Which data buyers pay a one-time license, a revenue share or a commission?

Every published payout model

This table lists every buyer in the index that publishes a payout model, grouped by model, with what each says about fees and its published range. It comes straight from the index, so it changes when a row does. Each name links to the full record and its sources.

One-time license: one payment for defined rights

10 buyers publish a one-time license. The company grants rights to a prepared copy and is paid once, on a trigger the contract defines:

• Turing: a single payout of up to $1M, “one payment, no retainer, no recurring commitment”. The company keeps ownership and Turing acquires defined rights to the prepared record.
• Mode: buys the agreed copy directly with no broker fee, with the amount and schedule fixed in writing before export, and about three months from first conversation to payment.
• Centific: paid on acceptance rather than submission. An optional quarterly refresh turns the one-time sale into recurring license payments.
• Corpus: $100,000 to $2 million, intake to wire in 30 to 60 days, with payment clearing on delivery confirmation.
• Polyshares: typically $100K to $2M, paid net 30 to 60 after approval, anonymization and delivery. Its case studies describe perpetual exclusive licenses while its data-handling page describes a defined term, so ask which applies.
• Longitude Labs: $25k to $500k per partnership for financial documents, quoted after a review of two or three samples and paid by wire.
• SourceX: up to $4M, exclusive for AI training with the term set in each deal confirmation. Data that does not reach closing earns no payment.
• Sanctus Data Labs and AI26 also publish a one-time license. Sanctus typically takes exclusivity over the delivered batch, and AI26 pays on buyer approval and a completed licensing agreement.

Before signing a one-time license, pin down three things: the payment trigger (signing, delivery, acceptance or buyer acceptance), the exclusivity term and what happens after it, and when the raw copy is deleted. The offer checklist goes clause by clause.

Revenue share: paid each time the data sells

3 buyers publish a revenue share:

• Troveo: “You share in the revenue on every sale.” Typical full-company deals start at six figures, exclusivity is time-limited and ownership never transfers. Troveo’s own share of each sale is not published.
• Protege: licensing through a revenue share agreement, with payments when content is included in qualified deals. No percentage is published.

A revenue share can pay more than once, and it can pay nothing if no buyer licenses the data. What to check: the percentage, how sales are reported to you, whether there is a minimum or an advance, and who the buyers are. Troveo introduces buyers only after an agreement is signed.

Commission on sale: a broker’s cut of a deal it arranges

8 buyers publish a commission. These companies do not buy the data. They find a buyer and take a share of what the buyer pays, or charge the buyer on top:

• Published rates. AIData.Broker takes 12% of the first $250,000 the seller is paid and less above that. Datavendor takes 20% of vendor earnings when they are withdrawn to a bank.
• Rate not published. SimpleClosure AssetHub, Databounties, Corpus Bridge, Supersoniq say the fee comes out of a closed deal and is agreed before work starts or in the engagement. Smelted states a success fee under a separate signed agreement. Aribase agrees its share with the seller before any license.

The broker guide covers both routes and what each publishes about its end buyers.

Mixed: an upfront fee plus a share, or the seller’s choice

6 buyers publish a mix:

• Labelbox Prism: an upfront licensing fee at signing plus a revenue share on downstream use, with licenses exclusive by default and buyer identities disclosed before signing.
• SuperAnnotate: payment on delivery and on each relicense, under a time-limited license with buyers the company approves.
• Maryah: the seller chooses between a one-time payment and a revenue share.
• FileYield: a listing platform where buyer and seller contract and pay each other directly. Its seller agreement allows listing fees, success fees and outreach tiers, with no rates published.
• The General Data Company: payment follows agreed milestones, and the seller is told who the data is licensed to.

No model published: terms set per deal

24 buyers publish no payout model, including some of the largest programs. They still publish payment details worth reading:

• micro1: tiers from $100K to $2M+, and payment within 30 days of acceptance on one page or within 30 days of invoicing after approval on another.
• Handshake AI: payment terms negotiated per agreement and tied to defined delivery milestones.
• Mercor: wire on delivery of the anonymized dataset to the buyer, typically 2 to 4 weeks after the signed agreement.
• Scale AI: partnerships designed for recurring revenue, with value scaling with cadence.
• Nyne and Appen: payment once the dataset is delivered and accepted.

A buyer that publishes no model is not hiding a worse one. The model is in the contract, which is the document to read before you compare it with anyone else’s.

How the model changes the contract

Next step

The published range guide lists every whole-company dollar figure, highest top first. The free value check compares the buyers that fit your company on these terms, and you approve every introduction. If you already hold an offer, the free offer review reads its payment and exclusivity clauses against what the buyer publishes.