Systems and records
Slack's 2025 API terms: can you still export your own workspace?
By SourceX Editorial · Updated
Short answer
Yes, a workspace owner can usually still export Slack history. Slack's 2025 API terms restrict what apps may do with data pulled through the API, including bulk export, persistent copies and training large language models, but the built-in admin export runs under your plan and customer agreement. Use the native export for your archive and review API tools separately.
Key takeaways
- Slack's API terms govern apps and developers that call the Slack API; the built-in workspace export is a product feature governed by your plan and customer agreement.
- The 2025 update took effect for existing apps on June 30, 2025 and limits bulk export, persistent storage and large language model training for data accessed through the API.
- Public channels export on every plan; private channels and direct messages need Business+ or Enterprise and an approved application.
- Exporting Slack history and licensing it are separate questions; licensing also turns on employee notices, shared channels and confidentiality duties.
What changed in Slack's API terms in 2025?#
Slack's 2025 API terms update tightened what third-party apps may do with workspace data they read through the Slack API. Slack's developer changelog announced the clarifications in May 2025, effective immediately for new apps and on June 30, 2025 for existing apps. The law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth summarized the change as prohibiting bulk export of data accessible through Slack's APIs, persistent copies, archives, indexes or long-term data stores, and use of that data in large language models.
The current API Terms say a provider of an app offered outside its own organization may not use API Data to train a large language model and may not bulk export Slack message and file data unless an additional agreement expressly allows it. Trade-press coverage reported that apps were steered toward Slack's Real-Time Search API instead of bulk pulls. Slack has revised the wording since, so read the live terms rather than any summary, including this one.
| Date | What changed | What an owner should check |
|---|---|---|
| December 10, 2024 | Slack's changelog said it was updating its App Developer Policy to make explicit that using app-collected data to train an LLM is prohibited | Whether any tool you use collects Slack data for AI features |
| May 2025 | API Terms clarifications announced; effective immediately for new apps | Whether a new archiving or AI tool was installed after the announcement |
| June 30, 2025 | The same clarifications took effect for existing apps | Whether a long-running backup or analytics app changed how it works |
| October 2025 | A further update added language on temporary caching required by law | The version date on the terms page you are reading |
| Current terms | Providers using the Data Access API and Real-Time Search API may not keep persistent copies, archives or long-term stores of other organizations' API Data | Where your vendor stores Slack messages, and for how long |
| Marketplace rules | Slack's Marketplace guidelines treat apps that export or back up message data, or train LLMs on Slack data, as unsuitable for listing | Whether your archiving tool is listed, and on what basis it operates |
Native admin export versus API apps: which rules apply?#
The native admin export and API-based apps sit under different rules. Slack's built-in export is a feature of the service that workspace owners and admins run from workspace settings, so its scope is set by your plan and your customer agreement. Apps that read messages through the API, including backup tools, analytics products and homegrown scripts, are bound by the API terms.
The distinction matters most for companies that treated a third-party archiving app as their record of Slack history. If that app now works under tighter limits, the archive it holds may be incomplete going forward, and its own arrangement with Slack may change what it can keep. Ask the vendor in writing how its access works under the current terms.
| Route | Who runs it | Main rules that apply |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in workspace export | Workspace owners and admins | Your Slack plan and customer agreement |
| Compliance and eDiscovery integrations | Vendors approved for enterprise compliance access | Enterprise terms and the vendor's own agreement with Slack |
| Third-party backup or archiving app | An outside vendor calling the API | Slack's API terms plus your contract with the vendor |
| Internal script or custom app | Your own engineers calling the API | Slack's API terms, including limits on storage and AI use |
What does the native export include on your plan?#
The native Slack export covers public channels on every plan, while private channels and direct messages need a higher plan and an approved application. Slack's help center says owners and admins on all plans can export messages and file links from public channels in JSON; exports that add private channels and direct messages are offered on Business+ and Enterprise only, and owners must apply to use them.
The export carries links to files in Slack rather than the files themselves, and on the Free plan only links to files from the last 90 days. Those links are useful only while the workspace exists. Slack's Customer Terms say that after subscriptions end, Slack may delete all Customer Data, with no fixed grace period stated in that clause, so collect files and run the export while the subscription is live.
- Confirm your plan and which conversation types its export covers.
- Confirm who holds the owner or admin role needed to run the export, and add a backup owner.
- Set the date range; a full-history export of a large workspace can be slow to generate.
- Decide whether to request private channels and direct messages, and document the business reason.
- Collect shared files separately while workspace access lasts.
- Store the export in company-controlled storage with access logging and a written retention period.
Can an exported Slack archive be licensed?#
An exported Slack archive may be licensable, but the API terms are rarely the deciding factor. Once you hold your own export, the questions shift to your customer agreement with Slack, what employees were told about workplace messaging, confidentiality duties to customers and partners, and privacy laws that may apply to people named in the messages. This is general information, not legal advice; those questions are assessed deal by deal with counsel.
Channel type is the most practical way to scope a review. Engineering and support-escalation channels often hold decisions, causes and fixes that tie back to Jira issues and tickets. Direct messages, HR channels and legal channels hold personal and privileged material. Shared channels with other organizations contain their content, not only yours.
| Channel family | Typical content | Licensing starting point |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering and incident channels | Debugging threads, deploy notes, incident timelines | Often in scope after preparation |
| Support escalation channels | Customer issues, workarounds, handoffs to engineering | Possible once customer details are removed |
| Shared channels with outside companies | Messages written by customers, vendors or partners | Usually excluded unless the other party agrees |
| Direct messages | Personal and mixed work conversation | Usually excluded |
| HR, legal and finance channels | Personnel matters, privileged advice, deal terms | Excluded |
Illustrative: a vertical SaaS company rethinks its Slack archive#
Illustrative: a fictional logistics software company has used Slack since its early years, alongside Jira, GitHub and Zendesk. Its IT lead had relied on a third-party archiving app for Slack history, and the general counsel flagged that the app's continued access depended on Slack's revised API terms.
The company had its primary owner run a native export under its plan, documented the request for private channels, and stored the files in its own cloud storage. It then scoped a review to engineering, incident and support-escalation channels, excluded direct messages and every shared channel with customers, and mapped threads to the Jira keys mentioned in them.
The outcome was an archive the company controlled outright, a short memo explaining why each channel family was in or out, and a clear record that no API-based tool had been used to build it. Any licensing decision was left to a later rights review.
Mistakes that make Slack history harder to use later#
The most common mistake is assuming a vendor's archive is your archive. If the vendor's access changes, or your contract with the vendor ends, you can lose history you never exported yourself.
Other mistakes recur: downgrading the Slack plan before exporting, letting the only owner account lapse when that person leaves, building an internal AI assistant on API pulls without reading the current terms, and mixing direct messages into an engineering archive. Each one either loses history or creates a privacy problem that is costly to unwind.
How SourceX treats Slack archives#
SourceX treats a Slack archive as one input inside the SourceX five-step transaction: Supply, Rights, Preparation, Approval and Delivery. The first conversation covers channel families, years of history, plan type and how the export was produced; no messages change hands at that stage.
In the Rights step, the review covers your Slack agreement, employee notices and shared-channel content. If a package proceeds, the SourceX Evidence Packet records the export route alongside provenance, permitted use, the privacy record and release authorization, so the way the archive was built is documented with the license.
Frequently asked questions
Do Slack's API terms stop us from using an eDiscovery or backup vendor?
Not necessarily. Compliance and backup vendors may have their own arrangements with Slack or use access routes covered by enterprise terms. Ask each vendor in writing how its access complies with the current API terms, what it stores, and what happens to stored copies if its access changes. Keep the answer with your vendor records.
Does the language model restriction apply to our own internal AI tools?
It may, if the tool reads Slack data through the API. The terms address data accessed through the API rather than who built the app. If you plan an internal assistant or search tool, have counsel read the current terms and check whether Slack offers a permitted route for that use.
Will we lose Slack history if we downgrade our plan?
Plan changes can limit how much history members can see, and some plans restrict access to older messages and files. Export the workspace before changing plans, confirm what the new plan keeps in Slack's current documentation, and treat the export as your record of what existed before the change.
Do employees need to consent before Slack messages are licensed?
Requirements vary by location, internal policy and the content involved, so the question is assessed deal by deal with counsel. Handbooks, acceptable use policies and privacy notices shape what is appropriate, and preparation removes names and personal details before anything leaves the company. Direct messages are usually left out of scope.
Is a Slack export valuable on its own?
Usually less than people expect. Slack threads gain value when they connect to the issue, ticket or pull request they discuss, because the link shows the problem, the reasoning and the outcome. Keep Jira keys, ticket numbers and repository references intact during export so those links can be rebuilt.
Sources
- Slack's developer changelog announced API Terms of Service clarifications that took effect immediately for new apps and on June 30, 2025 for existing apps. Source
- In a changelog entry dated December 10, 2024, Slack said it was updating its App Developer Policy to clarify existing guidelines on data collected by apps, "making explicit that the use of data to train an LLM is prohibited." Source
- Slack's API Terms of Service state that a provider of an application offered for use outside its own organization may not use API Data to train a large language model, and may not bulk export Slack message and file data except where an additional agreement expressly allows it. Source
- According to a Hunton Andrews Kurth client alert, Salesforce modified the Slack API Terms of Service, effective May 29, 2025, to prohibit (i) bulk exporting of data accessible through Slack's APIs, (ii) the creation of persistent copies, archives, indexes or long-term data stores, and (iii) the usage of such data in large language models. Source
- Trade-press coverage of the May 2025 Slack API terms change, including Cloud Wars, reported that the new terms prohibit bulk export of Slack data via the API and its use for LLM training, and that companies would instead have to use Slack's new Real-Time Search API. Source
- Slack's Marketplace guidelines list apps that export or back up message data, and apps that use Slack data to train Large Language Models, as unsuitable for the Slack Marketplace. Source
- Slack's export help article states that Workspace Owners and Admins on all plans (Free, Pro, Business+, Enterprise) can export messages and file links from public channels in JSON format. Source
- Slack's Customer Terms of Service say that after a workspace's subscriptions end, Slack may, unless legally prohibited, delete all Customer Data in its systems or otherwise in its possession or under its control. Source
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