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Shutterstock signs a six-year training data agreement with OpenAI

Shutterstock expanded its partnership with OpenAI with a six-year agreement licensing image, video and music libraries and metadata for training. Shutterstock gets priority access to OpenAI technology.

NEW YORK, July 11, 2023 Shutterstock announced on July 11, 2023 that it had signed a new six-year agreement with OpenAI to provide training data, expanding a partnership begun in January 2023. Financial terms were not disclosed.1

Terms of the deal

OpenAI received a license to access Shutterstock's training data, covering its image, video and music libraries and the associated metadata. Shutterstock gets priority access to the latest OpenAI technology and continued use of DALL-E based generative tools, and the companies will work together to bring generative AI to the GIPHY platform.1 The coverage cited more than 615 million metadata-enriched images and 2.2 million customers worldwide.1

The public record on this agreement is limited to the announcement and the press coverage cited below. The price is listed here as: Undisclosed. The status shown, Signed, reflects the most recent reporting available on October 22, 2026, and any later amendments are not captured.

Background

Shutterstock said the week before that it would indemnify enterprise customers for AI generated content, following a similar move by Adobe. The company has since disclosed that licensing to AI developers produced substantial revenue, and its chief financial officer said deals with large technology companies initially ranged from $25 million to $50 million each.2

What it means for data sellers

Shutterstock shows how a stock library can sell training access repeatedly to multiple buyers. Data owners should note the value of clean rights and rich metadata, and should consider non-cash consideration, such as product access, when pricing.

A seller comparing this deal with its own situation should ask what the buyer actually receives: raw data, a license to train, a license to display, or a right to build a product. Each is priced differently, and the answer should be written into the agreement rather than inferred from a press release.

How the deal came together

  1. 2023 start. Shutterstock and OpenAI began their partnership in January 2023.
  2. Expansion. They signed a new six-year agreement.
  3. Announcement. It was announced on July 11, 2023.
  4. Product use. Shutterstock keeps using DALL-E based generative tools.

Takeaways for companies with data

  • Long terms give both sides certainty but lock in pricing for years.
  • A licensor can receive technology access as part of the consideration.
  • Metadata can be as valuable as the media itself in training.

Sources

Every numbered reference above points to an entry here. Figures come from these pages as of the date shown at the top of the article. Where a source reports a number it got from unnamed people, the text says so.

  1. Shutterstock's generative AI way forward: 6-year training data deal with OpenAI (Constellation Research, July 2023)
  2. Apple strikes deal with Shutterstock for AI model training (EastMojo, April 2024)

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About the AI Data Deal Tracker

SellYourAIData tracks publicly reported sales and licenses of data to AI companies, with the price, terms and sources for each. Entries are checked against public reporting and updated as deals change. SellYourAIData was not involved in this deal. To ask what your company's data could sell for, get a free valuation. To report a deal, contact us.