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How to sell your company's data to AI companies (safely)

Updated October 2026 · listmydata team

If your business has years of email, job files, ledgers or procedures, AI companies may pay to license them. You can lower the risks if you remove personal information first, keep control of the terms, and take your time.

Who's buying, and why

AI companies learn from examples. To build tools that do real work (close the books, dispatch a truck, diagnose a furnace, run a lab test), they need records of how experienced people actually did that work. Public websites don't have much of that. Business records do.

Buyers include AI labs, companies that build training data for them, and startups making AI for one industry. Some sellers work through brokers. Reported payments to startups have run from about $10,000 to several hundred thousand dollars, and one buyer says it pays midsize companies $100,000 to $2 million. See What company data is worth.

What sells

What usually doesn't sell, or can't be sold: consumer contact lists (not allowed on listmydata), HR and payroll files, and anything you're bound to keep confidential without consent.

Step by step

  1. Take stock. Write down what you have, how many years it covers, what systems it's in (Outlook, QuickBooks, a file server, boxes of paper) and roughly how big it is.
  2. Check what you're allowed to share. Look at client contracts and NDAs. Some records have special rules: client tax returns, health records, financial account data, children's data and clients' confidential files. See How to remove personal information before you sell and our safety page.
  3. Choose how to sell. Post a listing yourself (owners always post free), answer a buyer's wanted ad, or get help selling from an independent broker.
  4. Describe it, don't send it. A good listing names the kind of business, the record types, the years and the format. Buyers reply to you by email.
  5. Share samples carefully. Send a small sample only, with names removed, and only after the buyer signs a simple confidentiality agreement.
  6. Agree on terms in writing. Usually you license the data rather than give up ownership. Settle what they can use it for, whether it's exclusive, whether they can resell it, how long the license lasts, the price, and who removes personal information.
  7. Remove personal information and deliver. Use a secure transfer and keep a record of exactly what you sent.
  8. Get paid safely. Use escrow (a neutral third party holds the money until delivery), or get paid before you deliver the full set. Ask your accountant how the payment will be taxed.

Mistakes to avoid

How listmydata works

listmydata is a plain classifieds board, like craigslist, for company data. Owners always post free and deal with buyers directly, and we don't take a cut of deals made through the board. If you'd rather have help, get help selling connects you with an independent broker. The broker explains its fee in writing first, and we may receive a referral fee.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. For a large or unusual deal, talk to a lawyer before you sign.

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