Companies / AI company
OpenAI
OpenAI in the AI training data market. Recorded here: 29 disclosed licensing deals, 20 lawsuits and rulings and 14 public prices.
openai.comLatest record 8 Oct 2026
Public prices involving OpenAI
- Times of India and Economic Times content (Bennett, Coleman & Co) surfaced in ChatGPT under an OpenAI partnership
Industry-source estimate; neither party disclosed terms. Shows what a large non-US news group gets versus $20M to $50M for top US brands.
Press report, exchange4media
around $5 million annuallyper year
- Indian Express Group content licensed to OpenAI for ChatGPT
Industry-source estimate; terms undisclosed by the parties.
Press report, exchange4media
about $3 million a yearper year
- Former investment bankers writing prompts and building financial models for OpenAI (Project Mercury)
Rate from a person familiar with the effort; OpenAI said experts are paid through unnamed third-party suppliers, so the buyer's bill rate is higher.
Press report, Fortune (citing Bloomberg)
$150 per hourper hour (paid to the expert)
- One 12-hour agent rollout replicating a research paper (o1 IterativeAgent on PaperBench)
Inference cost of one long-horizon trajectory, plus about $66 to grade it; it shows why labs pay for tasks where a long rollout teaches something.
The payer's own page, arXiv, PaperBench (v3)
$400 in API creditsper rollout on one paper
- Real freelance software tasks from Upwork used as the SWE-Lancer eval set
These are what clients originally paid freelancers for each task, used by OpenAI to value the eval; roughly $700 per task on average (derived).
The payer's own page, OpenAI (SWE-Lancer paper, arXiv)
$50 bug fixes to $32,000 feature implementations; $1 million total across 1,400+ tasksper task (original freelance payout)
- Most unused creator footage made for YouTube, Instagram and TikTok
The ordinary band inside Bloomberg's $1 to $4 range; 4K, drone and 3D animation fetch more. Buyers named were OpenAI, Google and Moonvalley.
Press report, Slashdot, quoting Bloomberg, YouTubers are selling their unused video footage to AI companies
between $1 and $2 per minuteper minute
- Dotdash Meredith (now People Inc.) magazine and web content licensed to OpenAI (2024 deal)
A reported figure; the publisher has described the deal as a guaranteed fixed payment plus a variable part tied to display in ChatGPT.
Press report, LLM Pulse, AI content licensing deals 2023 to 2026
reported around 16 million dollars a yearper year
- News Corp's current and archived journalism licensed to OpenAI for five years (2024 deal)
The largest known publisher deal, reported and not confirmed by the parties; it covers training and display in ChatGPT. The per-year figure is the total divided evenly by the term.
Press report, LLM Pulse, AI content licensing deals 2023 to 2026
reported 250 million dollars over five yearsover five years
- Reddit's user posts licensed to OpenAI for training and display (2024 deal)
A reported figure the parties have not confirmed; the deal also covers real-time display in ChatGPT, so not all of it pays for training.
Press report, LLM Pulse, AI content licensing deals 2023 to 2026
reported around 70 million a yearper year
- Financial Times journalism licensed to OpenAI (2024 deal)
A reported range the parties have not confirmed. Covers training plus display with attribution in ChatGPT.
Press report, LLM Pulse, AI content licensing deals 2023 to 2026
reported 5 to 10 million dollars a yearper year
- Axel Springer news content licensed to OpenAI (December 2023 deal)
OpenAI's first global news publisher deal. Words only: the source gives an order of size, not a number, and does not say whether it is annual.
Press report, LLM Pulse, AI content licensing deals 2023 to 2026
a reported figure in the tens of millions of eurosper deal (term not stated)
- Text labelling for ChatGPT safety, outsourced by OpenAI to Sama in Kenya (late 2021 contracts)
One of the few disclosed lab-to-vendor hourly prices; the workers took home $1.32 to $2 an hour, so the vendor kept most of the bill.
Press report, TIME
$12.50 an hourper hour, paid by OpenAI to Sama
- Three OpenAI contracts with Sama for labelling work
Cancelled early; OpenAI put the amount actually paid at about $150,000.
Press report, TIME
about $200,000 in totalper programme (three contracts)
- Sama data labellers in Kenya working on OpenAI's ChatGPT safety project
Against OpenAI's $12.50 an hour billed to Sama: the worker received 11 to 16% of the bill rate ($1.32 / $12.50 to $2 / $12.50).
Press report, TIME
$1.32 to $2 per hourper hour, take-home after tax
Licensing deals
- Sep 2026$5M a year
- Sep 2026Indian Express Group to OpenAI$3M a year
Not stated
- Sep 2026Village Media to OpenAINot disclosed (funding, API credits and technical support, no figure)
Shown in answers
- Jul 2026Yelp to OpenAI (ChatGPT)No financial terms stated in the report
Shown in answers
- Jun 2026Getty Images to OpenAINot disclosed
Shown in answers
- May 2026Grupo Folha and Grupo UOL to OpenAIValues not disclosed, citing confidentiality
Shown in answers
- Dec 2025The Walt Disney Company to OpenAINo licence fee disclosed; Disney makes a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI (money flows to OpenAI, not a licence payment)
Not stated
- Apr 2025The Washington Post to OpenAINot disclosed
Shown in answers
- Mar 2025Not disclosed
- Feb 2025Guardian Media Group to OpenAINot disclosed
Shown in answers
- Feb 2025Schibsted Media to OpenAINot disclosed
Shown in answers
- Jan 2025Axios to OpenAIFunding amount not disclosed
Not stated
- Jan 2025Deals often worth thousands of dollars
- Oct 2024Hearst to OpenAINot disclosed
Shown in answers
- Sep 2024GEDI to OpenAINot disclosed
Training and answers
- Aug 2024Condé Nast to OpenAINot disclosed
Training and answers
- Jun 2024TIME to OpenAINot disclosed
Shown in answers
- May 2024Vox Media to OpenAINot disclosed
Shown in answers
- May 2024The Atlantic to OpenAINot disclosed
Shown in answers
- May 2024News Corp to OpenAI$250M
Training and answers
- May 2024Reddit to OpenAI$60M a year
Training and answers
- May 2024Stack Overflow to OpenAINot disclosed
Training and answers
- May 2024$16M a year
- Apr 2024Financial Times to OpenAIFinancial terms not made public
Training and answers
- Mar 2024Le Monde to OpenAINot disclosed
Training and answers
- Mar 2024Prisa Media to OpenAINot disclosed
Training and answers
- Dec 2023Axel Springer to OpenAI"Tens of millions of euros" per year (FT, per The Decoder); figure not confirmed by the parties
Training and answers
- Jul 2023The Associated Press to OpenAINot disclosed in the announcement
Training
- Jul 2023Shutterstock to OpenAINot disclosed
Training
Lawsuits, rulings and regulators
- Oct 2026USA TODAY Co., Inc. v. OpenAI Foundation: lawsuit seeking more than $250 million
Complaint filed; allegations not adjudicated.
- Sep 2026ANI v. OpenAI: notice issued on ANI's appeal
Appeal pending; hearing listed for 8 December 2026.
- Sep 2026New York Times v. Microsoft and OpenAI: cross-motions for summary judgment filed
Summary judgment motions pending; no trial date.
- Sep 2026In re OpenAI Copyright Infringement Litigation: US Justice Department statement of interest backing fair use
Filed; the court has not ruled on fair use.
- Jul 2026ANI v. OpenAI: interim injunction refused
Interim injunction refused; suit continues.
- Mar 2026Tribunale di Roma annuls the Garante's EUR 15 million ChatGPT fine
Fine annulled; substantive questions fall in principle to the Irish DPC.
- Mar 2026Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster v. OpenAI: complaint filed
Complaint filed; allegations not adjudicated.
- Jan 2026In re OpenAI Copyright Infringement Litigation: order to produce 20 million output logs
Production of 20 million output logs ordered.
- Dec 2025Ziff Davis v. OpenAI: robots.txt is not a DMCA access control
DMCA section 1201 claim dismissed.
- Nov 2025GEMA v. OpenAI: Munich court rules for GEMA on song lyrics
Largely for GEMA; not final; OpenAI said it would appeal.
- Nov 2025Canadian news publishers v. OpenAI: Ontario court asserts jurisdiction
Jurisdiction confirmed over six defendants; motion granted for four entities.
- Oct 2025In re OpenAI Copyright Infringement Litigation: output-based claims survive dismissal
Motion to dismiss output claims denied.
- Apr 2025Ziff Davis v. OpenAI: lawsuit filed
Pending in the OpenAI MDL.
- Apr 2025In re OpenAI Copyright Infringement Litigation: cases consolidated into an MDL
Consolidated pretrial proceedings in S.D.N.Y.
- Mar 2025New York Times v. Microsoft and OpenAI: motion to dismiss ruling
Core copyright claims proceed.
- Dec 2024Italy's Garante fines OpenAI EUR 15 million over ChatGPT
Fine later annulled by the Tribunale di Roma on jurisdictional grounds (18 March 2026).
- Nov 2024Canadian news publishers v. OpenAI: lawsuit filed
Ontario court confirmed jurisdiction on 7 November 2025; merits pending.
- Nov 2024ANI v. OpenAI: copyright suit in the Delhi High Court
Interim injunction refused 24 July 2026; appeal pending.
- Dec 2023New York Times v. Microsoft and OpenAI: complaint filed
Pending in the consolidated OpenAI MDL; see later records.
- Sep 2023Authors Guild v. OpenAI: class action filed
Pending; consolidated into In re OpenAI Copyright Infringement Litigation (MDL).
Cited in these 6 guides
- Which AI Data Buyers Take Holders Outside the US?
- How Big Is the AI Training Data Market? What the Records Show
- Fair Use and AI Training: What US Courts Have Ruled
- How Do AI Companies Get Their Training Data?
- AI Licensing Deals With News Publishers: Every Disclosed Price
- Reddit's AI Data Deals: What Google and OpenAI Pay
Cite this
AIData.Broker, “OpenAI in the AI training data market”, reviewed 8 Oct 2026. https://aidata.markets/companies/openai
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 if you credit AIData.Broker and link to this page. Each row names the publication that stated it, and words quoted from a source keep that source's own terms.