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AI Data Payout

Updated October 2026

Selling or licensing your codebase to AI

Independent and sourced. We feature companies that pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it. How we earn

Yes, code has its own buyers. Nalandadata's ads say "We buy private codebases to train AI", including COBOL. DataFactor offers $5k+ to license code repos. A shut-down crypto startup got about $25,000 for its code base. Searches like "sell codebase" and "sell my codebase" already autocomplete.1,2,3,4

Match my companyWhat is it worth?

Who buys code

The buyers that name code

Code-specific advertisers: Nalandadata (private codebases, COBOL, "NDA-protected", "paid fast") and DataFactor ("Get paid $5k+ to license your code repos"). Broader buyers include it too: Mercor lists GitHub among its tools, Turing's Project Lazarus licenses code with tickets and decision records, and SimpleClosure says code is in scope for its wind-down deals.1,2,5,6,7

How common is code in these deals? MIT Technology Review reported that 47% of SimpleClosure's deals include code or data. Mercor's census of its partners finds GitHub in 53% of them.8,9

Not a software company?

When an ordinary business has code worth licensing

Plenty of trades and offices wrote their own tools: a quoting program, a dispatch system, an inventory database, scripts that glue QuickBooks to a job board. Old languages are a niche of their own; Nalandadata's ads ask specifically for COBOL codebases. The value is usually higher when the code comes with its history: the tickets, commits and notes that show why it changed.1

Our reading: a codebase with years of commit history and a linked issue tracker is worth more than a zip file of today's version. Sunset counts years in operation and how a team used its tools among its valuation factors.10

Check first

Three things to check before you offer code

Is it all yours? Software built by an outside contractor, or built on someone else's licensed code, may come with strings. Does it hold secrets? Passwords, API keys and customer data turn up in old code and config files. Remove them before anyone sees a sample. Is it still running your business? A buyer gets a copy, not your system, but you will want limits on how it is used and who sees it.

The price range is wide. DataFactor's floor is $5k+. The crypto startup's code fetched about $25,000. Turing says up to $1M in one payment for code, tickets and communications together. All three figures are what the companies or press reported, not a rate card.2,3,6

FAQ

Questions, answered with sources

  • Code has dedicated buyers: Nalandadata advertises buying private codebases, including COBOL, and DataFactor offers $5k+ to license code repos.1,2

  • Reported figures range from DataFactor's $5k+ to about $25,000 for a shut-down startup's code, up to Turing's own claim of $1M for code with tickets and communications.2,3,6

  • Nalandadata's ads say "We buy COBOL codebases for AI training".1

  • In our reading, yes. Sunset counts years and how a team used its tools when it values an archive.10

  • MIT Technology Review reported 47% of SimpleClosure's deals include code or data.8

  • 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

  • Who owns this data: the company, an estate, or someone else?
  • Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?
  • Could the data include privileged material or trade secrets?

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?

How this page was made

Every figure comes from a published source listed below, each with the date we checked it. Buyer statements are the buyer's own claims and are marked so in the source list. Firm counts come from the US Census Bureau's Statistics of US Businesses. Anything marked as our estimate is ours, not a buyer quote.

Drafted with AI assistance from our research files, then checked against each source. Reviewed 14 Oct 2026. Last updated 14 Oct 2026.

We feature companies that pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it. See how we earn and how we rank. This site does not give legal, tax or financial advice.

Sources (10)

  1. 1.Meta Ad Library, Nalandadata, published 6 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  2. 2.Meta Ad Library, DataFactor, published 13 Aug 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  3. 3.MIT Technology Review, published 13 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  4. 4.Google autocomplete (our check). Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  5. 5.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  6. 6.Turing Project Lazarus page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  7. 7.SimpleClosure press release (Business Wire), published 3 Sep 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  8. 8.MIT Technology Review, published 13 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  9. 9.LinkedIn Ad Library, Mercor. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  10. 10.MIT Technology Review, published 13 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.