# How do you license company data to AI?

> To license company data to AI, pick a payment model: a direct partnership (micro1) or a revenue share (Troveo, Protege). Terms to settle first.

By Matt Burns, Vaultfish. Canonical: https://vaultfish.com/answers/license-company-data-to-ai  
Published: 2026-09-03  
Updated: 2026-10-14

## The short answer

To license company data to AI, pick which records to include and how you want to be paid, then sign terms with an AI data company or marketplace. micro1 pays under an agreed data partnership, and Troveo and Protege pay a revenue share. Settle terms in writing.

Buyers use "sale" and "license" loosely. The payment model is the part to compare.

> **A sale pays once. A license pays each time the data is used, in Troveo's wording.** It's like renting out a room. You keep the house, and the rent comes back around.

## Which payment models are on offer?

- **Direct partnership.** [micro1](/buyers/micro1) pays compensation under the agreed data partnership, and it says companies keep ownership of their underlying data.

Its data partnerships page lists $100K+, $500K+ and $1M+ tiers, and its CFO said in an undated recorded forum talk that deals run $100K to $2M per company.

The same undated talk mentioned a possible top-up about six months later for new data (self-reported).
- **Revenue share.** [Troveo](https://www.troveo.ai/business-data) says you share in the revenue on every sale. The split is unpublished.
- **Revenue share on qualified deals.** [Protege](/buyers/protege) says owners receive revenue-share payments when their content enters qualified deals. The split is not published ([Protege](https://withprotege.ai/data-provider/video)).

[Pricing models](/answers/data-monetization-pricing) shows the public figures for each.

Figure: comparison of Three payment models in public sources: Direct partnership (emphasized: Clearest public payment tiers, micro1, stated tiers), Revenue share (Troveo, split unpublished), Deal revenue share (Protege, qualified deals). micro1 publishes tiers for its partnerships, so that model has the clearest public figures.

## What does a license contract need to settle?

Bring these questions to a lawyer:

1. **Scope.** Which systems and date range are in, and what is out.
2. **Exclusivity.** How long, for which buyers, and at what premium. Epoch's interviews put exclusive RL environment deals at roughly 4x to 5x the non-exclusive price ([Epoch](https://epoch.ai/gradient-updates/state-of-rl-envs)).
3. **De-identification.** Who does it, to what standard, and whether you may scrub first. See [data de-identification](/answers/data-de-identification).
4. **Deletion.** Whether data must be deleted when the license ends. [Troveo](/buyers/troveo)'s guide says a license defines this at expiry. It also says models already trained survive the license ending ([Troveo](https://www.troveo.ai/resources/ai-data-licensing-deals)).
5. **Liability.** Who carries the cost if a record leaks or a rights claim lands. The split is not public for the buyers checked.

_Every item above is easier to settle before you sign than after._

## Which companies offer which licensing model?

micro1 and [Handshake AI](/buyers/handshake-ai) run direct data partnerships. Troveo and Protege license onward, and the end user is rarely named. Your choice also depends on how much control you want over repeat use, and how clearly you can see the payment.

The [buyer directory](/buyers) lists each player.

## What comes first?

Rights. Your archive holds other people's words. Run the [rights check](/rights-check) and read the [risk map](/risks) before a buyer call.

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) · [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

- [Troveo](https://www.troveo.ai/business-data)
- [Protege](https://withprotege.ai/data-provider/video)
- [Epoch](https://epoch.ai/gradient-updates/state-of-rl-envs)
- [Troveo](https://www.troveo.ai/resources/ai-data-licensing-deals)