Key takeaways
- Rippling shows no data size, so build custom reports in the Reports app for employees and for payroll runs or time entries, and count the rows.
- A report shows only the records the user's permission profile allows, so a manager's count is too low and a company-wide admin should run it.
- A full history is a set of files, one saved report downloaded per kind of data; for tables too large to download, ask your Rippling account team about the developer platform and confirm file types and row limits with Rippling support.
- You don't need to export anything to apply: have your employee count, first hire or payroll date and headcount ready, and the data vendor anonymizes the records before any AI lab sees them.
01
What is Rippling data, and why do AI labs and data vendors buy it?
The short answer
Rippling data is the people record of a company that runs its HR, payroll, time tracking and IT on Rippling: who was hired when, who reports to whom, what each person was paid and scheduled, and how those facts changed over time. AI labs (companies that build and train AI models) and data vendors (companies that anonymize business records and package them for those labs) buy a copy because Rippling keeps what was true at each point in the past, so hiring timelines, reporting lines and role changes can be reconstructed cleanly.
What a Rippling account records
Rippling is a workforce platform: one system that holds a company's employee records, payroll, time and attendance, benefits and the IT side of employment, such as laptops and app logins. Because these sit in one place, a single worker's record connects the hire, the pay and the equipment that came with the job.
Rippling also keeps history. Its analytics page says the platform captures what was true at any point in the past, not only today, so a report can show who was on which team when a number moved, or what the organization chart looked like six months earlier.
Why a people record teaches an AI model something
An AI model learns by studying a very large number of examples and finding the patterns in them, and those examples are called training data. A Rippling history supplies examples of how a company absorbs new people: when it hires, which team a hire joins, who they report to, when their first payroll runs, which hours they are scheduled for, and how roles change as the year goes on.
AI labs now want to train AI agents, software that carries out a job step by step, and onboarding a new employee or running payroll are jobs made of steps. A data vendor can turn anonymized records into worked examples that an agent studies like an answer key, or into a practice copy of the workflow in which the agent is scored on each attempt. AI training data: why AI companies want your company's data explains the mechanism in full.
How Rippling fits into a dataset
Rippling is usually one app among several in a company's dataset, alongside email, documents and accounting records. Companies are paid $100K to $2M or more per dataset, according to micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to. The price covers the whole dataset, not each app on its own, and what your data is worth explains what moves it.
02
Where does Rippling show how much data you have?
The short answer
Rippling shows no data size figure. You build reports in the Reports app and read their row counts: one for every employee record, and one for payroll runs or time entries. Run them as an admin whose role covers the whole company, because a report only shows the records its user's permission profile allows.
How to count your records
A custom report is a table you assemble yourself in Rippling's Reports app by choosing the data and the filters. The steps below produce one count for people and one for payroll or time.
- Sign in as a Rippling admin whose role reaches every employee, payroll and time record in the company.
- In the Reports app, start a new custom report, or duplicate one of Rippling's ready-made templates, which Rippling says can be changed freely.
- Build a report listing every employee with hire and termination dates, include terminated people wherever the filters let you, and write down the number of rows.
- Build a second report over the full date range, listing payroll runs or, if the company uses Rippling Time and Attendance, time entries, and write down that row count too.
What plan and role you need
Rippling says any user can run reports and build dashboards, with no separate viewer or editor licenses, but only through that user's own permission profile. For a company-wide count the role matters more than anything else.
| Figure | Where it lives | Who should read it |
|---|---|---|
| Employees ever on file | Reports app, an all-employees report with terminated people included | An admin whose role covers all employees |
| Payroll runs | Reports app, a payroll report over all dates | An admin whose role covers payroll data |
| Time entries | Reports app, a time report, if you use Time and Attendance | An admin whose role covers time data |
Why a manager's count comes out too low
A report only includes records that its user may see. A manager who runs the same report sees only the people and payrolls their permission profile allows, so the count covers part of the company. The diagram shows the same company counted by a manager and by a company-wide admin.
03
What should you know about your Rippling data before you apply?
The short answer
Have four facts ready: employees ever on file as the record count, the earliest hire or first payroll date, the number of payroll runs and time entries, and the number of people managed in Rippling today. They go into the data manifest, the written summary of which apps hold your records, how many years each covers and roughly how much. You don't need to run an export to find them, and applying through micro1 shares no data.
The record count
The unit for Rippling is records, and the number to give is employees ever on file, including terminated employees if your filters allow. Put payroll runs and time entries in your notes beside it so the buyer sees what else the history holds.
The years of history and the seats
Years in use start at the earliest hire date or the first payroll date recorded in Rippling, whichever comes first. For seats, tally every active employee and contractor that Rippling manages now.
What you don't need to do first
You don't need to export anything to apply, and you don't need to clean or scrub an export. The data vendor anonymizes the records before anyone else sees them, and nothing moves until a lawyer-reviewed license is signed. The application, the intro call and each later step are laid out in how to sell your company's data.
04
How do you export your full Rippling history?
The short answer
Rippling has no single button that exports the whole account. An admin opens each saved report in the Reports app and downloads the full table, one file each for employees, payroll and time. For a table too big to download, your Rippling account team is the contact for the developer platform. Rippling's Help Center requires a login, so confirm file types and row limits with Rippling support.
Who can export
A Rippling admin whose permission profile covers the records you want. A report includes only what that profile allows, so an admin with narrow access produces a partial file.
The export steps
- From the Reports app, open a saved report and choose its download or export option, which saves the whole table to a file.
- Do the same for the employee, payroll and time reports, which gives you one file per kind of data.
- When a report is too big to download, your Rippling account team can tell you about the Rippling developer platform, described as including Pipelines for moving data out. Check that your plan includes it before you rely on it.
What a Rippling report can and cannot contain
Per Rippling, a report can pull together data from its HR and IT products and from third-party apps you have connected, and it supports filters, formulas, pivot tables and calculated fields. A report that joins another app's data holds records that belong to that app, so decide deliberately which sources a file should contain.
Reports include only the records the exporting admin's permission profile allows, and Rippling publishes no single export of the account. Rippling's public pages do not state download file types, row limits or time estimates, and its developer documentation sits behind a Rippling login, so ask Rippling support for those before a large export.
What to settle before people records leave
Rippling names no legal prerequisite for exports. An employee report is personal data about the company's workers, and a payroll report adds their pay, so the company's lawyer should settle the scope before anything is shared. Is it legal to sell company data covers the questions to ask.
Sources: Rippling, Workforce Analytics platform and Rippling's blog post on its new Custom Reports. Public pages checked in November 2026; Rippling's Help Center needs a login, so the download steps could not be matched against it.
05
What stays private when Rippling data is licensed?
The short answer
The company decides which reports are in scope, and the data vendor replaces employee names and other identifying details with consistent stand-ins before an AI lab sees anything. Device, app login and identity data from Rippling's IT products is never needed. The company keeps ownership of its records, and the license covers defined material for a defined use.
You choose what is in scope
Because each report is built by the company, the company picks the columns and the sources. A hiring and tenure report can leave out pay amounts, and the devices, app logins and identity records that Rippling's IT side holds can stay out entirely. The data vendor also deletes records too sensitive to clean safely instead of anonymizing them.
What anonymization removes and what it keeps
Anonymization means replacing every detail that identifies a person with a stand-in that is the same every time it appears, and removing or blurring details that identify someone in combination. In a people record, names, contact details, ID numbers and pay tied to a named person are replaced, reduced or deleted. The team structure, reporting lines, dates and hours that show how the company staffs itself stay in place.
The data vendor keeps a private list matching each stand-in to the real person while it works, so in privacy-law terms the result is pseudonymized rather than fully anonymous, a distinction the anonymization guide explains. The diagram shows one hire before and after.
The method, including what is deleted outright and how you review samples, is in how company data is anonymized for AI training.
Ownership and payment
Licensing gives the buyer limited rights to a copy, while the company keeps ownership of the originals. The terms that matter, such as exclusivity, permitted use and deletion, are covered in data licensing. micro1 pays in full within 30 days of accepting the data, usually as a single payment.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Can a manager run the Rippling counts?
Any Rippling user can run reports, but only over the records their permission profile allows. A manager's report undercounts, so have an admin with company-wide reach run it.
Does Rippling keep a history of changes, or only current records?
It keeps history. Rippling says the platform records what was true at each point in the past, so a report can show past teams and the past organization structure as well as today's roster.
Is there a bulk export beyond downloading reports?
Rippling has a developer platform, described as including Pipelines and a data model. Whether your plan includes it is a question for your Rippling account team, so ask before you plan a full-history export around it.
Is there one button that exports everything from Rippling?
No. Rippling publishes no single export of the account, so a full history is a set of downloaded report files: employees, payroll and time, each its own file.
Can a Rippling report include data from other apps?
Yes. Rippling says reports can combine data from its HR and IT products with data from connected third-party apps. That is useful for analysis, but it means a file may hold another app's records, so choose the sources on purpose.
Do we need to export Rippling before we apply?
No. The application takes about two minutes and shares no data. You only need employees ever on file, your first hire or payroll date and your current headcount for the intro call. The export is needed later, when the records are transferred after you sign the license.
What is Rippling data worth to AI labs and data vendors?
Rippling records are priced as part of a whole dataset rather than on their own. Companies are paid $100K to $2M or more per dataset, according to micro1, and the price depends on the years of history and how completely the records show each job. What your data is worth explains the factors.
Bottom line
Know what is in Rippling, then see what it is worth
You don't need to export anything to apply. Apply in two minutes, describe your records on the intro call, and micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to, prices the whole dataset and sends an offer 1–2 days later.
Not legal, tax or financial advice. Figures come from micro1's published pages and public reporting as of November 2026.