How to export Slack data, plan by plan

What you can export from Slack depends on the plan. Free and Pro export public channels only. Business+ adds private channels and direct messages through a self-serve export that owners apply for. Enterprise adds exports by conversation type or member and single-user exports. Do it before downgrading: on the free plan only the last 90 days of history are visible and messages and files more than a year old are permanently deleted. Deleting a workspace is permanent.

Export by plan

Plan	Public channels	Private channels and DMs	Notes
Free	Yes	No	File links only from the last 90 days
Pro	Yes	No
Business+	Yes	Yes, through the self-serve export owners apply for	Includes a channel list
Enterprise	Yes	Yes	Export by conversation type or member, and single-user export

The free-plan trap

Moving a paid workspace to free to save money during a migration or wind-down limits history to the most recent 90 days, and Slack permanently deletes messages and files more than one year old on a rolling basis. Export first, then change the plan.

Before deleting the workspace

Slack says deleting a workspace is permanent and messages and files can’t be retrieved afterwards. Before you do it:

1. Run the fullest export your plan allows.
2. Download the files the export links to.
3. Check the export opens and covers the channels you need.
4. Store it outside Slack with a named owner.

The data retention clock shows these limits next to other tools. Moving to Microsoft Teams? See Slack to Teams: what happens to your message history.

Chat history has value

Years of Slack history record how a company actually works. Mercor and Troveo both list Slack among the tools they take data from, as de-identified copies licensed by established companies. If you are about to archive it, it is worth knowing.