Gong retention policies: how long calls are kept and who decides

How long does Gong keep calls by default?#

Gong keeps calls, emails and transcripts for the lesser of three years and the time a company is a customer, according to its data retention policy. For an account older than three years, recordings outside the company library age out once they pass that mark.

The default is a starting point, not a fixed rule. Admins can shorten retention, and companies with regulatory or contractual reasons sometimes agree a different period in their order form. Check both the account setting and the signed terms before you estimate how much call history you actually hold.

Who decides what Gong deletes?#

Gong admins decide what Gong deletes, inside the limits of the contract. The admin who controls data protection and privacy settings can shorten the retention period and choose whether the policy reaches calls stored in the company library.

In practice the decision should not sit with one admin. Revenue operations runs the tool, legal or privacy usually owns the retention schedule, and sales leadership owns the coaching library. Agree who signs off before anyone changes a setting, and record each change with a date and a screenshot.

Why the company library is the exception#

The company library is the exception because Gong does not automatically delete library calls after three years unless an admin turns on the setting 'Apply retention policy to calls stored in library'. Many sales teams treat the library as their long-term archive of strong discovery calls, demos and objection handling.

That exception cuts both ways. A library curated for coaching may be the oldest and best-labeled call history the company has, and one toggle can remove it. Before anyone enables the setting, list the library folders, note who curated them and export the calls you want to keep.

What happens to Gong data after you cancel?#

Gong data is irreversibly deleted within 30 days after a customer leaves, according to Gong's help center. That is a short window for a full export of calls and transcripts, so the export belongs before the renewal date, not after it.

Ownership is not the problem. Gong's terms say Gong acquires no right, title or interest in Customer Data, which covers data submitted to or collected through the service. The problem is access: once the account closes, ownership on paper does not bring back a deleted recording. Read your order form too, because it can change the standard terms.

Export before you change anything: the rule and the steps#

The export-before-change rule is simple: no retention setting changes, and no cancellation notice goes out, until the calls you need are exported, counted and stored somewhere the company controls. Gong's help center describes its API as the way to bring calls, transcripts, scorecards and stats into a company's own systems, such as a BI tool.

Most APIs limit how fast requests can run, so plan a large pull with time for a second pass. A gap discovered after a purge cannot be repaired.

• 1Record the current retention settings, including the library toggle, with a dated screenshot.
• 2Decide the scope: date range, teams, call types and whether you need audio, transcripts or both.
• 3Pull call metadata first: call ID, date, participants by role, duration and the linked CRM account or opportunity.
• 4Pull transcripts, scorecards and stats for the same call IDs, then download the media you decided to keep.
• 5Reconcile counts against Gong's own reporting and store a manifest that maps every file to its call ID.
• 6Only then apply the new retention period or send the cancellation notice.

Illustrative: a vertical SaaS company shortens its Gong retention#

Illustrative: a fictional company that sells inventory software to auto parts distributors has used Gong for its sales and customer success teams for years. Its general counsel asks revenue operations to shorten retention so that calls with long-lost prospects are not kept without a reason.

The revenue operations lead freezes the setting, then exports call metadata, transcripts and scorecards through the API, joined to Salesforce opportunity IDs. Library calls used for onboarding are tagged separately. Counsel reviews the recording notices used over the years and flags calls from a period when the notice was missing.

The outcome: the shorter period goes live only after the archive is reconciled and stored in the company's own cloud storage, with the flagged calls excluded. When leadership later asks whether the archive has any licensing value, the team answers from a clean manifest instead of a purged account.

Consent, privacy and what is worth keeping#

Old calls carry consent and privacy questions that a retention setting does not answer. Recording laws differ by state, some require every party to agree, and the notice your team used years ago may not match today's. Run a consent check before deciding what to keep, and treat names, phone numbers and account details in transcripts as personal data to reduce or remove.

SourceX looks at call archives through the SourceX five-step transaction: Supply, Rights, Preparation, Approval and Delivery. The fit check uses metadata such as date ranges, call types and CRM links, never recordings. If a package proceeds, the SourceX Evidence Packet records provenance, licensing rights, permitted use, the privacy record and release authorization, and the company licenses prepared transcripts rather than selling them.