India deals
We found four deals involving Indian companies. Both OpenAI deals are for showing journalism in ChatGPT, with summaries and links. Nothing we found says the content is licensed for training.
| Deal | What's licensed | Value | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bennett, Coleman & Co (Times of India)to OpenAI · Sep 2026 | Live coverage and archives in English and Indian languages, shown in ChatGPT | About $5M a year (₹47 crore) | Estimate | exchange4media, MediaNama |
| Indian Express Groupto OpenAI · Sep 2026 | Reporting and archives in seven languages, shown in ChatGPT | About $3M a year (₹28 crore) | Estimate | exchange4media, Indian Express |
| Times of India, among about nine launch publishersto Google · Dec 2025 | News content for AI features in Google News. Google says it pays participating publications. | Not disclosed | Undisclosed | TechCrunch, Google |
| Karyato Microsoft · ongoing | Indian-language speech, text and image datasets | Not disclosed | Undisclosed | Microsoft |
Global benchmarks
The best-documented deals elsewhere, for scale. Most of the large ones are multi-year fees paid by AI companies to publishers and platforms.
| Deal | What's licensed | Value | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| News Corpto OpenAI · May 2024 | News, current and archive | More than $250M over 5 years, in cash and credits | Reported | WSJ |
| News Corpto Meta · Mar 2026 | US and UK news, for training and for answers in Meta AI | Up to $50M a year, for at least 3 years | Reported | WSJ |
| The New York Timesto Amazon · 2025 | News, Cooking and The Athletic, for Alexa answers and model training | $20M–25M a year, multi-year | Reported | WSJ |
| Redditto several licensees · disclosed Feb 2024 | User posts through Reddit's data API | $203M total contract value, over 2–3 years | Confirmed | Reddit SEC filing |
| Redditto Google · Feb 2024 | User posts through the data API, for training and search | About $60M a year | Reported | Reuters |
| Redditto OpenAI · May 2024 | Real-time content through the data API | Not disclosed | Undisclosed | OpenAI |
| Dotdash Meredithto OpenAI · May 2024 | Lifestyle and magazine content in ChatGPT | At least $16M a year, plus a variable part | Confirmed | Adweek |
| Axel Springerto OpenAI · Dec 2023 | News, for training and ChatGPT answers | Tens of millions of euros, 3-year deal | Reported | Bloomberg |
| Taylor & Francisto Microsoft · May 2024 | Part of its academic library, for training | $10M upfront, plus recurring payments over 3 years | Confirmed | Inside Higher Ed |
| HarperCollinsto an AI company, reported as Microsoft · Nov 2024 | Nonfiction backlist books, with author opt-in, for training | $5,000 per book, split with the author | Confirmed | Publishers Weekly |
| Wileyto several buyers · FY2024–FY2026 | Scholarly and professional content for AI training and use | AI licensing revenue of $23M, $40M and $49M in FY2024, FY2025 and FY2026 | Confirmed | Wiley results |
| Shutterstockto several AI companies · 2023 | Images, video and music, for training | $104M of AI licensing revenue in 2023, per its CEO | Reported | Bloomberg |
| Photobucketto tech companies, in talks · Apr 2024 | An archive of about 13 billion photos and videos | Asking 5 cents to $1 per photo, more per video | Reported | Reuters |
| Associated Pressto OpenAI · Jul 2023 | Part of AP's text archive | Not disclosed | Undisclosed | AP |
| Financial Timesto OpenAI · Apr 2024 | Archive and current reporting, for training and ChatGPT answers | Not disclosed | Undisclosed | Reuters |
| Stack Overflowto OpenAI · May 2024 | Developer questions and answers through its API | Not disclosed | Undisclosed | OpenAI |
| Associated Pressto Anthropic · Nov 2026 | Real-time news in Claude. Reported by Adweek; we found no announcement from either company. | Not disclosed | Undisclosed | Adweek |
| Companies in any industryto micro1, a data intermediary · current rates | Operational data such as code, finance processes, support tickets and legal workflows | $100K to more than $3M per company | Published rate | micro1 |
What the deals tell sellers
- Most big deals run for years
- Terms in the deals above run from two to five years, and most values are given per year.
- A fixed fee can come with a variable part
- Dotdash Meredith gets at least $16M a year from OpenAI, plus a variable payment.
- Archives can sell for an upfront fee plus recurring payments
- Taylor & Francis took $10M upfront from Microsoft, then recurring payments over three years.
- Per-item prices vary hugely by type
- HarperCollins's deal paid $5,000 per book. Photobucket asked 5 cents to $1 per photo. One data firm quoted text at $0.001 a word (Reuters), so text's value comes from scale, recency and how hard it is to find elsewhere.
- Payment isn't always cash
- News Corp's OpenAI deal includes OpenAI credits, and AP's OpenAI deal included access to OpenAI's technology.
- Deals covering training and answers sit at the top
- The News Corp deal with Meta and the New York Times deal with Amazon cover both, and they're among the largest reported.
- One-off sales aren't steady income
- Informa, which owns Taylor & Francis, described its 2024 AI income as non-recurring.
- For ordinary company data, one rate card stands out
- micro1's published rates, $100K to more than $3M per company, are the clearest public benchmark, though it only buys for labs and enterprises in the US and allied countries.
For what companies of your type could earn, see our calculator, or read how licensing works in India.
India context
ANI v OpenAI
The news agency ANI sued OpenAI in the Delhi High Court in November 2024, and Indian publishers later joined; the Indian Express sought to join in January 2025. In an interim ruling in July 2026, the court declined to stop OpenAI using ANI's content, finding that its use was likely covered by India's fair-dealing exception. ANI appealed in September 2026, the same month OpenAI signed its Times of India and Indian Express deals. (MediaNama, Press Gazette)
A proposed licence for training on copyrighted work
In December 2025, a DPIIT committee proposed a mandatory blanket licence for training AI on lawfully accessed copyrighted work in India, with royalties set as a percentage of revenue and collected centrally. It's a working paper for consultation, not law. (DPIIT)
Personal data
Data about identifiable people falls under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, whose consent and penalty provisions apply from 13 May 2027 (MeitY notification G.S.R. 843(E)). Our guide covers what that means for licensing.
How we check
Every entry was checked against company announcements, financial filings, or news and trade publications on 7 November 2026. Values are in the source's currency; rupee figures are our conversion. Each one carries a status:
- ConfirmedDisclosed by a party to the deal or its parent, in a filing, earnings release, announcement or contract.
- ReportedReported by a news or trade publication, usually citing people familiar with the deal.
- EstimateAn industry estimate that the publication itself says is unconfirmed.
- UndisclosedNo figure we could verify.
- Published rateA price list a buyer publishes, not a completed deal.
We leave out figures we can't trace to a source. If you know of a deal we've missed, or a figure that's changed, email hello@kimber-lite.com.