Publisher AI Licensing Deal Statistics: 2026 Report

AI companies have been signing deals that pay news and magazine publishers to use their articles, both to train AI models and to answer people's questions in chatbots and AI search. OpenAI signed the most of them early on. But as Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft signed deals of their own, its share fell, so we looked at who is paying publishers and on what terms.

Our analysts studied the publisher AI licensing deals announced from July 2023 through 2025, compiled from Digiday's deal timelines and counting each announcement once. OpenAI signed 15 of the 36 deals announced in that period. Its share fell from 50.0% of announcements in 2024 to 25.0% in 2025.

In the following sections, we count deals by year and AI company, break them down by type, list the publishers with the most partners, and report the disclosed deal values.

Publisher AI Licensing Deals by Year and AI Company

Each row counts deal announcements, so a program that signs several publishers on one date counts once. The second count shows how many named publisher and AI company pairings those announcements produced.

• Announcements rose from 2 in 2023 to 18 in 2024, then eased to 16 in 2025.
• OpenAI made 9 of the 18 announcements in 2024 and 4 of the 16 in 2025.
• Amazon, Google and Mistral each appear for the first time in 2025. Amazon's first was with The New York Times in May 2025.
• For publishers, more buyers mean more leverage. Announcements held at 16 in 2025 after 18 in 2024, and Amazon, Google and Mistral joined while OpenAI's share fell. Deals are likely to keep coming from a wider set of AI companies.

Deal Types: Direct Licenses, Revenue Share and Marketplaces

The deals take different forms. A direct license pays a publisher for access to its content. Revenue share programs pay publishers part of the advertising or subscription income an AI product earns, and pay-per-use marketplaces pay each time content is used.

• Direct licenses make up 24 of the 36 announcements, or 66.7%.
• Microsoft's pay-per-use marketplace, still in development in late 2025, signed USA Today Co., The Associated Press and People Inc. within one week, from October 30 to November 4.
• Smaller publishers have new ways to get paid. Microsoft's marketplace signed three publishers in a week, and ProRata says more than 500 joined its program. Pay-per-use and revenue share models are likely to take a larger share of deals.

Publishers With the Most AI Licensing Partners

Several large publishers have signed with more than one AI company. Across the 74 named pairings, 49 different publishers appear.

• 16 of the 49 publishers have deals with at least two AI companies, and 7 have deals with three.
• Large publishers license to several AI companies rather than one. 16 of 49 publishers have at least two partners, and the AP works with OpenAI, Google and Microsoft. Top content is likely to stay available to most major models.

Disclosed Values of AI Licensing Deals

Few deal values are public. The figures below come from company filings and results statements; the rest are press reports of undisclosed terms.

• Reddit's $203.0 million in contracts, signed in a single month, is the largest figure disclosed in a company filing. The largest press-reported figure is more than $250 million over five years for News Corp's deal with OpenAI.
• Wiley's AI licensing revenue rose 73.9% from fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2025.
• Publishers have little public data on what their content is worth. 32 of 36 deals carry no public value. The few figures that are public, from company filings and press reports, are likely to serve as reference points in negotiations until more terms are disclosed.

What Publisher AI Licensing Deal Trends Mean for 2027 and Beyond

Licensing has turned publishers' archives into a paid input for AI products, a revenue line that barely existed before 2023. Because most agreements are not exclusive, one archive can be licensed to several AI companies at the same time, much as wire copy is sold to many outlets.

Copyright cases now in the courts are likely to shift the balance in these talks. A ruling that training AI models on articles is fair use would weaken publishers' position, and a ruling against it would raise the value of the content they license.

Shorter terms and payment tied to usage make it easier to reprice a license as more deal values become public.