micro1 is a US data lab and human-data company, legal name micro1 Inc., that runs expert-contributor work for AI labs and, through its Company Data Partnerships program, licenses operational data from established companies and licenses it on to labs and enterprises in the US and allied countries.
For a company weighing AI training data licensing, micro1 publishes payout tiers, a referral formula and its full license contract. Every figure here is micro1's claim, checked 2026-11-09. DataPacts takes no cut of any sale and lists micro1 regardless of any referral program.
micro1 states that companies receive USD 100,000 to 500,000, USD 500,000 to 3,000,000 or USD 3,000,000 or more depending on the data, checked 2026-11-09, and it offers referrers USD 50,000 or USD 75,000 per deal up to set thresholds. Its own pages disagree on six points, from the payment trigger to what "exclusively" means.
The contract tells the rest. micro1's Data License Master Terms of 2026-11-08 grant a nonexclusive but perpetual license, deem data accepted after 30 business days of silence, and impose no duty to retrain models after deletion. In the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy, micro1 filed a notice of intent to submit a competing bid on 2026-09-03 without an amount; the sale is not approved as of 2026-11-09.
Each value below names its source and check date, and how DataPacts sources and dates every figure is set out in the methodology.
What micro1 Buys From Companies: The Company Data Partnerships Program
micro1 buys licenses to operational records that show how a company works: SOPs, internal communications, project histories, CRM records, support tickets and, with approval, agent trajectories. micro1 states it wants SOPs, knowledge bases, workflows, templates and contracts as well, checked 2026-11-09.
The program page names six functional areas, each with its typical records:
- Software and engineering: documentation and bug tracking.
- Finance and accounting: finance SOPs, reconciliations and reporting workflows.
- Customer support: support tickets and knowledge bases.
- Sales and CRM: CRM records and sales playbooks.
- Legal and contracts: contracts, policies and compliance procedures.
- Operations and logistics: logistics and fulfillment processes.
micro1 also licenses agent trajectories, the recorded steps a company's own AI agents take on tasks. On 2026-10-09 micro1 announced that it has committed USD 1 billion to enterprise data acquisition over the next 12 months, financed by Citi and Hercules Capital according to micro1; this is a commitment, not money already paid.
micro1 is therefore one answer to who buys AI training data from operating companies.
micro1 Company Identity
micro1 Inc. is the legal entity named as licensee in micro1's Data License Master Terms and as filer of ECF No. 1556 in the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy. The table lists each attribute with its source, as of 2026-11-09.
| Attribute | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Legal name | micro1 Inc. | Data License Master Terms; "Notice of micro1 Inc.'s Intent to Submit a Competing and Superior Bid", ECF No. 1556, listed in Dkt. 1703 |
| Registry number | Not found in the sources checked | n/a |
| Website | https://www.micro1.ai | micro1.ai |
| Country | United States | Data License Master Terms |
| City and founding year | Not stated in the sources checked | n/a |
| Type | Data lab and human-data company: expert contributors, RL environments, evaluations, company data licensing | micro1.ai, Q3 update |
| Core team | About 180 people in 14+ countries, micro1's claim of 2026-10-12 | Q3 update |
| CEO | Ali Ansari, as he describes himself in his own posts | LinkedIn post |
No registry number, city, founding year or founders' names appear in the sources checked, so none is stated. Questions about micro1's valuation and funding rounds belong to funding and valuations of AI data companies, not to this profile.
micro1 Program Terms, Dated
micro1 publishes payout tiers, eligibility rules and two referral schedules, but its program page links no license terms; the table lists every term micro1 states, each with the date it was checked. All values are micro1's claims, as of 2026-11-09.
| Term | micro1's stated value | Program | Checked | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payout tiers | USD 100K-500K for qualified enterprise data partnerships; USD 500K-3M for large-scale datasets or ongoing participation across teams; USD 3M+ for highly unique proprietary data | Company Data Partnerships | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/data-partnerships |
| Agent trajectories | "We license qualifying trajectories for $1-2M annually, with your approval"; optional agent build-out in months 1-2, recurring from launch | Company Data Partnerships | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/data-partnerships |
| Eligibility and markets | 30+ full-time employees, mature operations, substantial historical data; data primarily English; US prioritized, then other Western markets (demand strongest in US, UK, Canada) | Company Data Partnerships | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/data-partnerships |
| Who receives the data | "licensed exclusively to labs and enterprises based in the U.S. and allied countries" | Company Data Partnerships | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/data-payout |
| Payment timing | "We pay in full within 30 days of acceptance"; elsewhere on the same page: 30 days to review, then invoice, then payment within 30 days of invoicing | Company Data Partnerships | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/data-partnerships |
| Review period | Program page: 30 days to review and approve; master terms s.1.3: 30 business days to reject, then deemed acceptance | Company Data Partnerships | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/data-partnerships; Data License Master Terms |
| Who de-identifies | micro1 de-identifies sensitive information itself; companies need not anonymize before transfer | Company Data Partnerships | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/data-partnerships |
| License grant | Worldwide, nonexclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, sublicensable (summary; full table below) | Company Data Partnerships | 2026-11-09 | Data License Master Terms |
| Enterprise referral | USD 50,000 flat for deals up to USD 700,000 deal value; 7.5% above | Company Data Partnerships Referral Program | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/company-referral |
| Defunct-company referral | USD 75,000 for deals up to USD 1M; 7.5% above; referred company 30+ employees, "10+ Countries", English | Company Data Partnerships Referral Program | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/company-referral |
| Other partnerships and cap | 7.5% of deal value; "No cap on payouts"; unlimited referrals | Company Data Partnerships Referral Program | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/company-referral |
| Referral trigger and attribution | Earned only after the referred company's data is transferred and approved, not on registration, application or signature; company must register through the referrer's unique link; no retroactive attribution | Company Data Partnerships Referral Program | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/company-referral |
| Referral payment method | Referral page: wire transfer; Referral Program Terms s.3.3(b): third-party Payment Processors | Company Data Partnerships Referral Program | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/company-referral; Referral Program Terms |
| Estimator example | USD 50,284-92,776 with default inputs, indicative only | Company Data Partnerships | 2026-11-09 | micro1.ai/data-estimate |
| Master terms version | Last updated 2026-11-08; archived versions 2026-09-30, 2026-10-07, 2026-10-30 | Company Data Partnerships | 2026-11-09 | Archive |
| Referral terms version | Last updated 2026-10-14; default 7.5% where no payout is specified; holdback and clawback possible; FTC disclosure required (s.5.4) | Company Data Partnerships Referral Program | 2026-11-09 | Referral Program Terms |
The table covers two programs: Company Data Partnerships, which pays the company that licenses its data, and the Company Data Partnerships Referral Program, which pays a third party who introduces that company. Both sets of figures are offers on micro1's pages, not amounts a seller has confirmed receiving, and micro1's terms sit beside Mercor's and Handshake AI's in the program terms compared table.
The program page leaves the decisive terms to the contract. License scope, term, deletion and liability sit in separate Data License Master Terms, which the program page does not link, and the price itself sits in an Order Form that micro1 does not publish.
How a micro1 Data Partnership Works: Referral, Interview, Transfer, Acceptance, Payment
micro1 describes a sequence that starts with an AI interview of the company and ends with payment after micro1 accepts the transferred data. The six steps, as micro1 states them on its program page (checked 2026-11-09), are:
- Referral or application: the company applies directly or registers through a referrer's unique link.
- AI interview: micro1 holds an AI interview with the company.
- Agreement: onboarding ends in an Order Form under the Data License Master Terms, with a Data Manifest describing the data.
- Transfer: the company sends data through micro1's APIs or other approved methods.
- Review and acceptance: micro1 reviews the data, within 30 days on the program page or 30 business days under the master terms.
- Invoice and payment: the company invoices after approval and is paid within 30 days of invoicing, or "within 30 days of acceptance" in the page's other phrasing.
micro1 states it de-identifies sensitive information itself, so companies need not anonymize data before transfer. Its research note of 2026-09-24 describes an identity-preserving transformation that replaces people with consistent synthetic identities, which on DataPacts' reading works like pseudonymization rather than anonymization. The rights audit, consent and an accurate Data Manifest remain the seller's job, since the master terms allow a clawback for a materially inaccurate manifest. Methods and limits of de-identification before licensing data are covered in the seller guide.
The Contract Behind micro1's Program: Grant, Acceptance, Deletion and Liability
micro1's Data License Master Terms, last updated 2026-11-08, grant micro1 a worldwide, nonexclusive, irrevocable and perpetual license that it can sublicense through multiple tiers. The table summarizes the main clauses of that version, checked 2026-11-09.
| Clause | What it says | Section | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grant | Worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, nonexclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, sublicensable through multiple tiers, to micro1 and affiliates; attaches after acceptance and payment | s.1.2 | Data License Master Terms |
| Ownership of derivatives | micro1 owns derivatives, models, weights, outputs and synthetic data | s.2.2 | Data License Master Terms |
| Acceptance | 30 business days to reject after delivery, otherwise deemed accepted; latent-defect claims within 60 days after acceptance | s.1.3 | Data License Master Terms |
| Payment | Sole consideration is the License Price in the Order Form; invoices only after acceptance; undisputed amounts paid within the Order Form period | s.3 | Data License Master Terms |
| Deletion | Raw data deleted at the earlier of 120 days after delivery completes or termination; no duty to delete or retrain Licensee Materials; backups excluded; written confirmation on request | s.4.4 | Data License Master Terms |
| Clawback | Refund if the Data Manifest is materially inaccurate; survives acceptance | s.4.3 | Data License Master Terms |
| Exclusivity, audit, prior grants | No exclusivity or audit right in the master terms, Order Form only; licensor warrants it has not granted a third party rights to the same Data on the same or substantially similar terms | s.4.2, s.5.1 | Data License Master Terms |
| Excluded data | Unless the Order Form allows: PHI, biometric identifiers, payment card or financial account data, data of children under 18, export-controlled information | s.5.7 | Data License Master Terms |
| Confidentiality and security | Confidentiality 3 years after termination, trade secrets indefinitely; encryption in transit and at rest; security incident notice within 2 business days | s.2.3 to 2.5 | Data License Master Terms |
| Liability cap | 3x fees paid or payable under the Order Form, excluding fraud, gross negligence and wilful misconduct | s.7.2 | Data License Master Terms |
| Indemnities | Licensor indemnifies IP, privacy, publicity and data protection claims arising from the Data; licensee indemnifies use outside the license | s.8.1, s.8.2 | Data License Master Terms |
| Termination, law, disputes | Termination for convenience on 30 days' notice, for breach with a 10-day cure; California law; JAMS arbitration in California after 30 days of negotiation; assignment without consent in a merger or acquisition, not to a competitor | s.4.1, s.9.1, s.9.3, s.9.4 | Data License Master Terms |
The table is a summary only. The reading of micro1 Data License Master Terms clause by clause, with the archived versions of 2026-09-30, 2026-10-07 and 2026-10-30, sits on its own page.
Two clauses pull in different directions. The grant in s.1.2 is nonexclusive, so the company keeps the right to license the same data elsewhere, yet s.5.1 has the licensor warrant that it has not granted a third party rights to the same data on the same or substantially similar terms, which limits parallel sales on similar terms. The master terms hold no exclusivity or audit right at all; both exist only if the Order Form adds them.
A seller therefore negotiates in the Order Form: the License Price, the Data Manifest's scope, any exclusivity window, an audit right, and whether the excluded categories of s.5.7 stay excluded. Each of these clauses has a standard form in any AI data licensing agreement, against which micro1's defaults can be compared.
micro1 Payouts and Referral Fees: Claims, Contradictions and Data Valuation
micro1 states that companies receive USD 100,000 to 500,000 for qualified enterprise data partnerships, USD 500,000 to 3,000,000 for large-scale datasets or ongoing participation, and USD 3,000,000 or more for highly unique proprietary data, checked 2026-11-09. Its referral page restates the range as USD 100K-3M+ for approved data packages. micro1's online estimator, checked 2026-11-09, returns USD 50,284 to 92,776 with its default inputs, below the lowest tier's floor. The table sets micro1's conflicting statements side by side, as of 2026-11-09.
| Topic | Statement A (where) | Statement B (where) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payment trigger | "We pay in full within 30 days of acceptance" (program page) | Payment within 30 days of invoicing, after review and invoice (same page, FAQ) | micro1.ai/data-partnerships |
| Review period | 30 days to review and approve (program page) | 30 business days to reject, then deemed acceptance (master terms s.1.3) | micro1.ai/data-partnerships; Data License Master Terms |
| "Exclusively" | Data "licensed exclusively to labs and enterprises based in the U.S. and allied countries" (data-payout page) | Nonexclusive grant (master terms s.1.2) | micro1.ai/data-payout; Data License Master Terms |
| Referral reward basis | Fixed schedule: USD 50,000 or USD 75,000 up to thresholds, 7.5% above (referral page) | "Refer & earn 50k+"; rewards depend on revenue milestones and vary by opportunity and tier (program page FAQ) | micro1.ai/company-referral; micro1.ai/data-partnerships |
| Referral payment method | Wire transfer (referral page) | Third-party Payment Processors (Referral Program Terms s.3.3(b)) | micro1.ai/company-referral; Referral Program Terms |
| Estimator vs tiers | USD 50,284-92,776 with default inputs (estimator) | Lowest tier starts at USD 100K (program page) | micro1.ai/data-estimate; micro1.ai/data-partnerships |
DataPacts shows both statements in each row and does not choose between them.
The two referral schedules apply to different deals. As of 2026-11-09, micro1 states USD 50,000 flat for enterprise deals up to USD 700,000 deal value and 7.5% above, and USD 75,000 for defunct-company deals up to USD 1M and 7.5% above; other partnerships earn 7.5% of deal value. The fee is earned only after the referred company's data is transferred and approved, only if the company registered through the referrer's own link, and never retroactively. micro1 also offers referrers 20% of a sub-affiliate's payout, for direct relationships only. The referral page, checked 2026-11-09, words the upper band as "7.5% of the deal value for deals above $700,000" (USD 1 million for defunct companies); DataPacts computes no sample amounts. Earlier forum terms of June 2026 were replaced by these schedules.
A tier is a claim, not a price. Ali Ansari, who describes himself as micro1's CEO, states in a LinkedIn post that micro1 paid USD 5.8 million to 9 businesses in 24 hours, an average above USD 600,000 (post checked 2026-11-09); no seller has confirmed it. The contract price is the License Price in each Order Form, and the methods behind a defensible valuation of company data help test any tier against other dated offers.
micro1 Reputation: The Spirit Airlines Filing and the Record So Far
micro1's only appearance in a court record tracked here is the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy, where it gave notice of a competing bid for the de-identified data archive. The table lists the filings by date, with status as of 2026-11-09.
| Date | Event | Forum / docket | Status as of 2026-11-09 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-14 | Notice of Auction Results: Google LLC successful bid USD 10,000,000; Mercor.io Corporation alternate bid USD 7,500,000 | Bankr. S.D.N.Y. No. 25-11897 (SHL), Dkt. 1463 | Sale not approved | Dkt. 1463 |
| 2026-09-03 | Notice of micro1 Inc.'s Intent to Submit a Competing and Superior Bid for the Deidentified Data; no amount stated | ECF No. 1556 (listed in Dkt. 1703) | No amount in any filing read | Dkt. 1703 |
| 2026-10-05 | Consumer Privacy Ombudsman's Supplemental Report: micro1's self-de-identification proposal noted, review requested if micro1 is considered; approval of the existing sale "would be appropriate" from a privacy perspective | Dkt. 1684 | Part of the pending sale record | Dkt. 1684 |
| 2026-11-04 | Notice of Adjournment of the sale hearing to 2026-11-17 | Dkt. 1779 | Hearing pending | Dkt. 1779 |
micro1's Notice of Intent in the Spirit Airlines Case
micro1 Inc. filed a Notice of Intent to Submit a Competing and Superior Bid for the de-identified Spirit Airlines data (ECF No. 1556) on 2026-09-03, in In re Spirit Aviation Holdings, Inc., Bankr. S.D.N.Y. No. 25-11897 (SHL); no filing read states an amount. The notice is listed in Dkt. 1703 and recited in the ombudsman's report at Dkt. 1684; the sale is not approved as of 2026-11-09.
The notice came after the auction. At the 2026-08-14 auction, Google LLC's USD 10,000,000 bid was named the successful bid and Mercor.io Corporation's USD 7,500,000 bid the alternate (Notice of Auction Results, Dkt. 1463), and neither sale is approved as of 2026-11-09. The full terms of Spirit Airlines' data archive sale are set out on the deal page.
micro1's notice differed from the auction bids in one respect the ombudsman picked out. micro1 proposed to de-identify the Spirit data itself rather than use an independent party, and the Consumer Privacy Ombudsman's Supplemental Report of 2026-10-05 (Dkt. 1684) requested an opportunity to review if micro1 is considered as a bidder.
The same report addresses the sale already on the table. It recommends that approval of the de-identified data sale "would be appropriate" from a privacy perspective, after passenger databases were excluded and Tonic.ai was hired as Deidentification Agent.
The court has not ruled as of 2026-11-09: the sale hearing is adjourned to 2026-11-17 (Notice of Adjournment, Dkt. 1779, filed 2026-11-04), and no filing read states a micro1 bid amount. For trustees and administrators who must sell data assets in insolvency, the filing shows that a court-appointed privacy reviewer treats who performs de-identification as a question about the bidder, not only about the data.
Court Records Naming micro1
Apart from the Spirit filings, the DataPacts case tracker holds no lawsuit, breach notice or regulatory action naming micro1 as of 2026-11-09. Contributor complaints on forums and review sites are not court or regulatory records and are not used here.
Is micro1 Legitimate as a Buyer of Company Data?
micro1 is an identifiable company: micro1 Inc. is the licensee named in its published master terms and the filer of a notice in a federal bankruptcy case, and it publishes its program terms openly. Its master terms carry a version date of 2026-11-08 and an archive of three earlier versions.
What stays open is the part a seller signs and the part micro1 reports about itself. The License Price exists only in the Order Form, no seller has publicly confirmed a payment under the program, the CEO's payout figures are his own claim, and the ombudsman's question about micro1 performing its own de-identification is unanswered in the Spirit record as of 2026-11-09.
A seller can check five points before transferring any data: the counterparty on the Order Form is micro1 Inc., the License Price and Data Manifest are written down, the outreach comes from a micro1.ai address, any referrer discloses the referral relationship as micro1's Referral Program Terms s.5.4 require under the FTC Endorsement Guides, and the review period in the signed terms is the one the company expects. These points follow the general checks for whether a data licensing email is legitimate.
Benefits, Risks, Downsides and Alternatives to Licensing Data to micro1
Licensing to micro1 offers published payout tiers and a nonexclusive grant, but the grant is perpetual, the license price sits in an unpublished Order Form and micro1 owns everything trained on the data. The four lists below separate the trade-offs, with micro1's claims checked 2026-11-09.
Benefits (as micro1 states them, checked 2026-11-09):
- Published payout tiers that start at USD 100,000, as stated on 2026-11-09.
- A nonexclusive grant, so the company may license the same data elsewhere on different terms.
- De-identification performed by micro1, without the company anonymizing first.
- Sensitive categories (PHI, biometric identifiers, payment card data, children's data, export-controlled data) excluded by default under s.5.7.
Risks:
- No duty to delete or retrain models after the raw data is deleted (s.4.4).
- The company indemnifies micro1 against IP, privacy, publicity and data protection claims from the data (s.8.1).
- A clawback for a materially inaccurate Data Manifest survives acceptance (s.4.3).
- Silence for 30 business days counts as acceptance (s.1.3).
- The Spirit ombudsman questioned micro1's proposal to de-identify data itself (Dkt. 1684, 2026-10-05).
Downsides:
- The license is perpetual and irrevocable.
- micro1 owns derivatives, models, weights, outputs and synthetic data (s.2.2).
- The no-prior-grant warranty (s.5.1) narrows the freedom the nonexclusive grant appears to give.
- Companies under 30 full-time employees, or with data mainly in other languages than English, fall outside the stated eligibility.
Alternatives:
- Other company data programs, among them Handshake AI and Mercor.
- Aggregators such as Endless, which places company data with micro1, Mercor and Handshake.
- Not licensing at all, which keeps every record and every option inside the company.
For defunct companies, micro1 runs a separate referral schedule and states the same USD 100K-3M+ range to the company, checked 2026-11-09, for businesses that had 30+ employees. Owners and trustees selling data from a defunct company face extra questions of who holds the rights after closure.
micro1 Among Company Data Partnership Programs
micro1 is one of several human-data companies that run company data partnership programs next to expert-contributor work. Its Company Data Partnerships program sits with the other company data partnership programs, among them Mercor, which publishes per-industry deal ranges, and Handshake AI, which runs a comparable data partnership program. Side-by-side pages set out micro1 vs Mercor and micro1 vs Handshake AI on company data terms, and companies that want other options find micro1 alternatives and the wider alternatives to selling data, including keeping it. Aggregators such as Endless name micro1 as one of the buyers they place data with.
For introducers:
- The Corner describes itself as an independent referral partner of micro1 and restates micro1's terms on its own pages.
- The referral programs of AI data buyers are compared side by side, with their triggers and disclosure rules.
More About micro1
micro1 Jobs and Contributor Work
micro1's job listings, AI interviews and contractor pay belong to its expert-contributor work, not to the licensing of company data. Its contributor roles, assessments and pay are compared under AI training jobs and platforms. Expert contributor work is the other way labs buy human data, alongside licensed company records.
micro1 Agent Trajectories and RL Environments
micro1 states it licenses qualifying agent trajectories for USD 1 to 2 million a year with the company's approval, after an optional agent build-out in months 1 and 2, checked 2026-11-09. The payments recur from launch, according to micro1. Other buyers of agent trajectory data are compared separately. micro1 also builds RL environments and runs evaluations for AI labs as part of its data lab work.
Frequently Asked Questions About micro1
Does micro1 buy company data?
Yes: micro1 licenses operational data from established companies and licenses it on to labs and enterprises in the US and allied countries. It runs this through its Company Data Partnerships program, checked 2026-11-09.
How much does micro1 pay companies for data?
micro1 states three tiers, from USD 100,000 to USD 3,000,000 or more, checked 2026-11-09. These are program ranges, not payments; the actual price is the License Price fixed in each Order Form.
Does micro1 pay referral fees for introducing companies?
Yes: micro1 states fixed referral fees for enterprise and defunct-company deals up to set thresholds, and 7.5% above them, checked 2026-11-09. The fee is earned after the data is transferred and approved.
Is micro1's data license exclusive?
No: the master terms grant a nonexclusive license; "exclusively" on micro1's pages refers to where buyers are based. Exclusivity exists only if an Order Form adds it, under the terms of 2026-11-08.
Who is the CEO of micro1?
Ali Ansari describes himself as micro1's CEO in his own posts. No filing among the sources checked names micro1's officers or founders.