Data Marketplace: Where Companies Sell and License Data

How a data marketplace works for sellers

Every data marketplace below follows the same basic pattern. A provider registers and gets approved, packages data into a product or listing, sets terms and pricing, and publishes. Buyers find the listing, subscribe or request access, and get the data delivered inside the platform they already use. The marketplace handles access and, for paid listings, often billing and payouts.

What differs is the platform. Each marketplace is tied to a cloud or data platform, so the buyer base is that platform's customers. And each one requires you to have an account on it.

AWS Data Exchange

AWS describes AWS Data Exchange as a place to find, subscribe to and use third-party data in the cloud, with more than 3,500 third-party data sets and over 300 data providers in its catalog (AWS overview page, read October 31, 2026).

Listing data on AWS Data Exchange

The AWS Data Exchange User Guide lists these steps for providers:

1. Register to be a provider. Registering lets you list products on AWS Data Exchange and make them available on AWS Marketplace.
2. Confirm the data is eligible. You can only distribute data sets that meet the legal eligibility requirements in the Terms and Conditions for AWS Marketplace Sellers and the AWS publishing guidelines.
3. Create a data set, a revision and its assets.
4. Create a product with one or more data sets, and optionally a public offer.
5. Optionally turn on subscription verification, so you review subscribers before they get access.
6. Optionally create custom offers, including private and Bring Your Own Subscription offers.
7. Publish new revisions as the data changes.

Reports are available through the AWS Marketplace Management Portal, and AWS Marketplace distributes the funds.

Sensitive data

AWS runs an Extended Provider Program for qualified providers who want to publish products containing sensitive categories of personal information or personal information that is not otherwise publicly available. It requires an additional review by the AWS Data Exchange team.

Snowflake Marketplace

Snowflake's provider documentation sets these requirements:

• A full Snowflake account. Trial accounts can share data with specified consumers, but not on the Snowflake Marketplace, and reader accounts cannot be providers.
• The ACCOUNTADMIN role, or a role granted provider privileges.
• An organization administrator (ORGADMIN) who accepts the Provider and Consumer Terms.
• A provider profile created in Provider Studio. Snowflake must approve it before you can offer paid listings or Marketplace listings.

Paid listings on Snowflake

Snowflake says paid listings are available to providers whose billing address is in a listed set of countries, which includes the United States. Before creating a paid Marketplace listing, you contact your Snowflake business development partner, or Marketplace Operations through Provider Studio. Payouts go through a Stripe Express connected account, and every private paid listing can have a price per consumer.

Databricks Marketplace

Databricks' documentation (last updated September 11, 2026) describes Databricks Marketplace as an open exchange for data, notebooks, models, apps and MCP servers, built on OpenSharing. Consumers browse the Marketplace from a Databricks workspace, but they do not need one to work with data once it is shared. Providers can share public data, free sample data and commercial data offerings, in public listings or in private exchanges visible only to member consumers.

Becoming a Databricks provider

To list data, a provider needs a Databricks account on the Premium plan or above and a workspace enabled for Unity Catalog, and must agree to the Marketplace provider policies. Providers that only want private exchanges can sign up in the provider console; to create public listings you apply through the Databricks Data Partner Program.

Comparing data marketplaces at a glance

When a data marketplace is the wrong channel

You are selling once, not running a product

A marketplace listing is a product you maintain: revisions, documentation, support and buyer reviews. That makes sense for a company that sells a dataset over time. It makes much less sense for a company that is shutting down and wants to sell its records once.

The data is internal, not a dataset

Marketplaces are built for structured data products. A closing company's most valuable records are often unstructured: years of Slack, email, support tickets and code. MIT Technology Review reported in October 2026 that AI labs are buying data from defunct startups to train models. Those deals typically happen directly with a buyer, not through a public listing.

You cannot clear the privacy review

Each marketplace limits personal data. If your data includes customer or employee personal information, plan on removing or anonymizing it, and check your privacy policy and contracts before any sale.

Common questions