FAQ: Cost of Using PHS Data

This depends on several factors:

• Which dataset(s) you intend to use (you can explore our datasets on the PHS Data Portal).

  • For some datasets, the data owners may charge a fee for 'reuse' of PHS copies of the data (which is still usually substantially cheaper--by 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars--than purchasing, storing, and managing a separate copy of the data for oneself/one's lab, however.) This includes datasets such as Medicaid, Medicare, and AFC.
  • For some datasets, PHS collects cost-recovery fees to pay for continued access to the data, updates to the data (additional years of data), storage costs, and staff time for maintaining the data. This includes datasets such as MarketScan (starting in 2026).

• Which computational environment(s) you intend to use.

• The nature of the analysis you wish to conduct.

  • More computationally-intensive analyses (such as those using AI or advanced machine learning techniques) may require more computational resources, and sometimes that costs money, but the cost of those additional computational resources will depend on (1) which computational environment(s) you intend to use, (2) what types of computational resources you need, and (3) how much of them you need.

• What institution(s) you are affiliated with.

  • Some of our data contracts only cover Stanford students, staff members, faculty members, Fellows, and HR-recognized Visiting Scholars. For the those datasets, the data owners may charge an additional fee to put a third-party agreement (a.k.a. a Data Rider) in place for non-Stanford individuals who wish to use the Stanford copy of the data. (Data Riders are still usually substantially cheaper--by 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars--than purchasing, storing, and managing a separate copy of the data for oneself/one's lab, however.)
  • Please note: Nearly all of our datasets can only be used by individuals from academic or government institutions, and are not available for use by private individuals or individuals associated with for-profit organizations.