Is our Salesforce data worth anything to AI buyers, and how do we export it?

Salesforce deal and case history interests AI buyers: 13 tracked providers name it as of October 2026. Export methods differ by edition, and the full backup’s download window is only 48 hours, excluding weekends.

Do AI buyers want what is in our Salesforce org?

Yes, when the org records how deals and cases moved, not only who your customers are. Why buyers value CRM history, and whose privacy it touches, is on the CRM records page; this page covers what is specific to Salesforce.

Polyshares’ Salesforce guide, checked October 6, 2026, describes opportunity stage changes, amounts and close dates, case resolutions, and linked tasks, events and emails. These help explain both the outcome and the work behind it. Troveo also names Salesforce under CRM, sales and support, with opportunity lifecycles and account histories.

For your data inventory, the guide asks for record counts on the objects that carry history, the earliest Created Date year, and the number of active licensed users.

How far back does Salesforce keep our records?

Check deleted records, tracked field history and archived activities separately. An old opportunity still being visible does not mean all its earlier changes remain available.

Salesforce retention and export, by planChecked October 6, 2026

Salesforce retention and export, by plan. Checked October 6, 2026

	All editions	Starter, Pro Suite and Professional	Enterprise, Performance and Unlimited
Default retention	Deleted records stay in the Recycle Bin for 15 days, then Salesforce schedules them for permanent deletion. The Recycle Bin has no record limit and does not count against storage.[1] as of October 6, 2026 Without Field Audit Trail, field history is retained for up to 18 months in the org and up to 24 months through the API; Salesforce says it can be deleted at any time. Tracking starts only when enabled. Standard field-history tracking supports up to 20 fields per object.[2, 3] as of October 6, 2026	–No entry recorded yet	–No entry recorded yet
Configured retention	A System Administrator can ask Salesforce Support to extend Recycle Bin retention from 15 to 30 days. No other period is offered, and items past 15 days are fully reachable only in Salesforce Classic.[4] as of October 6, 2026	–No entry recorded yet	Field Audit Trail, bought with Salesforce Shield or as its own license, keeps field history until you delete it and tracks up to 200 fields per object.[5] as of October 6, 2026
Visible vs retained	Events ended over 365 days ago and closed tasks with a due date over 365 days ago are archived; closed tasks without a due date use creation date. Recurring task and event series are not archived. Archived activities remain accessible through exports and Activity History, but are absent from reports and list views.[6, 7] as of October 6, 2026	–No entry recorded yet	–No entry recorded yet
Admin rights needed	Data Export needs the Weekly Data Export permission, and its email goes only to the user who scheduled it. Report export needs Export Reports; restoring others' deleted records needs Modify All Data.[8, 9, 10, 1] as of October 6, 2026	–No entry recorded yet	API access is on by default. Each user who runs Data Loader or another API tool needs the API Enabled permission and read access to the records exported.[11, 12] as of October 6, 2026
Export method	Setup > Data Export > Export Now or Schedule Export. Choose the objects, and tick the options to include images, documents and attachments, and Salesforce Files.[8] as of October 6, 2026	Data Export runs at most once every 29 days, by hand or on a monthly schedule. The weekly export is listed only for Enterprise, Performance and Unlimited.[8, 13] as of October 6, 2026	Data Export can run every 7 days. Data Loader exports one object at a time; Export All adds archived activities and soft-deleted records.[8, 12] as of October 6, 2026
Export formats	ZIP archives of CSVs are normally about 512 MB; a single large file can make an archive larger. Download files are deleted 48 hours after the email, excluding weekends, or immediately when a new export is queued. Formula and roll-up fields and Recycle Bin data are excluded; archived records are included.[8, 9] as of October 6, 2026	–No entry recorded yet	Data Loader writes CSV files and does not export attachments; Salesforce points to the weekly export for those.[12] as of October 6, 2026
Plan limits	Details Only CSV/XLS report exports have no row limit. Formatted matrix reports allow 2,000 rows and 100 columns. Formatted tabular/summary and Details Only XLSX exports allow 100,000 rows and 100 columns; long text is truncated to 255 characters in those limited modes.[10] as of October 6, 2026	Starter and Professional have API restrictions, with exceptions for approved partner apps. Professional can purchase API access as an add-on. Data Loader requires a supported edition with API access.[14, 11, 15] as of October 6, 2026 Starter: 10 GB data and 1 GB file storage per org. Professional: 10 GB data plus 20 MB per user license, and 10 GB file storage.[16] as of October 6, 2026	10 GB data storage per org plus 20 MB per user license (120 MB on Performance and Unlimited), and 10 GB file storage per org.[16] as of October 6, 2026

What Salesforce holds: Accounts and contacts, Leads, Opportunities and their stage history, Cases, Tasks, events and logged emails, Field history for tracked fields, Attachments, documents and Salesforce Files, Custom objects, Active, frozen and deactivated users.

What the table cannot show:

• Field history is limited. Without Field Audit Trail, Salesforce retains it for up to 18 months in the org and 24 months through the API, and says it can be deleted at any time. Tracking starts only when enabled for a field. Use Data Loader or queryAll() for available history 18–24 months old (Salesforce). Field Audit Trail, available with the relevant Shield or Field Audit Trail license on Enterprise, Performance and Unlimited, keeps history until deleted.
• Archived activities leave reports. Salesforce archives events ended more than 365 days ago and closed tasks whose due date is that old; for a closed task without a due date, it uses the creation date. Recurring series are excluded. Archived activities are absent from reports but available through Data Export or Data Loader’s Export All (archive rules, export FAQ).
• Past cleanup can explain missing years. Ask your admin whether records or files were deleted to manage storage allocations. The Recycle Bin holds deleted records for 15 days; eligible orgs can ask Support for 30 days.
• Termination starts a separate clock. The Hyperforce security document, published September 22, 2026, gives customers 30 days after contract termination to request remaining Customer Data for the Covered Services, in standard formats with attachments in their native format. Data may remain inactive for up to 120 days, then leave production within another 90 days; backups are deleted within 300 days of subscription termination. Export before ending the service.

How do we export our Salesforce data, and who has to do it?

An admin with the Weekly Data Export permission runs the full export from Setup. Data Loader and report exports fill the gaps it leaves.

Method	What comes out	Editions	Who runs it
Data Export (Setup > Data Export)	ZIP archives with CSVs for selected objects, normally around 512 MB; a single large file can make an archive larger; images, documents, attachments and Salesforce Files only if you tick them; formula and roll-up fields and the Recycle Bin left out (Salesforce, FAQ)	Every 7 days on Enterprise, Performance and Unlimited; every 29 days or monthly on other editions except Database.com	A user with Weekly Data Export; the email goes only to that user
Data Loader	CSV, one object at a time; Export All adds archived activities and soft-deleted records; no attachments (Salesforce)	Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited and Developer	A user with API Enabled and read access
Field history	The history object for each tracked object, through Data Loader or the API (Salesforce)	Field tracking is available more broadly; Data Loader/API retrieval requires API access	A user with access to the history object and, for an API export, API Enabled
Reports	Details Only CSV has no row limit. Formatted matrix reports allow 2,000 rows and 100 columns; formatted tabular/summary reports and Details Only XLSX allow 100,000 rows and 100 columns, with long text cut to 255 characters (Salesforce)	Essentials, Group, Professional and above	Users with Export Reports

The Hyperforce document’s return-of-data section also says Einstein Activity Capture and Salesforce Inbox do not support exporting the activity data or insights they hold. Check whether the emails you see are ordinary exported records or belong to those features before promising them to a buyer (Salesforce, p12, footnote 30).

Three things trip people up:

• The download window can close early. The 48 hours exclude weekends, but a new export removes existing files immediately. Large exports have no completion SLA, and Salesforce warns against deactivating the user who started one (Data Export FAQ, August 17, 2026).
• Check your actual edition. Find Organization Edition under Setup > Company Information, then check the schedule offered in Data Export.
• The sample tool needs the CSV files themselves. Unzip the export and add individual files: the sample tool reads a .zip only as a Slack export and counts a folder by file type, size and date without opening it. Salesforce CSVs other than opportunity and contact reports are read as ordinary spreadsheets.

If an outside consultant holds your admin login, see outsourced IT; How much work is it? puts the steps in order.

What happens to records owned by people who left?

Deactivating a user blocks login while leaving their records. Salesforce users cannot be deleted completely. A deactivated user can remain a record owner until reassigned, and their files are retained (deactivation considerations). If an admin cannot deactivate the user yet, freezing blocks login but does not free the license.

Look for inactive owners when counting historical deals. Mail outside Salesforce has its own retention rules (former employees’ mailboxes). In a report export, the sample tool replaces owner names with labels such as Person 01.

Which buyers say they take Salesforce data?

As of October 2026, 13 of the 25 providers Data Licensing Report tracks name Salesforce on their own pages, and four more explicitly mention CRM records. The same test applies to all 25, Telegraph Lab (affiliated with this site) included. The table identifies introducers, marketplaces and the licensing agent separately from direct licensees.

Provider	What it is	What its own pages say
Avelence	Introducer; does not buy data	Salesforce under CRM, sales and support
Corpus	Licenses directly	Salesforce among its systems; “CRM notes” among what it licenses
DataVendor (HUD)	Marketplace; buys nothing	Salesforce connector marked not live yet
License My Data	Introducer	“Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk and other customer systems”
Mercor	Licenses directly; connects to your tools	Salesforce: “Accounts, contacts, opportunities, and reports”
Miro Advisory	Introducer; does not buy data	“Salesforce · HubSpot · Microsoft Dynamics · industry-specific CRMs”
Nyne	Licenses directly	Salesforce among business platforms
Polyshares	Licenses directly	A Salesforce export guide
Replay	Licenses directly	Salesforce among sources of an example support dataset; “CRM Data” on its home page
Scale AI	Licenses directly	Salesforce among “CRM, HR, ERP, and support records”
Sell My Business Data	Introducer	“SAP · Salesforce · QuickBooks · Zendesk”
Telegraph Lab	Licenses directly	Salesforce under business software, with “CRM exports”
Troveo	Licensing agent	Salesforce under CRM, sales and support

Four more mention CRM records without naming Salesforce: Appen (CRM and sales), micro1 (CRM data and sales processes), Scrimdata (CRMs) and FileYield, a listing service that buys nothing and describes CRM notes as enterprise text. These are broader CRM mentions, not evidence of Salesforce support.

The remaining eight do not qualify under this rule. Handshake AI names ServiceTitan but does not explicitly name CRM records; Sunset lists customer lists as assets for sale, rather than CRM history; LH2 AI Labs displays Salesforce as a product environment it rebuilds. Defined.ai gives general sales-data examples. Google’s pilot, idler, SimpleClosure and Turing do not name Salesforce or CRM records on the checked program pages.

Can a buyer connect to our Salesforce instead of us exporting?

Through an authorized app on an org with API access. The REST API guide lists Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited and Developer with API access by default, and a Professional API add-on. Salesforce’s partner guide describes Starter and Professional restrictions and exceptions for approved partner apps.

Since September 2025, Salesforce restricts uninstalled connected apps. Installation requires Customize Application plus either Modify All Data or Manage Connected Apps; a separate permission can bypass the uninstalled-app block (Salesforce).

Providers differ here (October 2026). Mercor asks you to “link your accounts”; Troveo says “No OAuth into your systems”; Scale AI says it “anonymizes everything inside your environment, before any data is extracted”.

API availability describes how a copy can be obtained. Your Salesforce agreement and the proposed license determine the permitted use. Ask which app would read the data and which terms cover it; Is it legal to sell company emails and records? explains the relevant documents.

Is Salesforce already using our data for AI?

Salesforce permits access by default for training its own global predictive AI models and improving its services, except for Government Cloud orgs or those that opt out. That permission does not establish that every record is used. An admin can opt out under Setup > Opt Out of Customer Data Access. Separately, the Einstein Trust Layer says its third-party LLMs retain no data. The guide puts the licensing steps in order.