Every AI answer engine runs on publisher content. Some publishers sue, some sign, and some do both.
Our lawsuits tracker follows the first group. This page follows the deals.
A typical deal gives the AI company real-time access to articles for grounding answers, plus display rights for snippets. Some add training rights.
The publisher gets money, API credits or product access, and a promise of attribution.
About this list. Press Gazette's Charlotte Tobitt keeps the running record of publisher-AI deals and suits, and this page draws on it.
Rows link to a primary where we have read one.
Sums are printed only with the source named. Most deals do not disclose terms.
The deals, newest first
Nineteen deals or deal groups since May 2025. Dates are the announcement or first report.
| Date | Deal | What is known |
|---|---|---|
| Google's News AI pilot reaches "more than 400 publications", with Axios, CNN, the Financial Times, Forbes and four US local publishers named | Google now calls the pilot "this licensing program" and says "we pay participating news publications for the delivery and use of enhanced content to develop new AI features". Newest partners named: Axios, CNN, The Financial Times, Forbes, Post and Courier, Texas Tribune, Oil City News and Shaw Media. No amounts, join dates or country count are given. | |
| Google with Reach (UK and Ireland) | Reach joins Google's news AI pilot programme, granting "enhanced content rights for news content" across its UK and Ireland titles, including the Mirror, Express and Daily Star. Google's Hayley Cochrane calls it "a commercial partnership where we pay for enhanced content rights". No fee, duration or training terms are stated. | |
| OpenAI with Bennett, Coleman and Co (Times of India) and the Indian Express Group | OpenAI's first India deals. Reported values of about $5m and $3m a year respectively, per E4m via Press Gazette. India's Digital News Publishers Association is separately suing OpenAI. | |
| OpenAI with Village Media (Canada) | Funding, API credits and technical support for a local-services tool called Open Door; Village Media content cited in ChatGPT. OpenAI's first Canadian partnership. | |
| Microsoft with Nine (Australia) | Copilot may ground answers in Nine's mastheads, including paywalled content, showing snippets and headlines with links. Microsoft's first such deal in Asia Pacific. | |
| Seventeen publishers via Snowflake's Cortex Knowledge Extensions | Including the Associated Press, People Inc, USA Today Network and The Washington Post. Digiday reported "six-figure deals" with financial institutions, flat-fee and usage-based. | |
| OpenAI with Folha de S.Paulo and UOL (Brazil) | Ended Folha's August 2025 lawsuit. Real-time Portuguese news in ChatGPT; access to Codex, ChatGPT Enterprise and the API. OpenAI's first deal in Brazil. | |
| Google with Folha | Part of Folha's archive and a real-time feed for the Gemini app. Folha's first AI agreement. | |
| News/Media Alliance with Bria | An opt-in licensing framework for the trade body's 2,200 members, paid by frequency of use in Bria's enterprise product. | |
| Meta with News Corp | Multi-year. "Up to $50m per year for at least three years" for archive and new content in Meta's AI tools, per News Corp's own Wall Street Journal. | |
| Amazon with Reach (UK) | Content for the Nova model and Alexa, "with compensation based on usage". | |
| Google's AI pilot with Der Spiegel, El País, Folha, Infobae, Kompas, The Guardian, The Times of India, The Washington Examiner and The Washington Post | Google called it "a new commercial partnership program", testing AI article overviews and audio briefings in Google News. Believed to involve cash, but "not licensing deals" at the time. The Financial Times joined in February 2026, and Reach on 12th Oct 2026. On 15th Oct 2026 Google called it "this licensing program" (top row). | |
| Meta with CNN, Fox News, Fox Sports, Le Monde Group, People Inc, The Daily Caller, The Washington Examiner and USA Today | Real-time content for the Meta AI assistant, with links to partners. | |
| Microsoft with People Inc | The first publisher in Microsoft's Publisher Content Marketplace, which pays per use; Copilot is the first buyer. | |
| Perplexity with Getty Images | Multi-year global licence to display Getty images in Perplexity's tools, with credits and source links. | |
| Perplexity with Gannett | USA Today and more than 200 local brands in Perplexity answers and Comet; advertising revenue shared; terms undisclosed. | |
| Amazon with Conde Nast and Hearst | Multi-year deals for content in Rufus, Amazon's shopping assistant, first reported by Digiday. | |
| Prorata.ai with more than 500 publications | Including The Atlantic, Fortune, Time, The Guardian, Daily Mail and Sky News. Prorata's Gist.ai answers from licensed content and allocates compensation by measured contribution. | |
| Amazon with The New York Times | The Times' first AI licensing deal: summaries and excerpts in Amazon products such as Alexa, and training of Amazon's models. |
Older deals are listed on Press Gazette's tracker. They run from the Associated Press and Axel Springer in 2023 to News Corp and The Atlantic in 2024.
What is known about the money
A handful of figures, each from one source. Everything else is undisclosed.
Most deals do not state terms. The figures below are the ones with a named source.
OpenAI was reported in 2024 to offer news organisations between $1m and $5m a year, per Press Gazette's tracker. News Corp's 2024 OpenAI deal was reported at more than $250m over five years.
Meta's 2026 deal with News Corp is "up to $50m per year for at least three years", per the Wall Street Journal, which News Corp owns.
E4m reported OpenAI's India deals at about $5m a year for the Times of India's publisher. The Indian Express Group's is about $3m a year.
Snowflake's marketplace deals were "six-figure", per Digiday. Prorata.ai and Bria pay by measured use rather than a flat fee.
Cloudflare put a third pay-by-use route into beta on 30th Sep 2026, called Pay Per Use. The AI company defines the use and sets the price, and each publisher accepts or declines.
Cloudflare bills the buyer and pays publishers monthly. Its post says "Usage is self-reported", and it names no buyer, publisher or payout.
Google's AI contribution pilot is the one with a published order of magnitude, via our entry on The Information's report.
Several small and midsize sites were paid less than one-tenth of 1% of their ad revenue. One site earned above $1m a year.
Against those sums sits the traffic. Our AI Overviews statistics table carries every click measurement we have verified.
How Google's approach differs
Google pays through pilots and partnership programmes. Since 15th Oct 2026 it calls the News AI pilot a licensing program.
Google has not signed content licences of the OpenAI or Meta kind for Search. It called its December 2025 publisher deals "a new commercial partnership program" for Google News.
Press Gazette's reading at the time was "not licensing deals". The deals test AI article overviews and audio briefings on publishers' Google News pages.
Google's wording changed on 15th Oct 2026. Its update calls the pilot "this licensing program", with "more than 400 publications worldwide", and says it pays "for the delivery and use of enhanced content".
The AI contribution pilot, confirmed in September 2026, pays publishers through Search Console. It covers content used in AI Overviews, AI Mode and the Gemini app, and about 100 publishers take part.
The payments are small for most. Several sites were told they earned under one-tenth of 1% of their ad revenue; smaller sites received under $1,000.
The regulatory track runs alongside: the UK's CMA has ordered an AI Overviews opt-out. The EU is applying the Digital Markets Act to search data.
Google's appeal is live. Our lawsuits and regulation tracker has every action.
What the studies say about publisher content in AI answers
Trust in the answer tracks trust in the cited brand. A third of UK adults do not know AI tools can fabricate.
The Association of Online Publishers' Publisher Impact Study is an Ipsos survey of 1,000 UK adults. Press Gazette published it in three parts in July 2026, and the third part is about trust.
A completely trusted source "results in more than 90% trust in the answer"; a completely distrusted one, "around 10%". A neutral source gives about 25%.
Trust also drives clicks. "Almost half of users who either completely or somewhat trust a source will click on at least one link in the response", the AOP's Richard Reeves writes.
And 37% of respondents "did not realise that AI tools can sometimes fabricate information or sources", rising to about 45% among 45 to 54 year olds.
The study is the publishers' trade body's own, and it argues the publishers' case. Its numbers are survey answers, not measured behaviour.
On 29th Sep 2026 more than 300 news executives lobbied Congress for the Stealth Bot Prohibition Act. It would make AI crawlers identify themselves, as our AI crawlers page records.
Sources
- Google: 400 publications are now partnering with us on our News AI pilot program (15th October 2026)
- Cloudflare: Pay Per Use: when AI uses your work, you should get paid (30th September 2026)
- Reach plc: Reach and Google announce News AI partnership (12th October 2026)
- Press Gazette: Who's suing AI and who's signing latest (Charlotte Tobitt, 23rd September 2026, updated 12th October 2026)
- Press Gazette: New research reveals AI answers only as trusted as the newsbrands they cite (Richard Reeves, AOP, 27th July 2026)
- Search Engine Land: Google AI contribution pilot earns publishers one-tenth of 1% of ad revenues (Barry Schwartz, 30th September 2026, citing The Information)
- Search Engine Land: Publishers want Congress to stop AI crawlers from hiding (Danny Goodwin, 29th September 2026)
Frequently asked questions
Which publishers have signed AI deals with OpenAI?
Since 2023, per Press Gazette's tracker: the Associated Press, Axel Springer, Le Monde and Prisa Media. Then the Financial Times, Dotdash Meredith (now People Inc), News Corp, The Atlantic and Vox Media.
Also Time, Conde Nast, Hearst, Future, Axios, Schibsted, The Guardian and The Washington Post. In 2026: Folha and UOL, Village Media, the Times of India's publisher and the Indian Express Group.
How much do AI companies pay publishers?
Mostly undisclosed. Reported figures: OpenAI offers of $1m to $5m a year, and News Corp's OpenAI deal above $250m over five years.
News Corp and Meta at up to $50m a year, and OpenAI's India deals at about $5m and $3m. Google's AI contribution pilot paid several sites under one-tenth of 1% of ad revenue.
Does Google license publisher content for AI Overviews?
Not for AI Overviews. Google runs a News AI pilot in Google News, announced in December 2025.
On 15th Oct 2026 it called that pilot "this licensing program", with more than 400 publications.
It also runs an AI contribution pilot that pays about 100 publishers through Search Console. Google has not described that one as licensing.
Which publishers are suing instead?
The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, CNN and Encyclopaedia Britannica, among others. Also 30-plus US local newspaper owners, The Seattle Times and Newsday, Wikihow, Editorial Perfil and India's Digital News Publishers Association.
USA Today Co joined them on 8th Oct 2026 with a copyright suit in the Southern District of New York.
On 15th Oct Judge Stein placed it in the OpenAI copyright MDL. He ordered it to show cause why it should not be stayed.
Our lawsuits and regulation tracker follows the cases that touch AI search.
Compiled by Claude from primary sources, checked by Akash Mansukhani before publication. See how we source and correct this page.Keywords Everywhere, "Publisher AI deals and payments", last updated 16th Oct 2026, https://keywordseverywhere.com/news/publisher-ai-deals/