Disclosed deals
The largest disclosed AI data deals are Reddit's licences ($203.0 million over two to three years, about $60 million a year from Google), News Corp and OpenAI (more than $250 million over five years) and Shutterstock ($104 million in 2023). For company records, Google paid $10 million for Spirit Airlines' data.
Page updated 19 Oct 2026. Figures checked 18 Oct 2026 at their sources.
Company records
$10M
Google paid $10 million for Spirit Airlines' data: 100 million emails, 500 million Teams messages and 176,000 employee records, outbidding Mercor.
(MIT Technology Review, checked 18 Oct 2026)
micro1 made a late US$12.5 million bid for part of Spirit Airlines' data; Google's US$10 million bid won. (Forbes Australia, checked 18 Oct 2026)
~$25K
One founder got roughly $25,000 for his code base through SimpleClosure, with about $15,000 pending for workspace data.
(MIT Technology Review, checked 18 Oct 2026)
SimpleClosure has done over 150 deals; 47% include code or data sales, and it expects to return over $10M to startups by the end of 2026. (MIT Technology Review, checked 18 Oct 2026)
Content and platform licences
2024 · press
per year
“worth about $60 million per year, according to one of the sources”
Reuters exclusive (Anna Tong, Echo Wang, Martin Coulter, 22 Feb 2024), read on Yahoo's republication because reuters.com blocks fetching. Anonymous sources; Reddit and Google declined to comment. In July 2026 the Wall Street Journal reported stalled renewal talks; no renewal, cut-off or new terms announced as of 20 Oct 2026.
(Reuters via Yahoo, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2024 · press
over 2 to 3 years (signed January 2024)
“data licensing arrangements with an aggregate contract value of $203.0 million and terms ranging from two to three years; minimum of $66.4 million of revenue to be recognized during 2024”
TechCrunch quoting Reddit's S-1. The S-1 itself (sec.gov) was too long for the fetch tool to surface the sentence, so the filing wording is as quoted by TechCrunch. Contract value, not revenue already earned. Licensees not named in the filing.
(TechCrunch, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2024 · press
News Corp and 
OpenAIover 5 years
“could be worth more than $250 million over five years”
Variety (Todd Spangler, 22 May 2024, Yahoo republication) citing the Wall Street Journal. Lower bound ('more than'); other reports say it includes cash and credits for OpenAI technology. Covers WSJ, NY Post, The Times etc.
(Variety via Yahoo, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2025 · press
Amazon and The New York Timesper year (multiyear deal)
“between $20 million to $25 million per year”
TheWrap; terms first reported by The Wall Street Journal (July 2025). Covers NYT news, NYT Cooking and The Athletic, incl. AI training.
(TheWrap, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2024 · press
Dotdash Meredith (IAC) and OpenAIper year (fixed component only)
“a minimum of around $16 million per year”
Adweek, based on IAC public financial documents and CFO Chris Halpin's earnings call. Minimum because it reflects only the fixed component, not the variable component.
(Adweek, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2023 · press
OpenAIover 3 years
“tens of millions of euros ... as part of a three-year deal, Bloomberg reported”
Euronews citing Bloomberg; not confirmed by the parties. Currency EUR. Other outlets cite the FT as saying 'tens of millions of euros' per year; that variant was not opened at source.
(Euronews, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2024 · company
Informa (Taylor & Francis) and 
Microsoftinitial fee plus recurring payments 2025-2027 (agreement runs 2024 to 2027)
“payment to Informa of both an initial data access fee ($10m+) and a recurring payment across three years (2025, 2026, 2027)”
Informa PLC market update (RNS), 8 May 2024. Non-exclusive; covers Advanced Learning (Taylor & Francis) content and data. '$10m+' is a floor; recurring amount undisclosed.
(Informa RNS, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2024 · company
Informa (Taylor & Francis) and Microsoft and second unnamed AI partnercalendar year 2024 (expected)
“AI partnership revenues to $75m+ in 2024”
Informa half-year report, 24 July 2024: 'second major partnership secured, taking AI-related revenues to $75m+ in 2024'. Aggregate across AI partnerships, a floor.
(Informa RNS, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2025 · filing
John Wiley & Sons and unnamed large tech companiesfiscal year ended 30 April 2025
“$40 million in total AI licensing revenue realized in Fiscal 2025 compared to $23 million in Fiscal 2024”
Wiley FY2025 earnings release (8-K exhibit 99.1). Includes a project executed in Q4 with 'a third large tech company'. FY2024 figure: $23 million.
(SEC filing, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2026 · filing
John Wiley & Sons and unnamed AI licenseesfiscal year ended 30 April 2026
“AI license revenue was $49.1 million in the year ended April 30, 2026 compared to $40 million in the prior year”
Wiley 10-K FY2026. Includes $19.4 million of revenue related to content licensed from other publishers. Research AI licensing $33.1 million, Learning $16.0 million.
(SEC filing, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2023 · press
Shutterstock and AI companies (OpenAI and others)calendar year 2023
“earned $104 million in annual revenue from AI licensing agreements in 2023”
Business Insider (Matthew S. Smith), republished on AOL; statement by CEO Paul Hennessy in June 2024. He projected up to $250 million annually by 2027.
(Business Insider via AOL, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2024 · press
Shutterstock and big tech AI buyersper deal
“initially ranged from $25 million to $50 million each”
Reuters 'Inside Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data' (6 Apr 2024), China Daily HK republication. Attributed to Shutterstock CFO Jarrod Yahes.
(Reuters via China Daily HK, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2025 · press
one-off (settlement)
“at least $1.5 billion ... a gross recovery of $3,000 per work ... roughly 500,000 published works”
NBC News, 5 Sep 2025. Court settlement over pirated books used for training, not a licence. Official settlement site (https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/) says the Court granted final approval on 20 July 2026 and first payments are expected on or before 15 November 2026.
(NBC News, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2024 · press
Microsoftper title (three-year licence)
“Microsoft was offering HarperCollins $5,000 per title; HarperCollins would pass on half of that fee to consenting authors”
Nieman Lab summarising Bloomberg (Alice Robb). Select nonfiction backlist, author opt-in. Total deal value not disclosed. Three-year term per MediaNama (agent email shared by Daniel Kibblesmith).
(Nieman Lab, checked 18 Oct 2026)
2025 · press
initial pool (revenue share)
“$42.5 million pool of money has been set aside to share with publishers and is expected to grow over time”
AFP via The Daily Star, 26 Aug 2025. Revenue-share pool for search/answer use, not a training-data licence. The 80% publisher share reported elsewhere (Axios) could not be opened.
(AFP via The Daily Star, checked 18 Oct 2026)
Almost every large disclosed deal is for public or published content: forum posts, news archives, academic books, stock images. Those owners sold access to material that was already written for readers. Company records are different. They were never meant to be read outside the company, so they have to be de-identified first, and they show something public content rarely does: how work gets done inside a business.
That is why company-data deals are priced per dataset rather than per word. The few with public numbers, the Spirit Airlines sale and the codebase sales SimpleClosure has handled, sit far apart: an airline's entire message history at one end, a small startup's repository at the other. The published buyer programmes fill the middle with ranges from $10K to $4M+.
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Insights
FAQ
About $60 million per year, according to one of the anonymous sources in Reuters' February 2024 report. Neither company commented. Reddit's S-1 separately disclosed data licensing contracts worth $203.0 million in total over two to three years.
It could be worth more than $250 million over five years, Variety reported, citing The Wall Street Journal. Other reports say it includes cash and credits for OpenAI technology.
Company filings are the most reliable: Wiley reported $49.1 million of AI licence revenue in its year to 30 April 2026, Informa disclosed a $10m+ initial fee from Microsoft and $75m+ of AI revenue for 2024, and IAC's documents put OpenAI's fixed payment to Dotdash Meredith at a minimum of around $16 million a year.
Yes. Google paid $10 million for Spirit Airlines' data in bankruptcy, including 100 million emails and 500 million Teams messages. Through SimpleClosure, one founder got roughly $25,000 for his codebase.
No. The at least $1.5 billion settlement in Bartz v. Anthropic pays damages for pirated books used in training, about $3,000 per work. It is listed here because it is often quoted as a price per book, but it is not a licence.
Few deals are disclosed in full. Press reports rely on anonymous sources, and companies often report only a floor, such as a fixed fee without the variable part. We show the exact wording of each report so you can see how firm the number is.
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