# Can you license data to OpenAI? What we found

> Want to sell data to OpenAI? We found no public program that pays to license company data. Its 2023 Data Partnerships call was reported unpaid.

By Matt Burns, Vaultfish. Canonical: https://vaultfish.com/answers/sell-data-to-openai  
Published: 2026-08-03  
Updated: 2026-10-14

## The short answer

Not through any program I found. OpenAI has none that pays companies for data, and its 2023 Data Partnerships call was reported unpaid. In 2026 Google and Mercor bid on company archives, and micro1 and Handshake AI run data partnerships. Check the date on each source.

This page records what a search found. It is short because the public record is thin.

## Does OpenAI have a program that takes outside data?

Yes, a call for data partners. In November 2023 OpenAI announced Data Partnerships, asking organizations for large datasets that reflect human society and are not already easy for the public to access.

It named text, images, audio and video, with two models: open-source datasets and private datasets where the partner sets access controls ([The Decoder](https://the-decoder.com/openai-seeks-large-socially-relevant-datasets-for-future-ai-models/)).

The first partners named were the Icelandic government and the Free Law Project.

## Does OpenAI pay for that data?

Press coverage says no. Techzine wrote that apart from a possible later benefit, "there is nothing in it for partners" ([Techzine](https://www.techzine.eu/news/applications/113117/openai-seeks-online-unavailable-data-through-willing-third-parties/)).

OpenAI's own page returned an access error when I fetched it, so I could not read its current wording or confirm whether the call is still open in 2026.

## Does OpenAI buy company data some other way?

I found no public report of it. OpenAI does pay for content licensing.

Yahoo Finance named Google and OpenAI as Reddit's top data licensing customers, and put Reddit's licensing-led "other revenue" at $43M in the second quarter of 2026 ([Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/media-advertising/articles/reddits-data-licensing-revenue-grew-125000998.html)).

That is content licensing, a different product from your email and tickets.

## Where can a company place data instead?

Google placed the $10M winning bid for Spirit Airlines' archive, pending court approval. micro1, Mercor and [Handshake AI](/buyers/handshake-ai) run direct programs or bids. [Who bid on Spirit Airlines' data](/answers/who-buys-company-data-for-ai) lists the named bidders with sources, and [where to license](/answers/where-to-sell-company-data) compares the routes.

micro1 may pay us a referral fee if a company we introduce goes ahead with it. [How we are paid](https://vaultfish.com/disclosure)

Before you offer data to anyone, run the [rights check](/rights-check). Talk to a privacy or commercial lawyer in your state before you sign.

Figure: comparison of Routes for a company with data to place: OpenAI Data Partnerships (Reported unpaid), Direct programs and marketplaces (emphasized: They publish payment terms, Published terms). Direct programs and marketplaces publish payment terms, and OpenAI's 2023 call was reported unpaid.

_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

- [The Decoder](https://the-decoder.com/openai-seeks-large-socially-relevant-datasets-for-future-ai-models/)
- [Techzine](https://www.techzine.eu/news/applications/113117/openai-seeks-online-unavailable-data-through-willing-third-parties/)
- [Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/media-advertising/articles/reddits-data-licensing-revenue-grew-125000998.html)