# Data licensing agreement template: what is free

> Is there a data licensing agreement template? Common Paper's 12 free agreements include no data license. A clause checklist to take to a lawyer, not a contract.

By Matt Burns, Vaultfish. Canonical: https://vaultfish.com/answers/data-licensing-agreement-template  
Published: 2026-07-09  
Updated: 2026-10-14

## The short answer

No single free template exists. Common Paper's 12 free agreements include an AI Addendum closest to a data license. No buyer publishes its contract. Use this page's clause checklist to take to a lawyer.

A template is a starting draft. A company archive going to an AI buyer needs more. The skill that pays off is reading any draft against a list of clauses.

## Which free templates exist?

Common Paper's [standards page](https://commonpaper.com/standards/) lists 12 agreements:

- Mutual NDA
- Terms of Service
- Design Partner
- Cloud Service
- Service Level
- Data Processing
- Business Associate
- Professional Services
- AI Addendum
- Partnership
- Software License
- Pilot

All are free to use and modify under CC BY 4.0.

The AI Addendum is the one nearest to a data license. Its [page](https://commonpaper.com/standards/ai-addendum/) says version 1.0 will remain unchanged. I read the overview and skipped the clause text. So I cannot say how it handles licensing a company archive. The Data Processing Agreement covers how personal data is handled. Neither is a data license.

## What clauses do lawyers say a data license covers?

Two published sources give topic lists.

Sergei Tokmakov, a California attorney, wrote an [undated memo](https://terms.law/insights/ai-training-data-licensing-usable-agreement.html) on AI training-data licenses. It names four items:

- a grant clause (training, fine-tuning, evaluation, output rights, territory, duration and sublicensing)
- a warranty stack covering ownership, non-infringement and lawful collection
- an indemnity with defined carve-outs
- a data provenance file

[Sidley Austin's note](https://www.sidley.com/en/insights/newsupdates/2026/07/legal-implications-in-ai-development-and-deployment-training-data-and-grounding-data) adds more topics:

- who owns each part of the dataset
- which model versions may use it
- who owns a trained model
- provider representations
- indemnity
- what happens at termination, including audit and deletion

My [guide to data licensing agreements](/guides/data-licensing-agreement) puts these into a table with published examples. The [reps and warranties page](/answers/what-reps-and-warranties-does-an-ai-data-buyer-ask-for) covers the promises.

## Why is there no vetted template here?

No lawyer has reviewed a template for this site. A downloadable contract from us would read as legal advice, and we give none.

## Which agreements might already limit a data license?

Your own agreements. Common Paper's [Mutual NDA, version 1.0](https://commonpaper.com/standards/mutual-nda/), shows the standard wording a counterparty may already hold you to.

- Information may be used only for the stated purpose.
- It may not go to third parties without written approval.
- It must be destroyed or returned when asked.
- The duty outlasts the agreement.

A company archive often holds a customer's or partner's information. My [NDA page](/answers/does-my-nda-let-me-sell-data-to-ai) covers what to check. Whether a given clause blocks licensing is a question for a lawyer who has read it.

Talk to a privacy or commercial lawyer in your state before you sign. The [rights check](/rights-check) lists what to bring. The [managed readiness service](/managed-readiness) indexes the contracts for your lawyer without judging them.

Figure: comparison of Where free clause guidance for a data license comes from: Common Paper standards (emphasized: Free under CC BY 4.0, 12 agreements), Attorney memo (Clause commentary), Sidley Austin note (Clause topics). Common Paper's 12 agreements are free under CC BY 4.0, and the other two sources only comment on clauses.

_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

- [standards page](https://commonpaper.com/standards/)
- [commonpaper.com](https://commonpaper.com/standards/ai-addendum/)
- [undated memo](https://terms.law/insights/ai-training-data-licensing-usable-agreement.html)
- [Sidley Austin's note](https://www.sidley.com/en/insights/newsupdates/2026/07/legal-implications-in-ai-development-and-deployment-training-data-and-grounding-data)
- [Mutual NDA, version 1.0](https://commonpaper.com/standards/mutual-nda/)