Accounting and finance is one of the largest professional categories on this site: 68 open roles carrying 4,153 openings, spread across all 4 platforms (Mercor 34, micro1 13, Terac 11 and AfterQuery 10).
Hourly roles span $20–300, with a median ceiling of $110 an hour and an upper quartile of $150.
How much do paid finance interviews pay?
11 of the 68 roles pay a fixed amount per session, not by the hour, which is a larger share than this site carries on average. That matters because the largest single figures in this category are not hourly rates at all.
The highest is a Mercor Accounting Expert listing at $700 per completed task, above any hourly ceiling in the category. Terac lists a 20-minute website evaluation aimed at enterprise CFOs at $315 for the session, and a survey for health plan decision-makers on PBM contracting at $227.50. Mercor lists a paid research study for health plan finance leaders at $210.
A $700 task fee is not a rate, and neither is a $315 session. This site never converts a session fee into an hourly figure, because the listing gives no duration to divide by. Read them as what they are: a one-off fee for a short, well-defined commitment, not ongoing work.
The hourly work
The hourly listings divide fairly cleanly by how specialised the judgement is.
At the top, micro1 lists Equity Research Expert and Investment Banking Expert roles at $175 to $300, and an Investment and Finance Expert role at $245 to $280. Mercor lists an Equity Research Expert role focused on single-name analyst publication at $150 to $250, and AfterQuery an Investment Banking and Private Equity Expert role at $100 to $200.
Below that, generalist finance work clusters around $60 to $180: Financial Analyst and Finance Expert talent networks on Mercor, Financial Systems Expert on micro1 at $90 to $170, and finance and investor relations roles at $80 to $160.
AfterQuery lists the most recognisable practice-area roles: Tax Accountant Expert and Audit or Assurance Accounting Expert, both at $75 to $150.
What the work is
Your professional judgement is the product. A model can already produce a plausible-looking valuation, reconciliation or audit memo. What it cannot do reliably is know when that output is wrong in the specific way a practitioner would catch.
So the tasks tend to be evaluating financial reasoning, checking figures and methodology, marking up analysis against professional standards, and writing the corrected version with the reasoning made explicit. If you have reviewed a junior’s work and explained why a number was wrong, that is the shape of it.
Can you do this outside the US?
Of the 68 roles, 2 state a US-only restriction outright. The rest are open more widely, though the paid research sessions often target specific markets, since a study on US health plan contracting needs people who actually work in that system.
Qualifications are named in the listings rather than assumed. A tax role wants tax practice, an audit role wants assurance experience, and an equity research role wants published analyst work.
Worth checking first
If you are employed at a firm, two questions come with any outside engagement: whether your employer’s outside-activities policy covers contract work, and whether anything you would be asked to produce touches client information or independence requirements. The listings do not raise either, and neither can this site advise you on them, but both are easier to settle before you sign.
Where to start
Browse the open finance and accounting roles to see current listings with their stated rates, or read what AI training work pays for how this category compares with the rest of the site.