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The deal is real, but the $25 million figure is not officially confirmed. The New York Times Company and Amazon announced a multiyear AI-content licensing agreement on May 29, 2025. The companies did not disclose its financial terms; later reporting attributed an estimated value of $20 million to $25 million per year to people familiar with the agreement.
The arrangement covers New York Times editorial content, NYT Cooking material and The Athletic’s sports journalism. Amazon may use the licensed material in AI-related customer experiences, including summaries and excerpts, and to train its proprietary foundation models.
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What Amazon and The New York Times officially announced
The New York Times Company and Amazon announced the agreement on May 29, 2025. It is described as a multiyear licensing deal covering:
- The New York Times’ editorial journalism
- NYT Cooking recipes and related content
- The Athletic’s sports coverage
The broad purpose is to make Times content available for Amazon customer experiences and to support Amazon’s artificial-intelligence products. The official announcement did not disclose the contract’s exact length, price, payment schedule, model names, exclusivity provisions or detailed usage restrictions.
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How Amazon may use the content
The publicly described rights fall into two distinct categories: customer-facing AI experiences and model development.
AI products and customer experiences
Amazon may use the licensed material for AI-related features such as real-time summaries, short excerpts and Times-related information in Amazon products and services. Alexa was cited as an example of where such experiences could appear.
That does not establish that every Alexa device, Amazon service or market currently uses Times content. The public descriptions refer generally to “a variety of Amazon customer experiences,” rather than listing every product or territory.
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Training Amazon’s proprietary models
The agreement also permits Amazon to use the material to train its proprietary foundation models, according to the public announcement and subsequent reporting.
However, the available information does not identify the specific model versions involved or clarify whether the license covers future training, continued training, fine-tuning, retrieval systems or all of those activities. It also does not establish whether Amazon can use the material indefinitely after the agreement ends.
Is Amazon paying The New York Times exactly $25 million?
No. The companies have not publicly confirmed that amount.
On July 30, 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that Amazon would pay between $20 million and $25 million annually. That estimate was subsequently reported by outlets including Engadget, The Information and GeekWire.
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What “up to $25 million” might mean
The public reporting does not explain the deal’s payment formula. The range could reflect different annual payments, a minimum guarantee plus additional compensation, performance-based payments or uncertainty among sources about the agreement’s precise economics.
“Up to” should be treated as an estimate of the agreement’s approximate annual value—not as a disclosed payment schedule or confirmed contractual ceiling.
How significant is the reported amount?
The top end of the reported range is roughly 1% of The New York Times Company’s 2024 revenue, based on comparisons reported by secondary outlets and the company’s financial disclosures. That provides scale, but it does not show how much the deal contributes to profit or cash flow.
The comparison does not reveal:
- The costs of supplying or managing the licensed content
- When revenue is recognized for accounting purposes
- Whether payments are spread evenly across the contract
- How much value is attributable to core Times journalism, NYT Cooking or The Athletic
As a result, the reported figure should not be described as a precise addition to annual profit.
Why the licensing agreement matters
It puts an estimated price on premium journalism for AI
Few publisher licensing agreements disclose even an approximate value. The reported $20 million-to-$25 million annual range offers an unusual indication of what access to a major publisher’s news, sports and recipe content may be worth to a large technology company.
It may also become a reference point in negotiations between other publishers and AI companies, although the Times’ content mix, audience, brand and contractual rights may make direct comparisons unreliable.
It offers a commercial alternative to disputed scraping
The Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December 2023, alleging unauthorized copying and use of its journalism in AI development. Its 2025 Form 10-K describes claims involving alleged copyright infringement, unfair competition, trademark dilution and Digital Millennium Copyright Act violations.
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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →The Amazon arrangement shows that The Times is not necessarily rejecting every form of AI use. Instead, its conduct suggests a distinction between alleged unauthorized use and use governed by negotiated compensation and controls.
The Amazon agreement does not resolve, weaken or determine the legal merits of the Times’ case against OpenAI and Microsoft. The parties, facts and contracts are different.
It expands how publishers can monetize their archives and reporting
Traditionally, publishers have monetized content through subscriptions, advertising, licensing and syndication. AI adds other potential uses, including retrieval, generated summaries, excerpts and model development.
The commercial opportunity comes with a risk: an AI answer may satisfy a reader without sending that reader to the original publisher. A licensing agreement can create revenue while still raising concerns about traffic, subscriptions, attribution and control over the publisher’s brand.
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The public announcement and subsequent reporting do not establish the following terms:
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| Unknown | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Exact annual payment | The $20 million-to-$25 million figure is reported, not officially confirmed. |
| Payment structure | It is unclear whether the amount includes guarantees, variable payments or performance conditions. |
| Contract duration | The agreement is multiyear, but the exact term and renewal rights are not public. |
| Content corpus | The materials do not say whether Amazon receives selected content, ongoing feeds, archival content or the entire archive. |
| Permitted displays | Public descriptions mention summaries and excerpts, not unrestricted republication of full articles. |
| Geographic scope | Country-by-country availability and worldwide rights have not been specified. |
| Exclusivity | No public source establishes that Amazon has exclusive AI rights. |
| Attribution and linking | The available sources do not detail how Times content must be credited or whether users are directed to the original sites. |
| Retention and post-termination rights | It is not public whether Amazon must delete licensed data or how trained models are treated after expiration. |
| Sublicensing | The public materials do not establish whether Amazon may share or sublicense the content to third parties. |
What The Times has said about the relationship
In its second-quarter 2025 prepared remarks, The Times described the Amazon agreement as its first arrangement with generative AI at the center. Secondary reports described it as Amazon’s first publisher deal of this type; that characterization should be attributed to those reports rather than treated as an independently confirmed Amazon statement.
On a May 6, 2026 earnings call, CEO Meredith Kopit Levien said the Amazon partnership met The Times’ conditions for a “fair value exchange” and control over how its content is used. She described the experience as “so far so good,” according to the earnings-call transcript. That is management’s assessment, not an independent verification of the deal’s financial performance or technical operation.
Bottom line
Amazon and The New York Times have a genuine multiyear AI-content licensing agreement announced in May 2025. It covers Times journalism, NYT Cooking and The Athletic, with uses that include AI customer experiences and training Amazon’s proprietary foundation models.
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The headline figure requires caution: reporting says the deal is worth approximately $20 million to $25 million per year, but neither company has publicly confirmed the price. The more important development is the structure of the relationship—a major publisher is pursuing paid, controlled AI use with one company while challenging alleged unauthorized use by others.
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