Wikimedia Enterprise, the commercial arm of Wikipedia, has secured major AI firms to sign up for its priority data access deals. This move is seen as a crucial step in helping the non-profit organization offset rising infrastructure costs.
Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity, and Mistral AI have all signed on to the Wikimedia Enterprise program, which offers high-speed API access to Wikipedia's 65 million articles at higher speeds and volumes than the free public APIs. The deals mark a significant expansion of the program, with most major AI developers now participating.
The push for paid API access follows years of rising infrastructure costs as AI companies scraped Wikipedia content at an industrial scale. In April 2025, the Wikimedia Foundation reported that bandwidth used for downloading multimedia content had grown 50 percent since January 2024, with bots accounting for 65 percent of the most expensive requests to core infrastructure despite making up just 35 percent of total pageviews.
The traffic decline threatens the feedback loop that has sustained Wikipedia for a quarter century: Readers visit, some become editors or donors, and the content ostensibly improves. However, many AI chatbots and search engine summaries answer questions using Wikipedia content without sending users to the site itself.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told The Associated Press that he welcomes AI models training on Wikipedia data but draws a line at free access, saying that companies should "chip in and pay for your fair share of the cost that you're putting on us."
The financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. However, the revenue generated from these partnerships is expected to help offset infrastructure costs for the non-profit organization, which otherwise relies on small public donations.
The Wikimedia Enterprise program charges for faster, higher-volume access to Wikipedia's content, with the goal of sustaining the platform while keeping its core content freely available under a Creative Commons license.
Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity, and Mistral AI have all signed on to the Wikimedia Enterprise program, which offers high-speed API access to Wikipedia's 65 million articles at higher speeds and volumes than the free public APIs. The deals mark a significant expansion of the program, with most major AI developers now participating.
The push for paid API access follows years of rising infrastructure costs as AI companies scraped Wikipedia content at an industrial scale. In April 2025, the Wikimedia Foundation reported that bandwidth used for downloading multimedia content had grown 50 percent since January 2024, with bots accounting for 65 percent of the most expensive requests to core infrastructure despite making up just 35 percent of total pageviews.
The traffic decline threatens the feedback loop that has sustained Wikipedia for a quarter century: Readers visit, some become editors or donors, and the content ostensibly improves. However, many AI chatbots and search engine summaries answer questions using Wikipedia content without sending users to the site itself.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told The Associated Press that he welcomes AI models training on Wikipedia data but draws a line at free access, saying that companies should "chip in and pay for your fair share of the cost that you're putting on us."
The financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. However, the revenue generated from these partnerships is expected to help offset infrastructure costs for the non-profit organization, which otherwise relies on small public donations.
The Wikimedia Enterprise program charges for faster, higher-volume access to Wikipedia's content, with the goal of sustaining the platform while keeping its core content freely available under a Creative Commons license.
, it's crazy how AI firms are finally paying up for using Wikipedia's data! I mean, years ago we were all like "no big deal" when bots just started scraping our content left and right... but now we're facing infrastructure costs that are through the roof! Interesting 
, Jimmy Wales' stance on charging companies is fair imo - they should chip in for using someone else's resources. The more cash comes in, I guess the less strain Wikipedia will be under 
I'm reading this about Wikipedia and its new deals with AI firms... it's crazy how fast things are changing! 
The growth in bandwidth is insane - 50% since Jan 2024? That's wild! 
And now, these big players like Microsoft and Meta are signing up for the paid API access... I'm not sure if it's a good thing or bad. On one hand, it'll help Wikipedia offset those rising costs 
. But on the other hand, what about all the bots and AI chatbots that just use Wikipedia content without paying? 
I mean, Jimmy Wales is trying to draw a line, but how hard is it for these companies to just chip in? 
. The traffic decline does threaten the feedback loop that has sustained Wikipedia for so long. Still, I think this move is a step in the right direction for Wikimedia Enterprise. As Jimmy Wales said, it's not about shutting off free access entirely, but rather finding a fair balance between sustainability and accessibility.
It's time to ask some tough questions and see if Wikipedia is truly getting a level playing field 
. I mean, shouldn't they be paying for the data they're using? 
... and who knows, maybe it'll even lead to more awesome AI models that help spread knowledge and stuff 
!
and I'm low-key excited about the potential revenue boost 
but also super curious to see how this whole thing plays out - will it get messy or smooth? 
... I mean, Wikipedia's always been free, but now it sounds like they're gonna start makin' some cash off AI companies 
All these bots suckin' up bandwidth is killin' the feedback loop that makes Wikipedia so great in the first place... I remember when you could just read a page for hours without feelin' like your browser was gonna freeze 
... Now it's like they're chasin' after these AI firms, hopin' they'll cough up some cash to keep things goin' 