to.
STEM and research
Outlier’s about page lists a biology expert role at “Up to $50/hr.” On this site, mathematician and statistician roles number 5 open, physicist roles 14, researcher and academic roles 78 and life scientist roles 34, with hourly pay of $35–250 across the researcher roles.
How each platform screens and pays
micro1 has 220 open roles with 18,949 stated openings and hourly pay from $6–400. Screening is one AI interview of 20 to 40 minutes, and prior AI experience is not required for many roles. Pay is monthly or twice monthly, through Deel or Stripe. See micro1’s roles.
Mercor has 202 open roles, hourly pay $15–450, median ceiling $85. Screening is a resume, role assessments, work-authorisation verification and one AI interview of about 20 minutes. Pay is weekly on Wednesdays through Stripe. See Mercor’s roles.
Terac has 43 open roles, many of them fixed-fee sessions, interviews or surveys, with hourly pay $5–112 where a role pays by the hour. A verified phone comes first, then a short screener per opportunity; a verified ID is needed before you cash out. See Terac’s roles.
AfterQuery has 47 open roles, hourly pay $15–200. Screening is an account, an interview and a short skills assessment in your domain. See AfterQuery’s roles.
Turing has 15 open roles, hourly pay $15–30. Some roles have proctored tests, and Turing says an interview is typically required for all of them. See Turing’s roles.
SME Careers has 185 open roles. Every rate is a maximum, and many roles pay a different maximum per country. Screening is a CV-based application and a recorded AI video interview of about 15 minutes. See SME Careers’ roles.
For the full picture of each, read the platform pages. To compare Outlier directly with a listed platform, see Outlier vs Mercor and micro1 vs Outlier. Our scam checklist covers what to check before applying anywhere.
Open work in your field
Each page lists the roles open today for that profession, with the pay each posting states.
- Accountants and finance experts154
- Business and operations specialists148
- Software engineers91
- Bilingual speakers84
- Sales and CRM specialists83
- Researchers and academics78
- Engineers72
- Lawyers56
- Doctors and clinicians54
- Generalists50
- Marketing professionals50
- Life scientists34
- Voice and audio recorders24
- Machine learning engineers22
- Designers21
- CAD and manufacturing specialists16
- Writers and editors16
- Data analysts15
- Physicists14
- Transcribers14
- Video recorders9
- IT support specialists8
- Medical coders and auditors6
- QA engineers6
- Mathematicians and statisticians5
- Video editors and animators4
Red Pen Jobs is independent. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for Outlier in any way, and we do not recruit on its behalf.