# AI data licensing services: which type fits you? > AI data licensing services come in five types: direct programs, marketplaces, success-fee advisors, shutdown services and referral front ends. By Matt Burns, Vaultfish. Canonical: https://vaultfish.com/answers/ai-data-licensing-services Published: 2026-07-15 Updated: 2026-10-14 ## The short answer AI data licensing services come in five types. Direct programs like micro1 and Mercor pay companies under their own agreements. Marketplaces like Troveo say they pay on every deal. Advisors take a cut of what you get. Shutdown services help closing firms. Front ends pass your details to others. The type matters more than the brand name. > **The type decides who pays you, when, and who carries the legal risk.** It's like clearing an attic. A dealer buys the lot, a shop sells it piece by piece, an agent takes a cut, and a doorbell service passes your name along. ## What are the types of AI data licensing services? **Direct program.** [micro1](/buyers/micro1) states deal tiers of $100K or more, $500K or more and $1M or more, set per deal ([micro1](https://www.micro1.ai/data-partnerships)). [Mercor](/buyers/mercor) says it wires payment after the anonymized dataset reaches the buyer, typically within 2 to 4 weeks of a signed agreement ([Mercor](https://www.mercor.com/data/)). **Marketplace.** [Troveo](/buyers/troveo) says it matches you with buyers and anonymizes the data to a documented standard. It licenses the data on terms you approve. It says it pays a revenue share on every sale and charges owners no platform fee. The split is unpublished ([Troveo](https://www.troveo.ai/business-data)). **Success-fee advisor.** An advisor takes a percentage of what you receive, agreed in writing before any introduction. Ask for the percentage, whether it ever holds your data and which buyers it works with. My [advisor page](/answers/data-licensing-advisor) has the questions. **Shutdown service.** [SimpleClosure](/buyers/simpleclosure)'s Asset Hub serves companies winding down. Fortune reported more than 350 companies listed assets there between April and mid-September 2026. **Referral front end.** A front end collects company details through a form and passes them to a partner it may not name. Ask who receives your details before you fill it in. Every payout figure above comes from the service's own pages, so it is self-reported. Terms change, so check each page before leaning on a number. Figure: comparison of Three ways to reach an AI data buyer: Direct partnership (Paid under the agreement), Marketplace license (emphasized: Says it pays on every sale, Paid per sale), Advisor fee (Percent of deal). A marketplace says it pays on every sale, while a direct partnership pays under its agreement and an advisor takes a percentage. ## What do the terms say? I read the terms for owners before the sales page. SimpleClosure's terms grant it a non-exclusive, transferable, sublicensable, perpetual and irrevocable license. The owner warrants it owns or has authority over the data. The owner also agrees to cover SimpleClosure's losses if it breaks the terms. SimpleClosure caps its own liability at the greater of what you paid in six months or $100 ([terms](https://simpleclosure.com/tos/)). Terms differ by type, so lay them side by side. The [buyer directory](/buyers) records each service. ## What should you ask any service? - Which legal entity signs the contract? - Who sees your raw data, and who certifies the de-identification? - What do you warrant, and what do you cover if something goes wrong? - What happens to your copy and to trained models if you ask for deletion? - Is any referral fee flowing between the service and the person who introduced you? The ombudsman's filing in the Spirit Airlines case notes the sale was built around an independent de-identification expert. It also refers to a security incident update Mercor published. Ask every service for its incident history. The [Spirit page](/answers/spirit-airlines-data-sale) has the detail. _Asking about incidents is not rude. It is the job._ ## Where do we fit? We are an independent guide. We never touch your data and we give no legal advice. Our [managed readiness review](/managed-readiness) prepares your file for the lawyer conversation. micro1 may pay us a referral fee if a company we introduce goes ahead with it. [How we are paid](https://vaultfish.com/disclosure) Have a lawyer read any contract before you sign. They like that. [Apply to micro1's data partnership (paid link)](https://req.micro1.ai/post/74520e8b-4673-4da5-b855-53609aaf6710?referralCode=f82e519e-5d64-4e0e-9574-760c84371cf2&utm_source=referral&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=data_referral) ยท [micro1's own data-partnerships page](https://www.micro1.ai/data-partnerships) _Paid link. [How we are paid](https://vaultfish.com/disclosure)_ _Vaultfish helps you run the process. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. If you need counsel who knows this area, we can point you to one._ ## Sources - [micro1](https://www.micro1.ai/data-partnerships) - [Mercor](https://www.mercor.com/data/) - [Troveo](https://www.troveo.ai/business-data) - [terms](https://simpleclosure.com/tos/)