Who buys company data for AI training
41 training-data companies, marketplaces, brokers and licensing agents, with what each publishes about payouts, requirements and terms. Facts come from each company's own pages.
| Company | Type | Published payout or price | Size or fit | Exclusivity | Fee to seller |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | Direct buyer | Not published. The New York Times deal is reported at $20 million to $25 million a year (The Wall Street Journal) | Mainly large publishers and platforms, by direct deal | Not published | Not published |
| Anthropic | Direct buyer | Not published | Mainly large publishers and platforms, by direct deal. No open program for companies to sell records | Not published | Not published |
| Appen | Training-data company | Not published. Each partnership is quoted individually, based on volume, connected systems, workflow complexity and rarity | Not published. Appen responds to registrations within two business days | Not published. Appen says your data is never commingled with another partner's | None. Appen covers extraction, anonymization, preparation and transfer, with no setup fees or deductions |
| Apple | Direct buyer | Not published. The Shutterstock deal is reported at $25 million to $50 million (Reuters) | Mainly large publishers and platforms, by direct deal | Not published | Not published |
| AWS Data Exchange | Data marketplace | Provider sets the price | Must register as an AWS Marketplace seller. Paid products need residency or incorporation in an eligible jurisdiction, including the UK, EU and US | Not published | AWS Marketplace service fees deducted. Rate not stated on the pages we checked |
| Calliope Networks | Licensing agent | Not published. Creators are paid by a formula based on volume and subscriber count | Not published. Open to film and TV rights owners and to creators on YouTube and other platforms | Non-exclusive for content owners, with no exhibition rights granted | Not published |
| Cohere | Direct buyer | Not published | Not published. No open program for companies or publishers | Not published | Not published |
| Created by Humans | Licensing agent | Not published. The platform shows relative earnings potential by rights licensed | None published. Open to authors, agents and publishers, who claim works by ISBN or upload | Not published | Not published on its site. TechCrunch reported it takes a cut of each deal |
| Datarade | Data marketplace | Provider sets the price | None published. Applications reviewed in 1 to 2 business days | Not published | Commission-only: $0 a year plus 30%. Bronze: $6,000 a year plus 20%. Silver: $12,000 a year plus 15%. Gold: custom |
| DataVendor | Data marketplace | Vendor sets the price. Example homepage listings include a $220,000 payments monorepo | None. Self-serve sign-up with no application review | Not published | 20% of vendor earnings, charged on withdrawal. A $15 dispute fee passes to the vendor if a dispute is lost |
| Defined.ai | Data marketplace | Not published | Not published. Partners pass an ethical vetting process, and Defined.ai says 30% are approved | Not published | Not published |
| Endless Data | Direct buyer | Up to $4 million (indicative estimate based on headcount, years of history and location) | Roughly 30 or more employees, several years of history, English documentation. US, UK and Canada prioritized | Non-exclusive | None. Endless is paid by the labs |
| FileYield | Data marketplace | Seller sets the price | Not published. Listings are reviewed before going live | Seller chooses: exclusive or non-exclusive, time-limited or perpetual | Free to list. Any facilitation fees are disclosed when you list, request or accept a deal |
| Direct buyer | Not published. Reported deals include about $60 million a year (Reddit, reported by Reuters) and a $10 million winning bid (Spirit Airlines data) | Mainly large publishers and platforms, by direct deal. More than 400 news publications take part in its News AI pilot | Not published | Not published | |
| Grepped | Data broker | Not verified on Grepped's site | Not verified on Grepped's site | Not verified on Grepped's site | Not verified on Grepped's site |
| Handshake AI | Training-data company | $100,000 to more than $4 million (headline). Its calculator shows estimates up to $100,000 and $400,000 to $800,000 or more | Not published. The calculator asks for employees, tools used and years in business | Not published | Not published |
| Human Native | Data marketplace | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Innodata | Training-data company | Not published | Not published. No open program for companies to sell records | Not published | Not published |
| Labelbox Prism | Training-data company | From around $50,000 (smaller targeted datasets) to more than $1 million (large enterprise partnerships) | Not published. Prefers high-volume B2C companies for support logs | Exclusive by default, tailored to scope, sensitivity and strategic value | Not published. Scoping is free and non-binding |
| Linguistic Data Consortium | Data marketplace | Not published. Its data sharing guide does not mention royalties or payments to providers | None published. Providers supply ownership and copyright information, a sample and documentation for LDC review | Non-exclusive. LDC does not require exclusive distribution rights | Not published |
| Mercor | Training-data company | Not published on mercor.com/data. ddiy.co reported Mercor's referral page listing $20,000 to $1.5 million by industry (October 2026) | Not published on mercor.com/data. Target industries include legal, healthcare, finance and insurance, professional services, manufacturing, retail, real estate and logistics | Not published | None. Mercor covers extraction, anonymization and transfer costs |
| Meta | Direct buyer | Not published. Both deals in our tracker are undisclosed | Mainly large publishers and platforms, by direct deal | Not published | Not published |
| micro1 | Training-data company | $100,000 to $500,000 (qualified partnerships), $500,000 to $3 million (large-scale or ongoing), more than $3 million (highly unique data). Agent trajectories listed at $1 million to $2 million a year | 30 or more full-time staff, mainly English records, US first, then the UK and Canada | Not published | None stated |
| Microsoft | Direct buyer | Not published. Publishers are paid on delivered value, with usage-based reporting | Publishers of all sizes, through an interest form for the Publisher Content Marketplace. Large publishers by direct deal | Not published | Not published |
| Mistral AI | Direct buyer | Not published. The AFP deal terms were not disclosed | Mainly large publishers and platforms, by direct deal | Not published | Not published |
| OpenAI | Direct buyer | Not published. Reported deals run up to about $250 million over five years (News Corp, reported by The Wall Street Journal) | Mainly large publishers and platforms, by direct deal. Other organizations can submit interest through its data partnerships form | Not published | Not published |
| Opendatabay | Data marketplace | Seller sets the price and keeps 70% to 95% depending on the sale price | Not published | Not published | Free to list. Commission from 30% (sales up to $100) to 5% (sales above $250,000), set per transaction |
| Perplexity | Direct buyer | Revenue share on interactions that reference a publisher. 80% of Comet Plus revenue, with a $42.5 million initial pool (reported by Axios) | News and web publishers, through its Publishers' Program | Not published | None stated. Perplexity keeps 20% of Comet Plus revenue (reported by Axios) |
| Polyshares | Direct buyer | $100,000 to $2 million and above typical. Four published licenses range from $110,000 to $450,000 | No headcount minimum. Any company with real operating history, in any sector | All four published case studies are perpetual exclusive licenses. Its terms page does not state exclusivity | None. No fee and no commission |
| ProRata.ai | Content licensing platform | Not verified on ProRata.ai's site. Axios reported a 50/50 revenue share for publishers licensing content to Gist Answers | Not verified on ProRata.ai's site. Partners range from national titles to university presses | Not verified on ProRata.ai's site | Not verified on ProRata.ai's site. Axios reported Gist Answers is free for websites |
| Protege | Data broker | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Sama | Training-data company | Not published | Not applicable | Not published | Not published |
| Scale AI | Training-data company | $10,000 to more than $1 million per partnership (illustrative, scaling with cadence) | 40 or more employees preferred, assessed case by case | Not published | Not published |
| SellMyData | Data broker | Not published. Price set by data type, volume, years of history and lab demand, and approved by the seller | No minimum headcount | Not published | Nothing upfront. Commission when a sale closes (rate not published) |
| Shutterstock data licensing | Content licensing platform | Not published. Contributor compensation is not described on the data licensing page | Not applicable | Not published | Not published |
| SimpleClosure AssetHub | Data broker | Deals in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for unique assets | None published. Operating companies and companies winding down can both sell | Not published | No upfront cost. A percentage on a successful sale or license (rate not published) |
| TELUS Digital | Training-data company | Not published | Not published. No open program for companies to sell records | Not published | Not published |
| Troveo | Licensing agent | Typical full-company deals start at six figures. More than $20 million paid to licensors to date (Troveo figure) | Not published. Its estimator uses headcount (20 to 1,000 or more) and years trading (under 3 to 15 or more) | Time-limited and has to be earned, with exit terms in the agreement | None. No fees, setup costs or deductions from payouts |
| Versos | Content licensing platform | Not published for Versos. Its blog reports $1 to $4 per minute (OpenAI) and about $3 per minute (Adobe), unsourced | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Wirestock | Content licensing platform | Not published. Royalties or lump-sum payments when content is selected and used | None published. Creators opt in to generative AI licensing after uploading | Not published | Not published. Creators earn a commission when work is licensed |
| xAI | Direct buyer | Not published | Not published. No open program for companies or publishers | Not published | Not published |
"Not published" means the company's own pages do not say. Published payouts are ceilings, not quotes.
Direct buyers
Training-data companys
Data marketplaces
Licensing agents
Data brokers
Content licensing platforms
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