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AI Data Payout

Updated October 2026

Is selling your company data to AI a scam?

Independent and sourced. We feature companies that pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it. How we earn

The market is real, but not every advertiser is. Google bid $10M for Spirit Airlines' internal archive and micro1 committed $1B to buy company data. At the same time, most of the ads you see come from brokers that started in the last six weeks and send you to a Facebook form, not a website.1,2,3,4

Match my companyWhat is it worth?

What is real

The parts that are on the record

Money is on the table in public. Google's $10M bid beat Mercor's $7.5M for Spirit Airlines' archive in a bankruptcy court process; the court has not yet ruled on the sale. Cielo24 sold 13 years of Slack, Jira and email for what was reported as hundreds of thousands of dollars. SimpleClosure says it has done 150+ data deals for wound-down startups.1,5,6,7

The buyers are funded companies. micro1's $1B program is financed by Citi and Hercules Capital, and micro1 said it completed 50+ data transactions in 45 days. Mercor is valued at $10B after a $350M Series C.8,9,10

What to watch

The facts that should slow you down

Lead forms instead of websites. Most of these ads open a Meta Instant Form, so you hand over your name and number before reading a single term. Meta has also removed some micro1 ads for not following its Advertising Standards, in September and October 2026; Meta does not say what the ads said.4,11

Unnamed operators and unchecked claims. Some advertisers give you no company to look up, and some appear to resell to a bigger buyer without saying so. The payout stories in broker ads name no business we can check.4,12,13,14

A buyer you cannot see. MIT Technology Review reported that sellers often cannot see which AI lab ends up with their data. Ask by name, and ask whether you will be told.15

The money test

Who pays whom is the clearest test

In every legitimate offer we found, money flows to you. Most buyers charge nothing, and brokers and marketplaces can take 8-30%, but only from the proceeds, never up front. Anyone asking you to pay to get an appraisal, a listing or a buyer introduction is working a different model from all of these.16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25

Five checks

Five checks before you share a single file

One, find a real website with a named company and a street address, not only a form. Two, ask which AI lab will receive the data. Three, ask for a written offer before anything leaves. Four, never hand a buyer the passwords to your live systems; Frankfurt Kurnit, a law firm, advises no direct system access, and buyers that connect should take read-only or approved access only. Five, pay nothing up front. The buyers we introduce you to through the quiz each have a named company and a website you can read before you talk.20,26,27,28,29

FAQ

Questions, answered with sources

  • The market is real: Google bid $10M for Spirit Airlines' archive and micro1 committed $1B. Individual advertisers vary, and most send you to a Facebook lead form rather than a website, so check each one.1,2,4

  • micro1 is a funded company: its $1B data program is financed by Citi and Hercules Capital and it was valued at $4B. Meta has removed some of its ads for not following Advertising Standards, without saying why.8,30,11

  • Yes: Cielo24 (reported hundreds of thousands) and a crypto startup (about $25,000 for its code). Spirit Airlines has bids, led by Google's $10M, but the court has not ruled on the sale. Broker testimonials name no business.1,5,31,7

  • No upfront fee, ever. Most buyers charge nothing, and brokers and marketplaces can take 8-30%, but only from what you are paid.16,17,18,19,21,24

  • We counted at least 18 advertisers on Meta, almost all launched between 2026-09-01 and 2026-10-14, after micro1's $1B commitment and the Spirit Airlines auction made the news.3,2

  • Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.

Before you sign

Questions to talk through with your buyer

Every business is different, so these are best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over them with you before anything is signed.

Questions for this kind of business

  • What remedies do we have if the buyer or broker breaks the agreement?
  • Who owns this data: the company, an estate, or someone else?
  • Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?

Questions for any buyer

  • Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
  • Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
  • Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
  • How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
  • What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
  • Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
  • Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?

How this page was made

Figures come from the published sources listed below, and what a buyer says about itself is its own claim. Anything marked as our estimate is ours, not a buyer quote. Drafted with AI help from our research, then checked against each source. Updated October 2026.

We feature companies that pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it. See how we earn and how we rank. This site does not give legal, tax or financial advice.

Sources (31)

  1. 1.Bloomberg Law, published 17 Aug 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  2. 2.The Next Web, published 9 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  3. 3.Meta Ad Library (our review). Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  4. 4.Meta Ad Library (our review). Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  5. 5.AI Weekly, summarising Forbes (16 Apr 2026). Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  6. 6.Forbes, published 16 Apr 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  7. 7.TravelPulse, published 10 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  8. 8.The Next Web, published 9 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  9. 9.Fortune, published 14 Sep 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  10. 10.TechCrunch, published 27 Oct 2025. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  11. 11.Meta Ad Library, micro1. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  12. 12.Meta Ad Library, Data Specialists, published 9 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  13. 13.Meta Ad Library, Goldmined.ai. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  14. 14.Meta Ad Library, Jottings AI. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  15. 15.MIT Technology Review, published 13 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  16. 16.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  17. 17.Polyshares website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  18. 18.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  19. 19.Ventra terms of service, published 30 Sep 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  20. 20.Mode company data site. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  21. 21.Meta Ad Library, Jottings AI. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  22. 22.Meta Ad Library, Your Data Value, published 13 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  23. 23.Meta Ad Library, Supersoniq, published 14 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  24. 24.Jottings how we get paid page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  25. 25.Your Data Value terms. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  26. 26.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  27. 27.Meta Ad Library, Nyne.ai. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  28. 28.Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, published 1 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  29. 29.Grepped security page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  30. 30.Forbes, published 22 Sep 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  31. 31.MIT Technology Review, published 13 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.