FileYield review: who pays you, and what its buyer claims show

On FileYield, a company posts a description of its data, and an AI buyer that finds the listing pays the company directly, under terms the two negotiate; FileYield’s published “agreement rate” for sellers is 8%, on a basis it leaves to each deal (as of October 2026). FileYield does not buy the data, receive it or handle the money: its terms say it “is not a party to any transaction between sellers and buyers.” Its policies, last updated September 22, 2026, still give its mailing address as “TBD before launch.”

Who pays whom when a deal is made through FileYield?

The buyer pays you, and each side owes FileYield a percentage. FileYield’s terms say “the transfer of data, the legal contract for the sale, and the payment occur directly between the seller and buyer,” and its how-it-works page says “We don’t process payments, host transfers, or hold escrow.” As of October 2026 its pages describe these payments:

Payment	Who pays	Who receives	What FileYield says
The price of the data	The buyer	Your company	Negotiated in direct messages and set in your own agreement
Seller fee	Your company	FileYield	“Current agreement rates are 8% for sellers” (data guide); no base or due date is given
Buyer fee	The buyer	FileYield	6%, in the same sentence
Listing	No one	—	“Listing on FileYield is free,” with “no upfront fees, no monthly minimums” (how it works)
Paid features	Whoever buys them	FileYield	The terms allow “listing fees, transaction commissions, outreach campaign tiers, and premium subscriptions,” each “disclosed at the time of purchase”

FileYield leaves the base of the 8% to each deal; the last step in its own guide tells sellers to “Confirm the applicable fee, calculation basis, payment schedule, and separate dataset price in your transaction terms” (data guide). On a multi-year license or a revenue share, the gap between 8% of the first payment and 8% of every payment grows with each payment, and because FileYield never touches the money, ask how and when it bills you. The terms also forbid trying to “Circumvent FileYield’s fees by negotiating off-platform after a connection is made,” without saying how long that applies to a buyer you met there.

Who would I sign a license with, and who checks it?

The buyer, on an agreement the two of you write. FileYield’s terms say it “does not receive or inspect the underlying datasets, verify seller rights, certify compliance, process dataset purchases, or provide escrow,” and its About page says it does not “determine a reliable sale price, certify legal compliance, or guarantee a buyer.” Its step on rights reads, “Each party is responsible for due diligence, permissions, privacy, and legal review” (data guide).

That leaves the seller to draft or review the license, remove personal details and deliver the copy, with whatever help it hires. FileYield’s selling guide describes structures buyers and sellers use, from perpetual and time-limited licenses to usage-based pricing, exclusivity premiums and revenue sharing, but sets none of them. Under the terms you warrant that you own the data or have “all necessary rights, licenses, and consents to sell it,” and FileYield caps its own liability at the greater of the fees you paid it in the previous 12 months or $100. Am I selling my data or licensing it? sets out what to agree with the buyer.

What do FileYield’s “15+ active buyers” and “$154.2B” figures show?

They describe other companies and other companies’ deals, not activity on FileYield. As of October 5, 2026, FileYield’s guide to selling data makes these claims:

FileYield’s claim	What it shows	What it does not show
“15 Buyer Profiles Tracked,” and “These AI companies are actively acquiring training data through FileYield” (selling guide); the guide’s search description promises “15+ active buyers” (guide)	FileYield has written profiles of 15 AI companies, among them OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Meta AI	That any of them buys through FileYield. Each profile says it “does not establish a relationship with FileYield, current buying intent, or a commitment to review your listing” (Google DeepMind profile)
“This guide catalogs 69+ reported deals worth $154.2B+ across 15 buyer profiles” (selling guide)	A total of publicly reported deals by other companies, as FileYield counts them	What is counted. The guide’s own examples include “a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI,” a stake in a company rather than a data license, and FileYield’s deal ledger lists 27 deals that “are not FileYield transactions or valuations of listed datasets”
Per-record prices of $0.01 to $10 for raw data, $1 to $100 cleaned and $10 to $1,000+ annotated (data guide)	FileYield’s general price guide	A source for the figures, or a price for company email, chat or business-software records
Scroll Depth Data: $24–$60,000; Bounce Rate & Exit Data: $2.99–$17.00 per record (Social/Behavioral catalog, checked October 6, 2026)	Prices attached to catalog types	Seller payouts, completed transactions or an offer for your website’s records
“36 categories · 2,566 data types” (homepage)	What can be listed	That buyers want each type

FileYield’s guide, About and How It Works pages give no count of live listings, buyers signed up or deals closed through FileYield (checked October 5, 2026). What matters for a listing is how many buyers in your category message sellers, and only FileYield knows that. For the figures that providers paying for company records do publish, see How much is my company’s data worth?.

What does a FileYield listing reveal about my company?

What you write in it, and your company name if you add it. Listings are built from “metadata you are authorized to share,” with an AI assistant (how it works) and no file uploads, and go through review before “Approved public listings can be searched by buyers” (data guide). Its privacy policy says a listing “(and the associated company name, if provided) is visible to buyers.” Its About page says sellers “choose public or private visibility and decide when to share samples or underlying data,” and the marketplace page adds that “Private listings are not unlocked by signing up.”

The pages Data Licensing Report read on October 5, 2026 do not say who may sign up as a buyer or how buyers are checked before they can message a seller. Write a public listing on the assumption that a competitor could read it: describe the records by system, years and volume, and give the company’s name only to a buyer you have checked. What does “anonymized” mean? covers what to require before any copy leaves your hands.

Who runs FileYield, and has it launched?

A Delaware company that names no people and has not filled in its address. FileYield’s privacy policy names FileYield Inc., a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Arizona, and both it and the terms, last updated September 22, 2026, give the mailing address as “TBD before launch.” The published contact is support@fileyield.com; fileyield.com/contact returned “not found” on October 5, 2026. The domain was registered on December 4, 2025, and the terms took effect on April 7, 2026.

As of October 5, 2026, the visible pages name no founder, staff or investor; the pages’ metadata lists an author, Allen Seavert, with no role stated. Data Licensing Report found no independent coverage of FileYield. Its pages also disagree about what it is. The About page says “Not a marketplace. Not a platform. A brokerage,” while the same page says approved listings “can be discovered in the marketplace” and the terms call FileYield “a platform that connects sellers and buyers of data.” Is it a scam? sets out a ten-minute check for a party you don’t know.

What should I ask FileYield before listing?

Ask what the 8% is charged on before anything else, then who is on the buyer side and who runs FileYield:

1. What is the 8% calculated on: the first payment, every payment over the license, or a revenue share?
2. For how long after an introduction does the bar on dealing with that buyer off-platform apply?
3. Who can sign up as a buyer, how are buyers checked, and who decides which buyers see a private listing?
4. How many buyers have contacted sellers in our category, and has any deal closed through FileYield?
5. What are FileYield Inc.’s Delaware file number and street address, and who runs it?

Any buyer who answers the listing then faces the usual questions on price, payment trigger, exclusivity and deletion; the offer benchmark checks an offer against each.