In this study, we investigated the reported beneficial aspects of the invasive alien plant species (IAPS) and argued that, over time and space, the detrimental impacts of the IAS might endanger sustainable livelihoods. The data set contains the following files: Data_S1.xlsx: The file contains details of 154 literature reports. From each paper, we extracted IAPS names (both as reported and standardized), taxonomic information (family and taxon rank), year, country, the scale of observation, and reported beneficial impacts. The beneficial impacts were further categorized into 13 use categories at TDWG (Taxonomic Databases Working Group) Level-1 states (in binary format - 1 indicates the IAPS use and 0 indicates not in use for the individual category). The Metadata_S1.pdf file contains detailed information on preparing literature records for data extraction, the data extraction process, and data organization.