Slack message history limit: the 90-day rule explained
Short answer: On Slack Free you can see and search the last 90 days of messages and files. Paid Slack plans keep a longer history. Check the current rule on Slack's pricing page before you treat a free room as the archive. To keep an older decision, export it before the window closes or move that project to a plan that keeps it.
Understand Slack Free’s 90-day history and older-data deletion policy. Review retention, export and paid workspace options.
Author: BusyVault ·
Visible history and deletion are different
Slack Free provides access to the most recent 90 days of message and file history. Slack also documents deletion of data older than one year on the free plan. Upgrading cannot restore data that has already been deleted.
Check retention before choosing a replacement
Separate the history included in a plan from administrator retention policies and export permissions. Ask which conversations and files you must keep, who can export them and how you will validate the result.
Four checks before day 90
Find one decision older than the window you can still search. Export it if Slack Free is about to hide it. Name the person who can run that export. Open the file the decision names. BusyVault does not import the workspace for you. The 3-day trial can hold one of those threads. It cannot hold a year of company history.
BusyVault’s free account is also time-limited
BusyVault’s free account lasts 3 days. Basic and Pro are paid options for continued use; do not use the free account as an archive. Test export and your retention requirements before committing important project records.
Before a project outlives your visible history
Identify the decisions, files and handover notes you will need later. Ask your workspace owner which export options and retention rules apply to the plan; export availability differs by conversation type and permissions. Open a sample export and confirm it contains the information you need. Keep an independent copy of essential project documents. A new chat tool does not recover information already deleted from the old one.
Worked example for this guide
Use “Slack message history limit: the 90-day rule explained” on one project that is already late, not as a policy for the whole company. Write the current file name, the decision and the next owner in the same channel before the day ends. A teammate who was away should find that trio without opening the call recording. If they cannot, the article has not been applied yet. Repeat the check the next morning. Count a written handover as done only when the second person opens the right file first.
Files, history and the next owner
On Slack message history limit: the 90-day rule explained, keep the file next to the sentence that approved it. Slack documents a 1 GB cap on one upload and, on the Free plan, 90 days of visible history. Those two limits are the public facts this site already cites.
BusyVault bills storage per paid account: 25 GiB on Basic and 100 GiB on Pro. Extra storage is 0.03 USD per GiB a month after you confirm the charge. Basic is 9 USD a month or 86 USD a year. Pro is 30 USD a month or 288 USD a year. One subscription does not cover the team.
The trial is 3 days and 10 GiB. Use it to upload a real file and to search for a decision, not to announce a company-wide move. If the file does not fit or the old decision cannot be found, say so in the channel before you promise the room is the archive.
Where the app runs
BusyVault runs in the browser and can be installed from Chrome or Edge on Windows, macOS and Linux. The Android app is on Google Play and uses the same account. The iPhone and iPad app is coming soon. Enterprise customers can run BusyVault on their own servers under a separate contract. There is no public installer on this site for that path. This page does not claim SOC 2, ISO 27001 or HIPAA.
A check you can finish this week
For Slack message history limit: the 90-day rule explained, finish four lines and stop. Line one is the project name. Line two is the channel name. Line three is where the current file lives. Line four is the next owner. Add one rule for meetings: what must be decided live, and what must be written down the same day.
Ask someone who was not on the call to find the file without help. If they open the right channel first, the structure works. If they search three threads and still ask which version is current, move the file to the channel and leave a pointer. Owners and administrators can export a BusyVault backup from workspace or channel settings. After a restore, check the text, the file references and who can open them. Keep the original files until that check passes. Product questions go to the address on the support page.
Search is not the same as retention
Slack’s Free plan limits how far back you can see messages. That is a product limit, not a full statement of how long a company must keep records. List the threads that have to stay searchable and who will export them before a move. BusyVault does not import a Slack workspace automatically. The trial is 3 days, which is long enough to test one thread and too short to be your archive.
Use these checks to record what worked, what failed and what needs another tool. They are evaluation criteria, not claimed test results.
A practical acceptance checklist
Check
Evidence to collect
Visible history
Check which dates and files are currently searchable on the existing plan.
Retention
Separate inaccessible records from permanently deleted data.
Export
Verify permitted scope, readable output and included attachments before moving.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Asked before
switching.
Are Slack Free messages hidden after 90 days or deleted?
These are different thresholds. Slack Free provides visibility into the most recent 90 days, and Slack documents permanent deletion of messages and files older than one year. Verify the current policy and available export options before planning to recover or migrate an archive.