Earnings and payouts
How estimates, sales, revenue share and payouts work, with a worked example.
The short version
- Traces earn money only when a dataset that includes them is sold and paid for.
- You receive 70% of the net revenue attributed to your traces. We keep 30%.
- Estimates help you compare traces. They are not payouts, and many traces will never sell.
Estimates
After a trace is listed, it gets an estimate. Today the estimate uses a placeholder price model: about $1.20 gross for a long trace with a perfect quality score, scaled down for shorter or lower scoring traces, then multiplied by your share. We will replace it with real sale data once there is enough of it.
The dry run shows a range for the whole upload plan. The low end assumes typical scores, the high end assumes every trace lists with a high score. Neither is a promise.
Sales
Labs license datasets, not single traces. A dataset is a set of listed traces chosen for a buyer's need, for example "TypeScript refactors with failing tests".
When a sale is paid, its net revenue is the amount we receive minus payment processing fees, refunds, chargebacks and taxes we must collect. Net revenue is allocated across the traces in the dataset, weighted by size and quality score. Your share of each trace's allocation is 70%.
Worked example
A lab licenses a dataset. After weighting, 212 of your traces are allocated $236.40 of its net revenue.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Net revenue allocated to your traces | $236.40 |
| Platform share (30%) | $70.92 |
| Your share (70%) | $165.48 |
The numbers are illustrative, not typical. Real prices depend on buyers.
Payouts
- Connect a payout account in the dashboard. You may need to provide tax information, such as a W-9.
- Your share becomes payable after the buyer's payment clears.
- We pay out on a regular schedule once your balance passes a minimum. The schedule and minimum will be published in the dashboard before the first sale.
You are responsible for taxes on what you earn. If you earn above the IRS reporting threshold in a year, you will receive a 1099.
Excluding traces
You can exclude any unsold trace at any time:
selltraces exclude <traceId>Excluded traces are removed from listings right away and are never included in a new dataset. Their content is deleted from storage within 30 days. Traces already sold remain licensed to that buyer.