Sell Code to AI

Q: Can I sell my startup's code to AI companies?

Yes, provided the company holds title to it. A live company tends to license history and engineering records (micro1 and Labelbox Prism both list that kind of material). A closed one can go through SimpleClosure AssetHub, which handles code and workspace exports in a wind-down. Your open-source packages and anything a client owns never form part of the deal.

Q: How much is a codebase worth to AI companies?

On the buyers' own pages, entry points sit near $50K at Labelbox Prism and $100K at micro1, both aimed at companies above a staff minimum. Press coverage gives one closed-startup price: about $25,000, reported by MIT Technology Review. Treat every figure as a ceiling to test, never an offer; real license fees often come in far lower. The code value tool lines them up for your case.

Q: Can I sell my GitHub repo to an AI company?

A private repo, yes, if the company owns the code. What buyers pay for is what could never be scraped: the commit history, review threads and issues that run from report to fix. Public packages are already downloadable, and code a client owns stays out. Most buyers work from exports you deliver rather than access to the repo itself.

Q: Do I give up ownership of the code if I license it?

Not if you license. micro1 states plainly that the seller keeps ownership of the underlying data. The clause to watch is exclusivity, which Prism makes its starting position. Selling the IP outright is a different deal, usually made by a wound-down company or its assignee.

Q: Can I sell code from a startup that has shut down?

Often, yes. SimpleClosure AssetHub takes repos together with the Slack, Drive, Notion and Figma exports during a wind-down, and micro1 keeps a track for defunct companies. The first question is who may sign: the holder of the IP, which could be the company, a secured lender, an ABC assignee or a buyer of part of the business. Selling a shut-down startup's code.

Q: Is it legal to sell code that uses open-source libraries?

You can license the code your company wrote and owns. The packages you depend on stay under their authors' licenses, so you have nothing to grant in them, and that includes snippets pasted into your own files. Have your own counsel read the agreement. Open source and licensing.

Q: Does a buyer need access to our GitHub org?

Not necessarily. Scale AI does its anonymizing on your infrastructure, and repo access and credentials are on its refusal list. Other buyers work from exports you deliver. Get the method in writing before you add anyone to the org.

AI labs and their data suppliers license private repositories, review threads and issue history. We tell you which buyers fit your codebase and what each one publishes about pay, rules and exclusions.

Get a quote Compare the buyers

Agit log

a41f2c9 fix: retry webhook on 502
  dana@acme-billing.io
PR #812 review by @mkhan
  "move the backoff into the client"
CI passed · 214 tests
.env AWS_KEY=AKIA4F...

Bscrubbed

a41f2c9 fix: retry webhook on 502
  author_014
PR #812 review by reviewer_03
  "move the backoff into the client"
CI passed · 214 tests
.env removed, key rotated

Clicensed

Licensee: The buyer you pick
Grant: License, you keep title
Scope: History, PRs, issues
Exclusive: Only if you agree

Dpaid

< 21 days

Labelbox Prism's own claim for first call to wire.

micro1 pays in full within 30 days of acceptance.

Invented example. The commit, names, email and key are made up.

Two routes

Still shipping, or winding down?

A running company licenses copies of its history and keeps building. Programs for live companies set staff minimums. A closed company realizes its code on the way out, usually bundled with workspace exports, and the first question is who may sign.

Selling a shut-down startup's code

Operating company

License the history, keep the product

micro1
Labelbox Prism
Scale AI
Nyne

Staff floors: none at Prism, 20 US W-2 at Nyne, 30 at micro1, 40 preferred at Scale AI.

Wound-down company

Code plus Slack, Drive, Notion and Figma

SimpleClosure AssetHub
micro1, defunct track

Lenders, investors or an ABC assignee may stand between the founders and the signature line.

What's in, what's out

Buyers pay for what could never be scraped

Your public packages are already downloadable. The private history, the arguments in review and the path from ticket to fix are not. Every buyer listed here promises to strip personal data; scrub it yourself first anyway.

Open source and what you can grant

repo-contents.diff

Commit history with real messages
Pull requests and review comments
Issues, from report to fix
Tests and the code they cover
Design docs, ADRs, runbooks
Secrets, keys and credentials
Customer data in fixtures and logs
Open-source and vendored code
Code a client owns under an MSA
Author emails and handles, unscrubbed

The paper you sign

License the history or sell the IP?

Most operating companies license; most outright sales come from wound-down companies or their assignees. Exclusivity and field-of-use clauses decide how much a license really leaves you.

Licensing repo history vs selling the IP

License

Owner afterYou
Keep using itYes
Second buyerYes, unless exclusive
Who signsThe company

Sale

Owner afterThe buyer
Keep using itOnly with a license back
Second buyerNo
Who signsWhoever holds the IP now

Five companies that publish terms for code

Each set of terms comes from the buyer's own site. The full comparison adds personal data handling and payment timing.

micro1

$100K entry tier

Engineering workflows, bug tracking and code documentation. 30+ full-time staff. Pays within 30 days of acceptance.

Labelbox Prism

From about $50K

Traces of code being written and edited. No size threshold. Cash at signing, then a revenue share; exclusive by default.

Scale AI

$10K to $1M+, illustrative

Jira, Confluence, docs and chat. Ideally 40+ people. Will not take credentials or repo access.

Nyne

$100K and up, usually

Jira and Asana projects, tickets and CRM. Twenty-plus US W-2 staff and a 3-year record.

Wind-downs

SimpleClosure AssetHub

Repos with their docs and tests, plus the workspace around them. Each dataset is scrubbed for personal data before licensing. For founders closing their company with SimpleClosure; no pay figures published.

Disclosure: some of these companies pay referral fees, and one could pay us after a deal with a company we introduced. That has no say in which buyers appear here or how we describe them.

Where these facts come from (6)

What is a codebase worth?

Usually less than the headline numbers, which describe whole-company partnerships with staff minimums.

$100KBottom of micro1's entry tier
~$50KLabelbox Prism, a narrow dataset
$10K–$1M+Scale AI, labelled illustrative
~$25,000One closed startup's code, as MIT Technology Review reported

Published and reported figures only, never an offer; real license fees often come in far lower. The code value tool filters them by team size, history and what your repos hold.

How a code deal runs

How introductions work here

01
Inventory
Repos, years, committers, and the signed agreement behind every contractor. Tag anything third-party or client-owned.
02
Clean up
Rotate and purge secrets, pull customer records out of fixtures, drop vendored packages before a single file leaves.
03
Scoping
Learn what the buyer wants and how it strips identities. Scale works on your side and asks you to approve each package.
04
Agreement
License or assignment, scope, field of use, exclusivity, term. Your counsel marks it up before anyone signs.
05
Delivery and payment
Data moves on the agreed terms, then payment follows on each buyer's schedule.

Six rules that decide whether you can sign

None of them is about price.

Title first

You can only license code the company owns or may license. Staff work under an invention assignment normally counts; contractor work counts only where the contract assigns it.

Dependencies stay theirs

Open-source packages remain under their own licenses and fall outside anything you grant.

Client code stays out

So does customer personal data, unless your contract and the applicable law both permit it.

Others may hold rights

Investors, lenders and acquirers, most often after a wind-down. Read the financing papers.

Your scrub comes first

Buyers de-identify too, but only your pass happens before anything leaves.

Estimates are not offers

Every agreement goes to your own counsel before signature.

Questions founders and CTOs ask

Short answers. The blog and the buyer comparison go into each in depth.

Can I sell my startup's code to AI companies?

Yes, provided the company holds title to it. A live company tends to license history and engineering records (micro1 and Labelbox Prism both list that kind of material). A closed one can go through SimpleClosure AssetHub, which handles code and workspace exports in a wind-down. Your open-source packages and anything a client owns never form part of the deal.

How much is a codebase worth to AI companies?

On the buyers' own pages, entry points sit near $50K at Labelbox Prism and $100K at micro1, both aimed at companies above a staff minimum. Press coverage gives one closed-startup price: about $25,000, reported by MIT Technology Review. Treat every figure as a ceiling to test, never an offer; real license fees often come in far lower. The code value tool lines them up for your case.

Can I sell my GitHub repo to an AI company?

A private repo, yes, if the company owns the code. What buyers pay for is what could never be scraped: the commit history, review threads and issues that run from report to fix. Public packages are already downloadable, and code a client owns stays out. Most buyers work from exports you deliver rather than access to the repo itself.

Do I give up ownership of the code if I license it?

Not if you license. micro1 states plainly that the seller keeps ownership of the underlying data. The clause to watch is exclusivity, which Prism makes its starting position. Selling the IP outright is a different deal, usually made by a wound-down company or its assignee.

Can I sell code from a startup that has shut down?

Often, yes. SimpleClosure AssetHub takes repos together with the Slack, Drive, Notion and Figma exports during a wind-down, and micro1 keeps a track for defunct companies. The first question is who may sign: the holder of the IP, which could be the company, a secured lender, an ABC assignee or a buyer of part of the business. Selling a shut-down startup's code.

Is it legal to sell code that uses open-source libraries?