Slack's API terms and AI training – can you license your own Slack archive?

AI labs want Slack data because it shows how teams actually work: questions, hand-offs, decisions and follow-ups in real time. That makes a company's Slack archive one of the most interesting datasets for training AI agents. It is also the dataset with the most platform restrictions. In 2025, Salesforce, which owns Slack, tightened the rules on what apps may do with Slack data, including AI training. This guide sets out what the terms say, with links to Slack's own documents, and what it means if you are considering a license.

This guide describes how things generally work today. It is not legal advice. Every workspace and every deal is different – Slack's terms change, your own agreement with Slack matters, and each case is assessed on its own. You don't have to sort it out alone – we walk you through each step, bring in specialists where needed and propose deals that work for you.

What changed in 2025

On May 29, 2025, Slack updated its API Terms of Service. The new terms applied immediately to apps created from that date and from June 30, 2025 to existing apps. Slack framed the change as adding safeguards for how third-party apps store, use and share data accessed through its APIs. On the same day, Slack capped message history (conversations.history and conversations.replies) at one request per minute for new installations of commercially distributed apps outside the Slack Marketplace. Existing installations are not subject to the new limit, according to Slack's changelog.

Law firms such as Hunton advised companies to review how their tools access Slack data. The current version of the API Terms is dated October 10, 2025.

What the terms actually say

Three documents are relevant, and they say slightly different things.

Slack's Developer Policy. The Developer Policy lists, among prohibited uses, "using Data to train an LLM under any circumstances." This is the broadest wording.

Slack's API Terms – apps offered outside your organization. For applications offered to others, the API Terms prohibit, among other things, using API Data to train a large language model and bulk exporting Slack message and file data, except where expressly allowed by an additional agreement. "API Data" includes messages, files, metadata and other data obtained from Slack APIs.

Slack's API Terms – Data Access and Real-Time Search APIs. Apps using these APIs may not create persistent copies, archives, indexes or long-term data stores of other organizations' API data, and the data may not be used for product improvements.

In practice: pulling Slack data out through a third-party app or the API to build a training dataset generally runs into these restrictions. That is why routes that rely on the API are usually ruled out, or cleared with Slack first.

Slack's own workspace export

Separate from the API, Slack offers a workspace export tool for owners and admins. What you can export depends on your plan:

• Free and Pro: messages and file links from public channels. Private channels and DMs cannot be exported.
• Business+: public channels by default. Private channels and DMs only after the workspace owner applies and Slack approves. Slack describes this as being for legal and regulatory compliance.
• Enterprise Grid: broader exports, including all channels and DMs on request, handled through org owners and Slack Support.

Two things follow. First, an export made for compliance purposes is not automatically an export you may license for AI training – what your agreement with Slack allows is a separate question. Second, the most licensable Slack data is usually public, work-focused channels anyway, not DMs. Read more about why in our guide on selling employee emails and chats.

Teams and Google Workspace

The same questions apply to other platforms, even if the rules differ:

• Microsoft Teams. Chats are stored in Microsoft 365 and are typically exported through Microsoft Purview eDiscovery. Your Microsoft agreement and licenses determine what export options you have.
• Google Workspace. Email and chat are typically exported through Google Vault or the admin data export tool. Your Google Workspace agreement governs their use.

Neither Microsoft nor Google has published a rule like Slack's LLM training ban for customer exports that we know of, but that is not the same as permission – the agreement is what decides.

Why email is often the simpler first step

An email archive is not affected by Slack's terms. Many companies have years of email alongside Slack, often with the same kind of work content: customer conversations, project coordination and internal decisions. Starting with email lets a license move forward while the Slack question is reviewed separately. More on selling email archives.

Checklist before licensing Slack data

1. Which Slack plan are you on, and which export options does it give you?
2. Does any planned route use the Slack API or a third-party app? If so, it is likely to run into the API Terms.
3. What does your customer agreement with Slack say about your data and its use?
4. Which channels are relevant: public project channels, private channels, DMs?
5. Can the same value be delivered from email or ticketing data instead?
6. Have you and your advisers looked at the export route and the license before anything leaves the company?

How we handle Slack data

Platform terms are part of our assessment from the start. You describe your data in a short form without sending files, and we get back to you within 48 hours on business days. If the Slack route is unclear, we look at what can be licensed from other sources first. Nothing is shared until there is a non-disclosure agreement and an accepted offer. Read more about selling Slack and Teams data.

Summary

Slack's Developer Policy bans using API data to train LLMs under any circumstances, and its API Terms restrict apps from bulk exporting message data or training models on it. Slack's own workspace export is separate, but private channels and DMs require approval, and Slack describes that as a compliance feature. In practice, a Slack license usually means avoiding API-based routes, working within your agreement with Slack, focusing on public work channels, and often starting with email.