AI Data Partnership Payouts and Program Terms Compared, Dated

This table lists what every AI data program says it pays for company and content data, the referral fee it offers, when it pays, what exclusivity it asks for and who may apply, each as the program's own claim with the date DataPacts checked it. The 143 rows are ordered alphabetically by operator, never by payout, and no program in the table pays DataPacts.

Stated payouts range from per-task contributor rates to "Earn up to $5M+" per company (Alpheva AI), checked 2026-11-09, and 13 pairs of values contradict each other on the same operator's own pages. No seller has publicly confirmed an amount received under any program. Program terms are one part of AI training data licensing, so this page shows what programs publish, not what any company will be offered.

DataPacts Editorial Team read each program page for this table on November 9, 2026; the page on how we source, date and check every figure sets out the rules.

Every AI Data Program's Payouts and Terms, Side by Side

The table holds 143 programs: 140 with terms recorded from the operators' own pages or filings and 3 whose pages could not be read on November 9, 2026. Filters narrow it by kind, data wanted, payout stated, referral fee and exclusivity stated; there is no sort by payout. It compares published terms as of 2026-11-09, with each operator's page in the Source column.

Kinds: CD company data program; IN intermediary (broker, adviser or shutdown service that handles data and does not buy it); MK marketplace (platform takes a fee); CL content licensing; HD contributor platform; CC custom capture; DV dataset vendor; RL RL environments; RF referral program; CR crawler or training control; SV service terms or bounty; NV not verified.

How to Read the Payout and Terms Table

Read each row as a dated quotation of the program's own page, not as a price DataPacts confirms. The columns follow the order in which a seller meets the terms: what is wanted, what is promised, when money moves, what rights pass and who may apply.

Each Value Is the Program's Own Claim, With Its Check Date

Every payout, fee and timing value is written as the program's statement with the date it was checked, because programs change their figures without notice. micro1 states tiers of USD 100K to 500K, 500K to 3M and 3M+, plus USD 1 to 2M a year for agent trajectories, checked 2026-11-09. Earlier micro1 figures are not quoted, because only the current page states the current offer.

Scale AI calls its USD 10K to 1M+ an "illustrative value per data partnership", checked 2026-11-09, and Nyne marks its estimator output "indicative and not an offer". A range therefore shows what a program advertises, not what company data is worth to AI companies in a given case.

Claims in the Table Are Not Confirmed Payments

A paid-out total on a program page is the program's own figure, and no seller has confirmed an amount received under any program in the table. Among the operators that publish paid-out totals are these three company data programs, checked 2026-11-09:

• Handshake AI states "$250M Paid out to partners" without defining who the partners are.
• Troveo's November 2026 pages state "$50M+" paid to creators on one page and "$20M+" paid to licensors on another.
• Mercor's November 2026 listings feed shows two totals paid to companies, USD 50,000,000 in one block and USD 17,000,000 in another.

None names a recipient, and no public confirmation from a seller, filing or court record exists for any program payout. The gap between advertised and confirmed figures is tracked under reported payouts to data sellers, advertised vs confirmed.

What "Not Stated", "Not Recorded" and "Not Verified" Mean

Three labels fill empty cells, and each means something different.

• Not stated: the operator's page says nothing on the point, or says the term is not published.
• Not recorded: DataPacts holds no value for that column, which says nothing about the program.
• Not verified: the page could not be read on the check date, so the row carries no term.

Three rows are not verified: OpenAI Data Partnerships, Perplexity's Comet Plus and Adobe's Firefly contributor bonus, whose pages could not be read on November 9, 2026; figures for them that appear elsewhere are left out. A fourth mark, n/a, flags a column that does not apply, such as a referral fee on a crawler control.

Program Kinds, and Why Some Rows Show No Payout

Not every row is a buyer paying for data: some rows are intermediaries, marketplaces that charge the seller, licensing collectives or crawler controls that pay nothing. The kinds differ in who pays whom:

• CD, CL and CC: the operator states a payment, share or royalty to the holder.
• IN: an intermediary handles a sale for a fee; it does not buy the data.
• MK: the platform usually takes a cut, such as 3 % on AWS Data Exchange public offers (effective 2024-01-05) and 30 % on Datarade's commission-only plan.
• RF: the program pays the introducer, not the company.
• HD and RL: people are paid per hour, task or bounty, although some RL rows buy company records or sell services.
• DV and SV: the operator sells data or services.
• CR: Anthropic's ClaudeBot opt-out and Apple's Applebot-Extended pay nothing, while Cloudflare's pay per crawl lets a site owner set a price.

Contributor rows pay people per task, not companies for data; that market is covered in AI training jobs and platforms compared.

Contradictions Inside the Programs' Own Pages

Where a program's own pages give two different values, the table shows both and DataPacts does not pick one. The 13 pairs below come only from the operators' own pages, feeds and terms, all read on November 9, 2026, ordered alphabetically by program; a statement by a third party never creates a contradiction here.

Both values also stay in the matching cell of the main table. A contradiction is two values on the same day; a value that differs between two checks is a change, logged in the buyer program changelog. McCarthy's AI's terms of service state the point for its own deals: only a signed agreement sets the terms.

Reading the Payment, Exclusivity and Referral Columns

Three columns decide more of a deal's value than the headline range: when money arrives, whether the seller can license the data again, and what an introducer is offered. Each is read like the payout cell, as the operator's claim on the check date.

Payment Trigger Column

Programs pay on different triggers, and the trigger matters more than the stated number of days.

• On delivery: Mercor, a wire typically 2 to 4 weeks after signing.
• After acceptance: micro1 within 30 days of acceptance, Polyshares Net 30 to 60, Centific with a first accepted contribution typically in six to ten weeks.
• At signing plus revenue share: Labelbox Prism, an upfront fee plus a revenue share.
• On each sale: Turing, nothing upfront and payment every time the record sells.

Marin Data, an intermediary, states that buyers pay 30 to 90 days after signing (all checked 2026-11-09). Milestones and clawbacks are explained under when and how AI data buyers pay.

Exclusivity Column

Exclusivity runs from none to exclusive by default, and many programs publish nothing on it. Of the 140 readable rows, 49 read "not stated" in this column.

• Labelbox Prism: exclusive by default, and buyers pay for stricter exclusivity.
• micro1: a nonexclusive, irrevocable, perpetual grant under its master terms of 2026-11-08; "exclusively" on its marketing pages refers to US and allied-country recipients.
• Turing: non-exclusive, but Turing is the only seller for the first 90 days after signing.
• Endless: non-exclusive.

Whatever a program page says, the exclusivity clause of the AI data licensing agreement decides it.

Referral Fee Column

A referral fee is what a program offers the person who introduces a company, a claim separate from what the company is offered. Among them, in alphabetical order, as checked 2026-11-09:

• Handshake AI: USD 10,000 per referred company, paid when the deal closes.
• Mercor: USD 15,000 to 75,000 per listing in its feed of 2026-11-09, plus a USD 10,000 booster.
• micro1: USD 50,000 for deals up to USD 700,000 and 7.5 % above (referral page; program terms last updated 2026-10-14).
• Mode: tier 1 USD 50,000 or 6.00 % (Affiliate Referral Agreement v2.1).
• Pewter: 10 % of the licensing payment, at most USD 100,000 per business (terms effective October 2026).
• Scale AI: up to USD 50,000, paid only if Scale signs a partnership agreement.

Most fall due only after the deal closes, and the rules are compared in referral programs of AI data buyers compared.

Before Acting on a Program's Terms: Benefits, Risks, Downsides and Alternatives

A published program gives a starting point for comparison, but it does not tell a company what it will be offered or whether licensing is right for it.

Benefits

• One table shows 143 programs, each dated and sourced, before any program is contacted.
• Published eligibility rules let a company rule out programs early, such as micro1's 30+ full-time employees.
• Contradictions are visible, so a seller can ask which value applies.

Risks

• Some grants are permanent: micro1's master terms grant a nonexclusive, irrevocable and perpetual license.
• Deletion does not reverse training: Labelbox Prism states that models already trained "cannot be unlearned".
• Paid-out totals are self-reported and partly contradictory, as Mercor's feed shows.

Downsides

• Headline ranges are advertisements; AfterQuery sets terms only after a sample review.
• The only court-recorded figures for company data are bids for Spirit Airlines records, and that sale was not approved as of November 9, 2026.
• Many cells read "not stated", so key terms appear only in the agreement.

Alternatives

• Not selling or licensing at all.
• Using an intermediary, which handles the sale for a fee and does not buy the data.
• Listing on a marketplace, which usually charges the seller a commission.
• Negotiating a direct license with one buyer outside any published program.

Whether to license at all, and on which terms, is weighed in should you sell or license your data.

Where the Terms Table Sits Among the Seller Tools

The terms table is one of four seller tools, and it answers what programs publish, not which buyer fits a given company. It sits among the tools for AI data sellers, next to the pages that explain the programs and the buyers:

• Company data partnership programs: how each program works, buyer by buyer.
• Who buys AI training data: every buyer, including those with no published program.
• The other three tools: AI data buyer match for fit by size, country and status, the license clause matrix for contract terms, and buyer estimators side by side for published calculators.

How the Table Is Checked, Updated and Funded

Each program page is re-read before a change is published and at least monthly, and the check date in the row changes only when the page was read again. The order stays alphabetical whatever a program pays. No program in the table pays DataPacts, the page carries no referral links, and DataPacts has joined no referral program yet; see how DataPacts is funded. The table describes published terms and is not legal or financial advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do AI data partnerships pay?

Program pages checked in November 2026 state ranges from about USD 10,000 to several million US dollars per company, each as the program's own claim. Mercor's listings show USD 10,000 to 1,500,000 per company and Handshake AI's hero reads "Earn $100K to $4M+", checked 2026-11-09. Neither is an offer.

How long does a program take to pay?

Stated timing runs from under 21 days to about three months, and each figure is the program's claim. Labelbox Prism states "first call to first wire in under 21 days", Mercor a wire typically 2 to 4 weeks after signing, and Mode "about three months" from first conversation through payment, checked 2026-11-09. Others pay after acceptance or per sale.

Do AI data buyers pay referral fees to introducers?

Many programs advertise referral fees, usually paid only after the referred company's deal closes or its data is accepted. micro1 states USD 50,000 for deals up to USD 700,000, and Handshake AI states USD 10,000 paid when the deal closes, both checked 2026-11-09. No public confirmation exists that any introducer has received such a fee.

Has any company confirmed a program payout?

No seller has publicly confirmed an amount received under any program in the table. The only court-recorded figures for company data are bids at the Spirit Airlines data auction of 2026-08-14 (Dkt. 1463): Google LLC's successful bid of USD 10,000,000 and Mercor.io Corporation's alternate bid of USD 7,500,000, in case No. 25-11897 (SHL) before the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The sale was not approved as of November 9, 2026, and a hearing is set for November 17, 2026 (Dkt. 1779).