Business Owners: How to Make Money From AI Training Data (and Avoid Scams)
AITrainingDataBroker.com
Business owners:
Make money from
AI training data
Your company's data, not side gigs
What AI labs pay for, what sets the price, how a deal runs, 5 red flags
Jimmy Lin
Business owners: Make money from AI training data
Search how to make money from AI training data, and most videos are about side jobs, like rating AI answers from home.
This video is for business owners, and the money comes from the data your company already keeps.
So how big can that money get?
The video
Business Owners: How to Make Money From AI Training Data (and Avoid Scams)
Full script
Search how to make money from AI training data, and most videos are about side jobs, like rating AI answers from home.
This video is for business owners, and the money comes from the data your company already keeps.
So how big can that money get?
In November 2024, Adweek reported that OpenAI pays Dotdash Meredith, a big magazine and website publisher, at least $16 million a year.
That figure came from its parent company's public financial reports, and it is only the fixed part of the deal.
Your company is not a magazine publisher, of course.
But AI labs now look for company data too, and where money flows, fake offers follow.
This is general information, not legal advice.
First, though, look at what one wrong step can cost.
Say a parts distributor has 12 years of order and support data, and the company is made up, only to show the idea.
On day 1, the owner sends the same files to 4 websites that promise to pay for data.
On day 30, an AI lab likes a sample, then finds the same data offered somewhere else.
So it stops to check who holds the rights, and the decision slips by weeks.
By day 60, the exclusive offer is gone, because the data is already out in several places.
That is 2 months lost.
In January 2026, Epoch AI, a research group, reported on deals for AI practice tasks.
Exclusive deals there cost about 4 to 5 times more than shared ones.
On top of that, if names were left in those files, the company also has a privacy problem.
So what does an AI lab actually want to pay for?
Most owners think an AI lab wants their customer list or their website.
It does not.
Anyone can copy what is already online, so that is not worth much.
The value is in the history of how your work got done: the decisions, the changes and how each job turned out.
In a public post in November 2023, OpenAI said it wants data that is hard to find online and that shows human intention.
Long writing and real conversations count, like a support thread that runs from the first complaint to the fix.
So the everyday work is worth more than the polished brochure.
This will not fit every company, though, because a few months of data, or data copied from the web, is hard to license.
When the data does fit, a company can earn from it in 3 ways.
First, and most common, is a license.
You keep the data and the rights, while the AI lab pays to use it for a set time.
The second way is made to order, where your team creates new data, such as practice tasks with the right answers.
In the same January 2026 report, Epoch AI said AI labs often pay $200 to $2,000 for each task like that.
The third way is a sale, where you hand over the data for one payment, which can fit a company that is closing.
Whichever way you pick, a real deal runs in the same order.
That order has 5 steps, and your full data moves only near the end.
First, both sides sign an NDA, a promise to keep what you share private.
That matters, because US trade secret law protects your information only when you take reasonable steps to keep it secret.
Second, a small sample goes out, and it is de-identified, which means we strip out the names of people and clients.
Third, the AI lab sends a written offer, which you can compare with other offers.
Fourth, you sign the contract, and the full data is de-identified the same way.
Fifth, the data is delivered under the terms you agreed.
A fake offer breaks this order, and that makes it easy to spot.
Here is the short list of 5 red flags, and my earlier video on scams goes deeper.
First, they want money from you before any money comes your way.
Second, they say they buy any data, and they never ask what your data is or where it came from.
Third, there is no NDA, or they want to skip it to save time.
Fourth, they ask for all your files before they make any offer.
Fifth, they insist on one odd way to move money, like crypto, a gift card or a wire transfer.
In July 2026, the US Federal Trade Commission warned about that last one.
It said anyone who insists you pay in one of those ways is probably a scammer.
So you may be wondering: is my company's data worth anything?
That depends on 5 things.
How many years of data you have, how much of it there is, and how hard it is to find anywhere else.
Then, whether it can be de-identified cleanly, and whether you clearly hold the rights to license it.
Even simple data moves a lot in price.
In April 2024, Reuters reported that Photobucket, a photo site, discussed 5 cents to $1 a photo with AI companies, and more for a video.
The price changed with who wanted the photos and which kind they needed.
So a number means little unless it comes from a de-identified sample of your data.
Finding that price for a company is my job, so let me tell you who I am.
I'm Jimmy. I have worked in data at Fortune 500 companies, as a data analyst, a data engineer and a software engineer, and I am trained in data science. I am also a Canadian military veteran, specialized in data analysis and reporting.
In a data deal, I come in as your broker and technical advisor.
I take a de-identified sample of your data to several AI labs and bring back their offers, so you can compare them side by side.
I work through the terms with you, and you make the final call.
I also guide your team through the export, the format, the de-identification and compliance.
AI companies pay my fee.
Already shopping your data around? Contact us anyway, and we can still help you get a better price.
If you are buying data for an AI lab, I find the right data and see it through to delivery.
So the money is real, and it comes from the everyday work your company already keeps.
Tonight, write down 3 kinds of data your team saves, and how many years of each you have.
More on licensing company data at AITrainingDataBroker.com.
Thank you for watching.
I will see you next time.
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