Centaur Labs Medical Data Pricing (2026): Per-Case Consensus vs. Hourly MD Costs
2026 commercial audit of Centaur Labs healthcare AI pricing: $14–$65 per-case physician consensus economics vs. $185/hr solo MD contractor rates.
Answer in brief: Centaur Labs replaces $160–$230/hr solo physician timecards with performance-weighted per-case diagnostic consensus ($14 to $65 per case depending on modality and required reader count), with typical HIPAA-covered enterprise pilots starting at $25,000–$50,000. On structured classification, ECG, dermatology, pathology, and radiology tasks, aggregating 5 to 9 calibrated medical readers per item delivers higher statistical sensitivity at 30%–50% lower per-label cost than hiring three independent attending MDs hourly.
Executive Pricing & SOW Risk Verdict
Unbeatable unit economics for discrete diagnostic ground truth; less suited for 2,000-word free-form clinical SFT essay authoring.
Predictable per-case pricing, built-in inter-physician agreement distributions (uncertainty labels), and zero hourly timecard padding.
Long-form multi-turn EHR synthesis or complex 3D volumetric segmentation may require pairing with hourly specialist pods.
Combine Centaur Labs for high-volume diagnostic labels with Surge AI (#1) or Mercor (#2) for long-form attending-physician SFT reasoning.
Request 50-Row Rate Card & Pilot Quote →Audited Hourly Tiers, Markup & Rework Terms
| Clinical Task | 3x Hourly Attending MDs ($185/hr) | Centaur Per-Case Consensus |
|---|---|---|
| Chest X-Ray / Derm Triage (5+ readers) | $28 – $45 / case | $14 – $24 / case + uncertainty score |
| ECG / Audio Auscultation Span | $35 – $55 / case | $18 – $32 / case |
| Complex Multi-Note Chart Adjudication | $90 – $150 / chart | $45 – $75 / chart |
Why Paying for Reader Agreement Beats Paying for Raw Physician Hours
Individual physicians disagree with one another 15%–22% of the time on borderline imaging cases. Centaur's dynamic routing stops spending reads on obvious normal scans after 4 unanimous votes while routing ambiguous cases to 9+ top-scoring specialists—optimizing spend per bit of diagnostic information.
Revision log (Nov 2026): Updated per-case clinical consensus bands.
{
"pricing_model": "DYNAMIC_CONSENSUS_PER_CASE",
"min_qualified_medical_reads": 5,
"agreement_stop_threshold": 0.9,
"unit_price_usd": 22.5,
"hipaa_baa": "EXECUTED"
}Top Independent Alternatives With Lower Defect-Adjusted TCO
Surge AI
Custom SOW pricing across Staff SWE ($85–$145/hr eq.) and PhD ($115–$185/hr eq.) cohorts with <3% batch rejection rates, zero platform seat lock-in, and 100% free rework on golden-set misses.
Request 50-Row Rate Card & Pilot Quote →Mercor
$85–$220+/hr Marketplace & Managed Outcome Pods — Pilot floor: $10,000–$20,000 Rapid Specialist Pilot Floor.
Compare Mercor Rates →micro1
$55–$145/hr Dedicated Engineering & Robotics Pods — Pilot floor: $10,000–$15,000 Initial Pod Commitment.
Compare micro1 Rates →Frequently Asked Pricing, Minimum & SOW Questions
How does Centaur Labs charge for medical data labeling?
Centaur charges per labeled clinical case or asset based on task complexity and consensus threshold, typically $14 to $65 per case on production volumes.
Is HIPAA BAA compliance an extra fee at Centaur Labs?
HIPAA Business Associate Agreements and de-identified secure workflows are standard in enterprise clinical SOWs.
When is Mercor or Surge AI cheaper than Centaur Labs for healthcare AI?
When authoring long-form multi-turn medical dialogue demonstrations or complex rubric critiques where a single board-certified subspecialist writing continuously is faster than mobile consensus voting.
Related Vendor Rate Dossiers & Cost Bakeoffs
Encord
2026 commercial review of Encord pricing ($18k–$85k+/yr), frame/DICOM volume tiers, Encord Active curation credits, and hybrid medical/video TCO.
iMerit
2026 commercial audit of iMerit pricing ($22–$65/hr): full-time HIPAA radiology & 3D LiDAR delivery center pods, Ango Hub bundling, and accuracy SLAs.
Hourly Specialist Pods vs. Per-Row Unit Pricing
Financial model comparing dedicated hourly specialist pods vs. fixed per-row unit pricing across R&D rubric iteration, throughput risk, and rework TCO.
Paper RFP vs. Paid 50-Row Bakeoff: Scoring & SOW Redlines
Replace 40-page paper RFPs with a weighted 50-row paid bakeoff scoring matrix: exact cost weights, wage pass-through audits, and SOW escrow redlines.