Surveyors, GIS consultancies and aerial capture firms
Can a survey or GIS firm sell its map data to an AI company?
Sell map data to AI? Check what your GIS platforms' terms allow
A mapping firm's years of work are often split between its own drives and the GIS clouds, map APIs and photogrammetry services it publishes through. We read 23 documents from 17 of those platforms, newest on 2026-10-28: 12 say the content you upload stays yours, and 5 keep a right to use it aggregated or anonymised.
Describe the map and survey data you hold
4 stagesGIS platform terms on your maps, platform by platform
Last updated
One row per GIS platform, map API or photogrammetry cloud, each answer resting on a sentence of the document named beside it. A row reading not stated is a platform whose documents, read whole, never answer that question.
- 12 of 17 GIS platforms whose terms we read say uploaded content stays with the customer, newest read 2026-10-28.(Gis software data terms: every row, with its source)
| GIS platform or map API | Who owns the uploaded layers | Keeps a pooled or anonymised use | Training AI on your data | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CARTO | the business | reserved | not stated | CARTO Basemaps Terms and Conditions |
| Cesium | the business | not stated | not stated | Cesium ion Terms of Service |
| DroneDeploy | the business | not stated | not stated | DroneDeploy Master Services Agreement |
| Esri | the business | not stated | not stated | Esri Master Agreement (E204CW) |
| Felt | the business | not stated | not stated | Felt Terms of Service |
| Geoapify | not stated | not stated | not stated | Geoapify Terms and Conditions |
| the business | not stated | not stated | Google Maps Platform Terms of Service | |
| HERE | the business | reserved | not stated | HERE Platform Terms (September 2023) |
| Hivemapper | not stated | not stated | not stated | Hivemapper Privacy Policy |
| Mapbox | the business | reserved | may train | Mapbox Terms of Service |
| Mapillary | the business | not stated | not stated | Mapillary Terms of Use |
| MapTiler | the business | not stated | not stated | MapTiler General Terms and Conditions |
| Nearmap | not stated | not stated | not stated | Nearmap industry customer addenda |
| Planet | not stated | reserved | not stated | Planet Terms of Use |
| Propeller | not stated | not stated | not stated | Propeller Privacy Policy |
| Safe Software | the business | not stated | will not train | Safe Software legal, FME AI Assist terms |
| SPH Engineering (DroneGIS) | the business | reserved | will not train | DroneGIS SaaS Terms of Service |
Method and citation
Each vendor's own published terms were read through estate-fetch and stored whole (sha256 on every row). For every document, four questions were answered from the vendor's own words: who owns the business's data, vendor keeps aggregated or anonymised use, training AI on the business's data, export at exit. Every stated answer carries the sentence it rests on, checked against the stored text; 'not stated' means the document read does not address the question. A vendor with several documents reads 'varies' where they disagree. 17 vendors, 23 documents.
“GIS platform terms on your maps, platform by platform”, Sell Map Data to AI, https://sellmapdatatoai.com/ (updated 2026-10-28).
Read next
Every figure sourced and dated.
Google Maps Platform terms on AI training and derived maps
What the Google Maps Platform terms say about tracing, derived maps and AI training, and why it decides which of a mapping firm's layers can be licensed.
Map copyright: who owns a map, a survey layer and a database
Map copyright in the UK and US: maps as artistic and graphic works, the database right, Crown copyright and US government maps, with the terms in years.
Who buys map data, aerial imagery and point clouds
Who buys map data: the organisations whose own pages say they take geospatial, aerial, lidar or 3D spatial data, how each one works and how a firm reaches it.
Selling a surveying business? What the archive is worth first
Selling a surveying business passes years of survey data, imagery and point clouds to the buyer. Check what the GIS platforms keep and which layers are truly yours.
What happens next
- Tell us what you hold, where it was captured and which platforms it sits in or was derived from.
- We check those platforms' clauses on the board and the copyright, database and Crown copyright rules that decide whose map it is.
- We reply with the route that fits: a licence while the firm keeps working; a sale of the archive decided by its directors only before any winding-up petition is presented or any liquidator or administrator is appointed, and by that office-holder once one is, whether or not the firm can pay its debts; or a route agreed with the adviser who sent you.
No GIS platform, map API or buyer pays to appear here, and there are no affiliate links. Every answer is our reading of a platform's published terms or of a statute, not advice on your own licences. Our fee: if a firm licenses or sells its map data to a buyer we introduced, it pays us 12.5% of the deal, subject to a minimum, when we act as its exclusive agent, or 10%, subject to a minimum, when its data joins a bundle or the pool, agreed in writing first; any fee a buyer pays us is credited back to the firm.
Common questions
Can a survey or GIS firm sell its map data to an AI company?
It can license what it made and owns. On this board 12 of 17 platforms say uploaded content stays with the customer. The harder question is what the layers were drawn from: anything traced from a licensed basemap may not be yours to license at all.(Gis software data terms: every row, with its source)
Can I sell layers I traced from Google Maps or satellite imagery?
Not on Google's terms. The Google Maps Platform terms say a customer will not create content based on Google Maps content, and give tracing roadways or building outlines from the satellite base map, and 3D building models from 45 degree imagery, as examples. MapTiler's terms rule out commercial derivative works from its services, naming the training of machine learning algorithms.(Gis software data terms: every row, with its source)
Do GIS platforms train AI on what I upload?
Few say so either way. Mapbox's privacy policy lists training AI models, once personal data is de-identified, among its uses; DroneGIS says it will not use customer data to train models for its own purposes; Safe Software says FME AI Assist inputs are not put into model training datasets. For the other 14 platforms the documents we read are silent.(Gis software data terms: every row, with its source)
How long is a map protected by copyright?
In the UK a map is an artistic work protected for 70 years after the author's death, the database right in a geographic database runs 15 years, and Crown copyright lasts up to 125 years. In the US a map made by employees as a work made for hire is protected for 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever ends first. Our map copyright page sets out each rule.(Gis software data terms: every row, with its source)
Does uploading street imagery to Mapillary give it away?
You keep your rights, but Mapillary's terms take a non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide and sublicensable licence to use, publish and build on what you upload, so a buyer could not be sold exclusive rights in the same images.(Gis software data terms: every row, with its source)
Who buys map, aerial and point cloud data?
A few organisations name it on their own pages: Shutterstock licenses 3D and spatial data for AI, UP42 runs a marketplace for aerial, elevation and lidar data, CARTO's Data Observatory takes geospatial datasets from data partners, and Opendatabay lists 3D spatial among what it trades. Protege names spatial and physical data too. Buyers that name only company records are left off this board.(Gis software data terms: every row, with its source)
Sources
This site's own datasets, every figure quoted from its source and dated:
- Gis software data terms: 5 of 17 gis software vendors whose terms we read reserve the right to use their customers' data in aggregated or anonymised form, read 28 October 2026.
- Who takes map layers, aerial imagery and spatial data for…: 4 of the 5 firms we read list maps, aerial imagery, 3D or other spatial data as something they take; newest read 28 October 2026.
- The Map Data Ownership Law carries 5 published figures read from 5 sources' own pages, from 15 to 125 year, read 28 October 2026.
| No. | Source | Published by |
|---|---|---|
| [1] | Esri Master Agreement (ArcGIS Online terms of use) | arcgis.com |
| [2] | Esri master agreements, products and services terms | esri.com |
| [3] | Esri product-specific terms of use (E300) | esri.com |
| [4] | Esri data attributions and terms of use | esri.com |
| [5] | Mapbox Terms of Service | mapbox.com |
| [6] | Mapbox Marketplace Terms | mapbox.com |
| [7] | Mapbox Privacy Policy | mapbox.com |
| [8] | Google Maps Platform Terms of Service | cloud.google.com |