micro1 vs Ethos
In one line each — micro1: Pass a live AI interview, then wait to be matched. Published bands run $15 to $200+ an hour. Ethos: An expert network running AI training campaigns at $50 to $150 an hour, with no guaranteed volume. Below, the two compared side by side. Every claim on this page is sourced in the full review it comes from, and each review names where its figures came from and what they leave out.
At a glance
| Dimension | micro1 | Ethos |
|---|---|---|
| Published pay | $70/hr median | $70/hr median |
| Application | Interview / vetted (per platform) | Interview / vetted |
| Availability | Global | Not published by the platform |
| Specialties named | domain-expert, frontier-evals, robotics-data, contextual-evals, rlhf, engineering, healthcare, legal, finance, linguistics, phd-level | management consulting, finance and FP&A, medical affairs, enterprise sales, software engineering, market research, presentation design, customer service |
The two platforms in depth
micro1
micro1 is a credential-first platform. You sit a live AI interview before you see any work, and the money sits in the upper bands where a real domain credential is the entry ticket. It publishes pay bands by task type, from $15 to $40 an hour for general annotation up to $100 to $200+ for frontier expert projects, which is more disclosure than most of this category offers. What it does not offer is a start date: certification makes you eligible and nothing more, either side can end the contract on five business days' notice without cause, and a pipeline runs only as long as the client has work. Worth the 20 to 40 minutes if your credential reaches the top two bands, not if you are aiming at the floor.
Best for
- Credentialed specialists aiming at $100+/hr frontier work
- People who want the rate published before they commit
- Anyone comfortable being screened by a live AI interviewer, out loud
- Part-timers who can hold 15 to 20 hours a week when a pipeline runs
Ethos
Ethos fits senior professionals who want to see a rate before they apply and can treat the work as occasional income rather than a paycheck. Every listing carries an hourly figure to the dollar, and the top of the board pays $150/hour for consulting and FP&A work, which is far above what conventional annotation platforms pay. The catch is written into the contract: Section 1.4 of the Expert Terms disclaims any warranty on the frequency, quantity, type, or availability of projects, so the advertised “up to $3k/week” is arithmetic on a 20-hour ceiling, not an offer. Getting in means a recorded AI voice interview and, per workers, a qualification screener with a pass mark, none of which is paid by default. If you need predictable weekly hours, this is the wrong platform.
Best for
- Senior professionals with a named-firm background who want a published rate before applying
- Consultants, FP&A leads, and domain specialists who can charge $100 to $150 an hour
- People wanting occasional supplementary income rather than steady hours
- Anyone comfortable with a recorded, AI-evaluated voice interview
Which should you pick?
micro1 runs an interview-based application according to its own site — likely the better fit if you have engineering or domain-expert credentials, and the review names which of its own pages says so.
Ethos is a better fit if you have engineering or domain-expert credentials and don't mind an application process before you see any tasks.