'At' or 'On' "a large scale" [closed]

There had to be some way to automate this process on a large scale.

There had to be some way to automate this process at a large scale.

Which of these sentences is grammatically correct, and, if both are, preferred or standard in American English?

Solution 1:

Both are grammatically correct. However, "on a large scale" (and "on a scale" in general) is a set phrase. There may be variations in local dialects, but to most English speakers, "at a large scale" would sound slightly awkward.

Checking COCAE (https://corpus.byu.edu/coca/), "on a large scale" is used 25x more than "at a large scale".

Google Books ngrams also shows that use of "on a large scale" is much more prevalent: