Updated October 2026
Bullhorn data and AI buyers: a staffing agency's notes, submittals and placements
Bullhorn's API Fair Use Policy says the API must not connect to any third-party AI or LLM tool without Bullhorn's explicit written permission.1
In a staffing or recruiting agency, Bullhorn is where the desk's judgment gets written down. A recruiter logs a phone screen as a note, records why a candidate was submitted to one job order and not another, adds comments on the submission, and follows the placement through to start date. Client contacts collect their own notes: what the hiring manager really wants, why the last three candidates were turned down. Across a few years and a few dozen recruiters, that is a large written record of how people get matched to work.
micro1 names recruiting firms among the industries it buys from and asks for CRM and workflow metadata, which is what an ATS like Bullhorn holds. The difficulty is that most of the record is about candidates.
Bullhorn also publishes unusually specific rules on its API, including on AI tools, and an export path that ranges from small CSVs to a full SQL Server backup. This page covers what Bullhorn holds in writing, how each export works, what Bullhorn's published policies say in their own words, and what to ask a buyer.
Worth
What a agency's data may be worth
Pre-set for a typical agency: 40 staff and 8 years of records. No buyer publishes pricing by industry, so industry does not move the band. Our estimate, not a buyer quote.
Buyers
Which buyers want this data
Each reason is the buyer's own published statement about the tools, data or industries it takes, matched to how Bullhorn staffing agencies work.
Featured partners
micro1
Names BPOs and recruiting firms among its industries and asks for CRM and workflow metadata, the core of a Bullhorn database.10,11
- $100K to $2M+, micro1 says7
Watch out for: Says it removes personal details only "when relevant", so ask exactly how.12
Polyshares
Buys CRM records, email and call recordings, the three places an agency's candidate and client conversations live.13
- $100K to $2M+, Polyshares says8
- None, Polyshares says14
- An offer in 1 to 2 weeks, then paid in 30 to 60 days15
Watch out for: Exclusive by default, and every deal it lists is exclusive with no end date.16,17
Everyone else we reviewed
By score, with full reviews. We have no referral agreement with these companies, so we do not link out to them.
Buyer demand
How buyers' own tools rate Bullhorn staffing agencies
No buyer publishes a price list by industry. These are settings inside buyers' and brokers' own estimators and intake forms, read from their public pages on 2026-10-14. They show how each company sorts industries, not what any agency was paid. The category shown is the one a agency would most likely pick; that match is ours.
| Company | Its category | How it rates the industry |
|---|---|---|
| Troveo | Something else (staffing is not listed) | Tier 3 of 4: "Standard buyer demand for your industry." Price factor 1.0 in its estimator.25 |
| Polyshares | Staffing and recruiting | Not marked premium (9 of its 45 industries are)26 |
| VMS | Staffing or BPO | Standard weight in its estimator (factor 1.12)27 |
Size rules buyers publish
Checked against 40 staff, the typical agency size this page's calculator is set to. Ask each buyer whether contractors and part-time staff count.
Polyshares
No headcount rule; the length and texture of the record matter more28
Mercor
None stated29
Troveo
No minimum stated; its estimator starts at 2030
Nyne
20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years31
Handshake AI
20+ full-time employees and 3+ years32
micro1
Pewter
20+ staff and 3+ years35
Endless
Roughly 30+ employees36
Ventra
30+ US employees and 3+ years of records37
Supersoniq
50+ employees and 5+ years38
What buyers value
What in a agency's records buyers value
The column on the right is not legal advice: it lists what to raise with the buyer before anything is exported.
| Data | Where it lives | Why a buyer values it | Raise with the buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recruiter notes on candidates | Bullhorn notes (Email, Internal Memo, Phone Call types) | How recruiters assess people: what they asked, what they heard, and what they decided. | Candidate personal details and assessments of named people. |
| Submission comments | Bullhorn job submissions | The written case for putting a candidate forward for a specific role, paired with whether it worked. | Pay rates and client names next to each submission. |
| Client contact notes | Bullhorn client contacts and job orders | What hiring managers actually want, in the recruiter's words, which rarely matches the job description. | Nothing specific |
| Job orders and their history | Bullhorn job orders | Each requirement from intake to fill or loss, a full workflow with an outcome. | Nothing specific |
| Lead and opportunity notes | Bullhorn leads and opportunities | Business development in writing: why a prospect took a call or went quiet. | Nothing specific |
| SMS threads with candidates | Bullhorn SMS | The short, fast exchanges that fill shifts and confirm starts. | Mobile numbers and message content of individual candidates. |
A week of records
A week of data at a agency
- Monday: a client calls in four new job orders, and the account manager writes intake notes on each.
- Tuesday: recruiters log twenty phone screens as notes, with a line on why each candidate fits or does not.
- Wednesday: six submissions go out with comments; the client rejects two and the reasons get recorded.
- Thursday: SMS confirmations go to temps for weekend shifts, and one no-show starts a replacement search.
- Friday: one placement starts, and the job order closes with a note on what finally worked.
Process
How it works with each buyer
In each buyer's own published words. Where a buyer publishes nothing, we say so rather than guess.
micro1
- Internal docs, SOPs and playbooks, knowledge bases, project management workflows, internal comms, templates, CRM and workflow metadata, task histories11
- 30 to 200 employees34
- $100K-$2M+ per data package; over $1M for unique data7
- PII removed "when relevant"12
- The company keeps ownership of its data and reviews samples before release39
- Not published
Polyshares
Selling or closing
Selling or closing your agency? License its data first
Agencies are bought for their client relationships and their database. Bullhorn's help center says it may not keep data more than 60 days after a contract ends, and that a full backup is offered at termination. If the agency is being sold or closed, request the final backup early and settle with any licensing company what it needs from it.2
FAQ
Bullhorn data: questions, answered
Admins, by default, select records in a list view and export them as CSV. Limits range from 5,000 to 20,000 records depending on the entity type, and Bullhorn does not log export history. Larger jobs use a backup or Bullhorn Data Replication to a database the agency hosts.3
Bullhorn describes it as a Microsoft SQL Server file containing all of the company's data, such as client information, templates and notes. Two authorized account contacts must sign the request, one backup runs every 30 days, and a full backup during a contract carries a fee.2
The API Fair Use Policy, dated 2025-12-17, says the API must not be used to connect to any third-party AI or LLM tool without Bullhorn's explicit written permission. It also bars scraping beyond a customer's needs and bulk transfer beyond the minimum necessary. We quote; we do not interpret.1
Bullhorn's master subscription agreement is not published. Its API Fair Use Policy says content submitted via the API to a customer's database shall be deemed to be that customer's data, and that third-party access is at the customer's specific written instruction.43
Bullhorn's own articles differ. The export article lists API access for Front Office Growth or Enterprise editions, while another says the ATS Growth edition does not include API access for custom integrations. Confirm your edition with Bullhorn before planning an API route.3
Most buyers want 20 to 30 or more: micro1 and Return My Time look for 30+, while Nyne, Cognor Labs and Goldmined.ai start at about 20. Mercor, Troveo and Jottings AI state no minimum. In 2022, 1,028 US placement agencies and 6,174 temporary help firms had 30 or more. Ask each buyer whether temps on the payroll count toward its bar.33,44,31,45,46,47,30,48,4,5
We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company: their team reviews this with you before anything is signed.
We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company: their team reviews this with you before anything is signed.
Before you sign
Legal questions go to the licensing company
We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company before you sign: their team reviews these with you.
Questions for this kind of business
- Will you work from a Bullhorn backup we request, or do you need API access, and do you have Bullhorn's written permission where its policy asks for it?
- How are candidate names, contact details and assessments removed from notes and submissions?
- Will EEO, background check and pay records be excluded from the package?
- How do CCPA, GDPR, UK GDPR and state privacy laws apply, and is de-identified data still personal information?
- How are employee data, union contracts and NLRA questions handled?
- 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?