# Company data worth per employee: two ways to count

> Company data worth per employee: a buyer calculator shows about $3,830 to $8,970 per head at 100 staff. Why a bid for an archive doesn't divide by headcount.

By Matt Burns, Vaultfish. Canonical: https://vaultfish.com/answers/company-data-worth-per-employee  
Published: 2026-10-05  
Updated: 2026-10-14

## The short answer

Few public figures work per head. Handshake AI's calculator shows about $3,830 to $8,970 per head at 100 staff, a self-reported estimate and not an offer. Spirit Airlines' $10M is a pending bid for one archive, so I don't divide it by headcount. Value follows the records and the rights.

Divide a price by headcount and the answer depends on what the price was for. Only one public source states a figure you can read per head.

## Which per-employee figure is public?

| Source | Inputs | Figure shown | Per head, my arithmetic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Handshake AI calculator | 100 staff, 10 years, USA | $383,083 to $896,969 | $3,831 to $8,970 |

The [Handshake AI](/buyers/handshake-ai) row comes from the estimator on its [data partnerships page](https://joinhandshake.com/ai/data-partnerships/). Handshake labels it indicative, so read it as a buyer's marketing estimate.

## Why not divide the Spirit bid by headcount?

The bid was for an archive of records, and a headcount measures something else. Google's $10M bid was for Spirit Airlines' archive, and Time reports about 100 million emails, 500 million Teams messages and 30 million lines of code ([Time](https://time.com/article/2026/08/25/google-spirit-airlines-ai-data-RL/)).

Mercor's alternate bid and micro1's later offer were for that same archive, so they are one case, too few to fit a curve.

It is also still a bid. The hearing was moved from 14 Oct to 6 Nov 2026 ([Travel Weekly](https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Court-delays-hearing-on-Google-purchase-of-Spirit-data), 9 Oct 2026).

No sale order as of 10 Oct 2026. The [Spirit Airlines page](/answers/spirit-airlines-data-sale) tracks it.

## What does Troveo's guide say drives value?

Troveo's guide names uniqueness, history, connected context, visible outcomes, rights cleanliness and buyer demand. It adds that a 40-person firm with a decade of specialized records can hold more training value than a 4,000-person company with generic data.

The guide gives no per-head price.

## What can you do with a per-head figure?

I'd use it to question a quote. If a buyer's number sits at $10,000 a head, ask what records, years and rights it is built from. A per-head number only means something once you know what it counts.

Then look at your own records. The guide to [how much company data is worth](/guides/how-much-is-your-business-data-worth-to-ai) has a ten-minute check, [data valuation for AI](/answers/data-valuation-for-ai) compares what each calculator asks, and the [price calculator page](/answers/company-data-price-calculator) lists their outputs.

Run the [rights check](/rights-check) before any number matters, and talk to a privacy or commercial lawyer in your state before you sign.

micro1 may pay us a referral fee if a company we introduce goes ahead with it. [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

- [data partnerships page](https://joinhandshake.com/ai/data-partnerships/)
- [Time](https://time.com/article/2026/08/25/google-spirit-airlines-ai-data-RL/)
- [Travel Weekly](https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Court-delays-hearing-on-Google-purchase-of-Spirit-data)