Surge AI vs Scale AI: How They Compare in 2026
Patronus AI TeamNovember 20267 min read
Patronus AI, which builds RL environments, publishes this comparison and is neither company. Every fact about each company comes from its own pages, read on Nov 11, 2026 and linked under its section.
As of November 2026
Surge AI and Scale AI both sell expert human data, evaluations and RL environments to AI labs, ready-made and custom. Surge AI sells RL environments, rubrics and verifiers, RLHF and evaluation data, with a ready-made catalog, and publishes benchmarks such as DAYJOB. Scale AI also sells AI applications to enterprises and governments and lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and FedRAMP High, where Surge AI lists no certifications on its site. Choose Surge AI for RL environments with expert data, rubrics and evaluation, and Scale AI for one vendor that also covers government work.
Both companies sell expert data and RL environments, ready-made and custom, so the differences are in what else each sells, how much each says about itself and what security each lists. This page compares them as of November 2026, from each company’s own pages.
Snapshot as of
Surge AI and Scale AI at a glance
Each cell is what the company states on its own pages, as of Nov 11, 2026.
| Criterion | Surge AI | Scale AI |
|---|---|---|
| In its own words | “Raise AGI with the richness of humanity” | “Reliable AI for the world’s most important decisions” |
| Founded, headquarters | Not stated on its site; headquartered in the United States | 2016, San Francisco |
| Leadership | Not named on its site | CEO Francis deSouza (since Aug 10, 2026); founder Alexandr Wang is chairman |
| What it sells | RL environments, rubrics and verifiers, RLHF and evaluation data | Training data, evaluations, RL environments and AI applications for enterprises and governments |
| Who does the work | Domain experts and specialists in its own network | Subject matter experts, through its Outlier platform |
| RL environments | Ready-made tool use environments and custom ones in its programs | Scale RL Environments, introduced Feb 27, 2026, sold as Enterprise Atlas as of Nov 11, 2026, on MCP servers, CLI and GUIs |
| Benchmarks and research | DAYJOB, EnterpriseBench and other public benchmarks | Scale Labs research and public leaderboards |
| Security (its own site) | Not listed on its site | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, FedRAMP High, DoD IL4 |
| How to buy | Contact its team, start a pilot or request its catalog | Book a demo or request samples |
Surge AI
Surge AI says its mission is “to raise AGI with the richness of humanity.” Its company is Surge Labs, Inc., and its privacy policy says it is headquartered in the United States.
Its site does not state a founding year or name its leaders, as of Nov 11, 2026.
What Surge AI offers
- RL environments and the verifiers that reward agent behavior, both ready-made, such as long-horizon tool use environments across office documents and enterprise workflows, and custom, built within its enterprise programs.
- Human data for supervised fine-tuning and RLHF, rubrics and verifiers, and human evaluation, including multimodal work.
- An off-the-shelf catalog of training data, evals and RL environments, in coding agents, enterprise agents, multimodal reasoning and expert reasoning.
- Public benchmarks such as DAYJOB (tax, healthcare and finance) and EnterpriseBench: CoreCraft, a benchmark that tests agents in a large simulated startup environment.
- Programs staffed by doctors, lawyers, engineers, researchers, finance professionals and other specialists.
Considerations
- Security certifications are not listed on its site, as of Nov 11, 2026.
Best for: Teams that want RL environments, ready-made or custom, alongside expert data, rubrics and evaluation.
Sources: surgehq.ai, surgehq.ai/products, surgehq.ai/ots, surgehq.ai/enterprise, surgehq.ai/benchmarks, surgehq.ai/research, surgehq.ai/privacy-policy
Scale AI
Scale AI’s mission is “to develop reliable AI systems for the world’s most important decisions.” It provides training data, evaluations and AI applications to model developers, enterprises and governments. It was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in San Francisco.
Its founder, Alexandr Wang, is chairman of the board, and Francis deSouza has been CEO since Aug 10, 2026. On Jun 12, 2025 Scale AI announced an investment from Meta, said Meta would hold a minority of its equity, and said it remains independent.
What Scale AI offers
- Training data, annotations and RLHF through its Data Engine, with labels from domain experts.
- RL environments, introduced Feb 27, 2026 as Scale RL Environments and sold as Enterprise Atlas as of Nov 11, 2026, with MCP servers, CLI and GUIs across enterprise systems and desktop environments and expert-designed tasks and rubrics. Its environments run on AgentEnv, which it open-sourced on Oct 5, 2026.
- An off-the-shelf catalog of training data, evals and RL environments to license.
- Model evaluations and red teaming, plus research and public leaderboards from Scale Labs.
- AI applications for enterprises and governments, Scale GenAI Portfolio and Donovan.
- Contributors who work through Outlier, “a platform operated by Scale AI.”
Considerations
- Its RL environments are available by requesting samples.
- Its environments page covers tool use and computer use, so teams in other domains should ask what is available.
Best for: Teams that want data, evaluations and environments from one vendor, or that need a FedRAMP High authorized vendor (ask which products it covers).
Sources: scale.com/about, scale.com/blog/scale-appoints-new-ceo, scale.com/blog/scale-ai-announces-next-phase-of-company-evolution, scale.com/data-engine, scale.com/rlenvironments, scale.com/blog/rl-environments, labs.scale.com/blog/introducing-agentenv, scale.com/off-the-shelf-data, scale.com/experts, outlier.ai, scale.com/security
Key differences
- Focus. Surge AI’s products page leads with RL environments, then rubrics and verifiers, RLHF and evaluation. Scale AI sells the same kinds of data and also AI applications, Scale GenAI Portfolio for enterprises and Donovan for government.
- Ready-made catalogs. Both license ready-made data, evals and RL environments. Surge AI’s catalog covers coding agents, enterprise agents, multimodal reasoning and expert reasoning. Scale AI’s RL environments, Enterprise Atlas, cover tool use and computer use across enterprise systems and desktop environments.
- Benchmarks. Surge AI publishes benchmarks such as DAYJOB for tax, healthcare and finance work and EnterpriseBench. Scale AI publishes research and leaderboards through Scale Labs.
- What each says about itself. Scale AI’s site gives its founding year (2016), its headquarters and its CEO. Surge AI’s site names neither a founding year nor its leaders, as of Nov 11, 2026.
- Security. Scale AI lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, FedRAMP High and a DoD IL4 provisional authorization. Surge AI lists no certifications on its site, so ask it directly.
How to choose
Choose Surge AI if you want RL environments alongside rubrics, RLHF and evaluation data from one expert data company, or if its ready-made catalog covers your domain.
Choose Scale AI if you want data, evaluations and environments from one vendor, need government authorizations such as FedRAMP High, or also want AI applications for your own organization.
Either way, ask for samples, ask how graders are checked against reward hacking, and confirm the certifications your data requires.
Where Patronus AI fits
Patronus AI, which publishes this page, is a behavioral research lab for AI that builds RL environments and the data inside them, in coding, knowledge work, computer use and more. It sells a set of ready-made environments, though most of its work is custom, and domain experts review every environment before delivery.
As of Nov 11, 2026, from each company’s own pages.
| Criterion | Patronus AI | Surge AI | Scale AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A behavioral research lab that builds RL environments and data | A company that sells RL environments and human data, with its own expert network | A data, evaluation and applied AI company that also sells RL environments |
| What it sells | Ready-made and custom RL environments, and parts such as simulated apps and mock websites | RL environments, ready-made or custom, plus human data, rubrics and evaluations | RL environments on MCP servers, CLI and GUIs, next to human data, evaluations and applied AI for enterprises and governments |
| Quality checks | Domain expert review and automated checks on every environment, plus its own training runs | Expert rubrics and verifiers it designs, human evaluation, and post-training runs on its own data | Expert-designed tasks and rubrics, process and outcome verifiers, a rubric-based agent judge, and training runs on open models |
| Research | 20 papers as of Nov 11, 2026, including at NeurIPS, ICML and ACL | Research papers on arXiv, and public benchmarks such as DAYJOB and EnterpriseBench | Research papers on Scale Labs, and public leaderboards |
For more options, see Surge AI alternatives, Scale AI alternatives and RL environment companies.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Surge AI and Scale AI?
Both sell expert human data, evaluations and RL environments to AI labs. Surge AI sells RL environments, rubrics and verifiers, RLHF and evaluation data, with a ready-made catalog, and publishes benchmarks such as DAYJOB. Scale AI also sells AI applications to enterprises and governments, and lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and FedRAMP High.
Do Surge AI and Scale AI sell ready-made RL environments?
Yes, as of November 2026. Surge AI’s off-the-shelf catalog includes long-horizon tool use environments, and Scale AI sells Enterprise Atlas and an off-the-shelf catalog. Both also build custom environments.
Which security certifications do Surge AI and Scale AI list?
As of Nov 11, 2026, Scale AI’s security page lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, FedRAMP High and a DoD IL4 provisional authorization. Surge AI’s site lists no certifications.
What are the alternatives to Surge AI and Scale AI?
Other companies that supply expert data or RL environments include Mercor, Turing, Snorkel AI, Labelbox, Invisible and Patronus AI. Our Surge AI alternatives and Scale AI alternatives pages compare them.
Is there an alternative to both?
Yes. Surge AI and Scale AI both sell expert data alongside RL environments. For teams whose main need is the environments themselves, Patronus AI, which publishes this page, is a behavioral research lab that builds ready-made and custom RL environments and the data inside them. Talk to Patronus AI, or see the other options on the alternatives pages linked above.
How was this comparison made?
Patronus AI wrote it from each company’s own pages, read on Nov 11, 2026 and linked under each company’s section. It is a dated snapshot. Products, leaders and certifications change, so check each company’s site before you buy.
Snapshot as of