Yes: AI labs and AI data companies license de-identified copies of company Slack history, usually with email, tickets and docs. Reported 2026 figures run from about $15,000 for a small shut-down startup's workspace data (MIT Technology Review, October 2026) to a $1 million offer an AI lab made for one company's Slack data (post on X, July 2026). What you can export depends on your Slack plan: Free and Pro owners can export public channels, while private channels and DMs need Slack's approval (Slack Help Center, October 2026).
On this page
- Why do AI labs want Slack messages?
- How much is Slack data worth?
- Which buyers take Slack history?
- How do I check how much Slack history I have?
- How do I export Slack data safely?
- What should I leave out of a Slack export?
- How is Slack data de-identified?
- Should I tell my employees before licensing Slack?
- Questions
- Sources
Why do AI labs want Slack messages?
AI companies are building agents that do office work. To train them, they need examples of how people coordinate: who asked for what, who disagreed, what was decided and what happened next. Public websites rarely show that. A busy Slack workspace shows it every day, in threads with timestamps and replies.
Buyers say so directly. Surge AI's Nick Heiner told MIT Technology Review (October 2026) that one company's Slack history, if it has variety and depth, can be worth more than another company's Slack, email and calendars combined. micro1's chief revenue officer told Business Insider (October 2026) that if a company will not sell its Slack, CRM or email records, the rest of its records are less valuable.
Slack is also common. SimpleClosure says 95% of the company workspaces it evaluated use Slack (SimpleClosure, September 2026). That means Slack alone rarely makes a record rare. What makes it valuable is how much real work happens in it and how well it links to tickets, docs and code.
How much is Slack data worth?
There is no price per message. Buyers look at a sample and price the whole record. These are the reported figures where Slack was named, with the kind of number each one is. All are in our deal ledger.
| Company | Records named | Amount | Kind of figure | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crypto startup, shut down | Google, Notion, Figma and Slack workspace data | About $15,000, pending | Press report | MIT Technology Review, October 2026 |
| Transcription company, shut down | 13 years of Slack, Jira, email and Google Drive | "Hundreds of thousands of dollars" | Press report of a sale, first in Forbes | Fortune, September 2026 |
| Startup acquired for its team | Code and employee communications | Four offers up to $300,000, all declined | Press report | The Information via FNNews, August 2026 |
| Founder's company | Company data; he says micro1 asks for Slack, Notion and email | About $600,000 offer from micro1, declined | Founder post | X, September 2026 |
| Company, size not stated | Slack: internal channels, SOPs (written procedures) and process docs | $1,000,000 offer from an unnamed AI lab | Post by someone at the company | X, July 2026 |
Shut-down startups received $10,000 to $100,000 per company across about 100 deals handled by SimpleClosure, a shutdown service, in the year to April 2026 (Forbes via Fast Company, April 2026). Operating companies with years of history usually see more, because buyers publish ranges that start near $100,000: micro1 lists tiers of $100K to $500K, $500K to $2M and $2M+ (micro1, October 2026). For full ranges by buyer, see how much company data is worth.
Which buyers take Slack history?
Most buyers that license company records list Slack. Scale AI asks for "full conversation histories, threads, participants, and reply structure" from Slack, Teams and Google Chat (Scale AI, October 2026). Labelbox Prism marks cross-system Salesforce, Jira and Slack workflows as urgent demand (Labelbox, October 2026). Other buyers that name Slack include micro1, Polyshares and G2i. Brokers and marketplaces that name it include Troveo, Grepped and SellMyData. See Scale AI and Labelbox for their terms.
Data Licensors, the company that publishes this page, also licenses company records, including Slack history. See our buyer page next to the others.
How do I check how much Slack history I have?
- Open Admin, then Workspace analytics. The dashboard is on all plans. Free plans show basic metrics; Pro and Business+ add Channels and Members tabs you can export as CSV (Slack Help Center).
- Set the date range as wide as it goes and note message activity, active members and the number of channels with real traffic.
- Check your plan's history. Since August 26, 2024, Slack deletes messages and files older than one year from free workspaces, and they cannot be restored (Slack Help Center). If you are on Free, your history is at most one year.
- Check Customize data retention in settings. If someone set messages to delete after a period, older history is gone.
- Write down when the workspace started and how many people used it at its peak. Buyers ask about both.
The analytics dashboard shows activity over chosen periods, not a single all-time total. The export itself is the most reliable count.
How do I export Slack data safely?
Use Slack's own export, run by your Workspace Owner. Slack's rules differ by plan:
| Plan | What owners can export | Private channels and DMs |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Public channels in JSON (a plain-text data format), no data older than one year, file links from the last 90 days only | Only by application, approved only with valid legal process, member consent, or a legal requirement or right |
| Pro | Public channels, JSON, file links | Same application rule as Free |
| Business+ | Public channels | Owners can apply for a self-serve tool for all channels and DMs, and must make sure employment agreements, policies and the use itself are lawful |
| Enterprise | Public channels per workspace | Org Owners can apply for full and custom exports; approved compliance tools can also use Slack's Discovery API |
Source: Slack Help Center, checked October 2026.
The steps on Free, Pro and Business+: Admin, Workspace settings, Security, Import & export data, Export tab, pick a date range, Start Export. Slack emails a link to a ZIP file.
Three points owners miss:
- Exports hold file links, not files. Shared files need a separate step.
- Slack Connect channels hold other companies' messages. Only your side is yours to license. Leave shared channels out unless the other company agrees.
- Laws limit how exports may be used. Slack's guide says employment, privacy and other laws limit the use of exports, and laws may require employers to tell employees (Slack Help Center).
Be careful with apps that offer to "connect" to Slack and pull data for you. Slack's API terms, effective October 10, 2025, cover data that apps pull through Slack's connections (its API). They say an app offered to other organizations may not use that data to train a large language model, and may not bulk export message data except in approved compliance cases (Slack, 2025). If a buyer proposes an app connection, ask how it fits those terms. At Data Licensors, for Slack, your Workspace Owner runs the official export with our step-by-step guidance and sends it through an encrypted transfer. We never ask for passwords.
What should I leave out of a Slack export?
You choose the channels, dates and people in scope. Good candidates to leave out:
- DMs and private HR, legal or leadership channels. They hold the most personal detail and the least process. If you include DMs, get member consent first.
- Channels about health, payroll, performance reviews or hiring.
- Channels shared with clients whose contracts limit use of their information.
- Social channels like #random or #pets. They add little value.
- Pasted secrets. Passwords, API keys and tokens show up in engineering channels. They must be removed either way.
Records you do not have the right to license, such as those under a customer contract that forbids it, stay out. That is on our list of things we never accept.
How is Slack data de-identified?
A Slack export is a set of JSON files: one folder per channel, one file per day, plus a users file that maps user IDs to names. De-identification works on all of it:
- Names, @mentions, user IDs and display names become placeholders such as [Name] or [Engineer 3], kept consistent so threads still make sense.
- Email addresses, phone numbers and street addresses are removed.
- Your company name and customer names, including in channel names like #acme-onboarding, become [Company] or [Customer].
- Secrets in code snippets are stripped.
- Thread structure, reply order and timing stay, because that is what buyers pay for.
A person reviews samples from every batch, and you see a de-identified sample before you sign. More detail is in how de-identification works.
Should I tell my employees before licensing Slack?
We recommend it. Slack itself says laws may require employers to notify employees about export use. Emory law professor Ifeoma Ajunwa told MIT Technology Review (October 2026) that employers should have express consent before selling workers' data, while noting no federal law bans such sales. This is general information, not legal advice. Business Insider (October 2026) reported owners getting six-figure offers that expire in 48 hours; a deadline is not a reason to skip this step. Read is it legal to sell company data before you sign, and get a quick estimate to see where your workspace likely falls.
