Yelp licenses reviews and ratings to OpenAI for ChatGPT recommendations

Yelp announced a data licensing agreement giving OpenAI access to 330 million user reviews and 8 million business listings to power local recommendations in ChatGPT, disclosed during Yelp's Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings. Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman framed the partnership as extending Yelp's content into AI-driven local discovery, as Yelp posted record net revenue of $1.46 billion for 2025 with its data licensing revenue growing 17% year-over-year.

Yelp licenses reviews and ratings to OpenAI for ChatGPT recommendations The deal gives ChatGPT access to 330 million user reviews and 8 million business listings, marking another chapter in AI's growing appetite for real-world data Yelp just handed OpenAI the keys to one of the internet’s largest troves of local business intelligence. The company announced a data licensing agreement that lets OpenAI tap into Yelp’s reviews, ratings, photos, and business data to power local recommendations inside ChatGPT. The deal, revealed during Yelp’s Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings release, gives OpenAI access to 330 million cumulative user-generated reviews and more than 8 million business listings. What the deal actually looks like Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman framed the partnership as a way to extend Yelp’s content into the AI-driven local discovery space. The financial specifics of the licensing agreement remain undisclosed. But the broader numbers tell an interesting story. Yelp posted record net revenue of $1.46 billion for 2025, and its “other revenue” category, which includes data licensing, grew 17% year-over-year. Worth noting: the relationship between these two companies isn’t brand new. Yelp has been using OpenAI’s models since at least April 2024 to power its own Yelp Assistant feature, a conversational AI tool for navigating local businesses. Stoppelman also indicated that further AI partnerships are in the works. Yelp is apparently in discussions with other AI entities about additional collaborations, suggesting the company sees data licensing as a growth engine rather than a one-off deal. The bigger picture: AI’s data hunger and who gets paid This is part of a much larger trend. OpenAI has signed content deals with publishers, news organizations, and data providers across multiple industries. Reddit licensed its data to Google. What this means for investors Yelp’s $1.46 billion in 2025 revenue, combined with 17% growth in its licensing segment, suggests the company is successfully diversifying beyond its traditional advertising model. If additional AI partnerships materialize as Stoppelman hinted, data licensing could shift from a secondary revenue line to a primary growth driver. The risk, of course, is concentration. If OpenAI represents a significant chunk of that licensing revenue and the relationship sours, or if OpenAI builds its own local data capabilities, Yelp’s new revenue stream could evaporate. Diversifying across multiple AI partners, which appears to be the strategy, would mitigate that risk considerably. Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/ .