Slack will soon stop saving your data if you have a free account — here's what you need to know

Organizations or companies with free Slack accounts have been warned that the company will soon start deleting older data from their workspaces as part of a subscription shake-up.

Starting from August 26, 2024, Slack users with a free workspace will see any “customer data” – namely messages and files – more than a year old start to be deleted on a rolling basis, the company revealed.

In a support post on the Slack help center, the online collaboration platform announced the changes, which it says is part of its bid to “maintain the quality of Slack for our customers.”

Slack free workspace changes

“As our customer base has continued to grow, so has our mission to make Slack a tool for businesses doing their best work,” the blog post noted.

Deleted files and messages will not be able to be restored, even if users decide to upgrade to a paid subscription following the August 26, 2024 deadline, but data can be exported by free users.

Users choosing to remain on a free workspace subscription will keep full access to the past 90 days of message and file history, as per the current Slack policy, although the remaining 275 days will only become available should you then upgrade to a paid subscription.

Additionally, organizations that are part of the Slack for Charities program will be able to access a free or discounted upgrade to the company’s Pro, Business+ or Enterprise Grid subscriptions.

Any users who do choose to upgrade will also be able to access older messages and files depending on their choice of retention period, Slack added.

Slack pricing currently starts at $7.25 per person per month for its Pro tier, rising to $12.50 per person per month for the Business+ plan, with the addition of Slack AI for the latter platform costing an extra $10 per person per month.

Released in September 2023, Slack AI was recently upgraded to provide smarter search, giving users answers in clear and concise language, directly referring to relevant Slack messages, as well as better conversation summaries which can provide highlights from channels and threads, letting users quickly catch up on anything they may have missed, access daily summaries, and see the sources of specific entries or notes.