Key takeaways
- Close has no storage page, so count the rows in separate CSV exports of leads, contacts and opportunities and add them together as your record total.
- An Admin or Super User exports from Leads > ... > Export; contacts and opportunities are exported from the Leads page too, not from the Contacts page.
- Only a JSON export of leads includes emails, calls, texts and notes, and the emailed download link expires after 7 days.
- You don't need to export anything to apply: have your record count, years of history and active user count ready, and the data vendor anonymizes the records before any AI lab sees them.
01
What is Close data, and why do AI labs and data vendors buy it?
The short answer
Close data is the record of a sales team's outreach: its leads, contacts, opportunities and every call, email, text message and note logged against them in Close, a customer relationship management (CRM) system built for inside sales teams. AI labs (companies that build and train AI models) and data vendors (companies that anonymize business records and package them for those labs) buy an anonymized copy because the records show what a salesperson actually said to a prospect and whether the deal closed.
What a Close account records
A CRM is software where a company keeps track of everyone it sells to. In Close, the main record is a lead, which is a company or person the team is trying to sell to. Each lead holds its contacts (the people at that company), its opportunities (sales the team is working on, with a value and a status) and a timeline of activities.
Activities are the calls, emails, text messages (SMS), meetings and notes that the team logs against a lead. Close places calling and email inside the app, so many of these activities are recorded automatically as the salesperson works.
Why outreach history teaches an AI model something
An AI model learns by studying a very large number of examples and finding the patterns in them, and those examples are called training data. A public sales email shows only the message that was sent. A Close account shows the whole sequence: the first email, the prospect's reply, the follow-up call, and the status the lead ended up in.
Because every activity sits under its lead and opportunity, a model can see which kinds of outreach came before a won deal and which came before a lost one.
AI labs now want to train AI agents, software that carries out a job step by step, and an agent learns a job from records of that job being done. A data vendor can turn anonymized outreach sequences into worked examples that an agent studies like an answer key, or into a practice copy of a sales process in which the agent is scored on each attempt. The full mechanism is in AI training data: why AI companies want your company's data.
How Close fits into a dataset
Close is usually one of several apps in a company's dataset, next to email, documents and billing records. Companies are paid $100K to $2M or more per dataset, according to micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to. The price covers the whole dataset, not each app on its own, and what your data is worth explains what moves it.
02
Where does Close show how much data you have?
The short answer
Close has no storage or usage page, so the best measure is the number of rows in a CSV export of your leads, contacts and opportunities. An Admin or Super User can run those exports from the Leads page, and the combined row count is the figure to report as records.
How to count your records
The steps below produce a row count from Close's own exporter, which Close describes in Exporting data.
- Sign in to Close as an Admin or Super User.
- Open Leads and clear every search filter, so that all leads are listed.
- Select the ... menu at the top right of the list, then Export.
- Run one CSV export for each type: Leads, Contacts and Opportunities. Each type is a separate export, and Close emails a download link for each one.
- Open each file in a spreadsheet, count its data rows, and add the three counts together.
A leads export has one row per lead, a contacts export has one row per contact and an opportunities export has one row per opportunity, so the sum is the number of records your account holds.
Which roles and plans can export
Exporting belongs to the Admin and Super User roles, which are included on the Essentials, Growth and Scale plans. A Restricted User cannot export, and custom roles exist only on Scale. Close's Super User role page lists exporting lead and opportunity data to CSV or JSON among that role's permissions.
| Role | Can export? |
|---|---|
| Admin | Yes, along with every other permission. |
| Super User | Yes, lead and opportunity data to CSV or JSON. |
| User | Not listed among its permissions, so ask an Admin to run the export. |
| Restricted User | No. |
Why the row count is a floor, not the whole picture
The three CSV files count leads, contacts and opportunities, but they do not count the activities. Calls, emails, texts and notes only appear in a JSON export of leads. If your team logged many of them, say so when you apply, because activity volume is what makes a Close dataset rich.
03
What should you know about your Close data before you apply?
The short answer
Have three facts ready: your combined record count, how many years you have used Close and how many active users your organization has. They go into the data manifest, the written summary of which apps hold your records, how many years each covers and roughly how much. You don't need to run an export to find them.
The record count
Enter the combined row count of your leads, contacts and opportunities exports, with records as the unit. If you also export activities in JSON, mention roughly how many calls, emails and texts the account holds in your notes.
The years of history
For years in use, sort the leads export by its date created column and note the oldest year.
The number of seats
Count the active users in your Close organization.
What you don't need to do first
You don't need to export anything to apply, and you don't need to clean or scrub an export. The data vendor anonymizes the records before anyone else sees them, and nothing moves until a lawyer-reviewed license is signed. The application, the intro call and each later step are laid out in how to sell your company's data.
04
How do you export your full Close history?
The short answer
An Admin or Super User opens Leads, clears the filters, chooses ... > Export, sets Type to Leads, picks JSON and All fields, and downloads the file from the link Close emails. Of Close's built-in exports, only JSON of leads carries activities such as emails, calls, texts and notes, and the link expires after 7 days.
The full export step by step
- Sign in as an Admin or Super User and open Leads. Leave the search empty so that every lead is included.
- Select ... then Export.
- Set Type to Leads, choose JSON as the format and pick All fields.
- Start the export. Close emails you a link when the file is ready; larger accounts take longer.
- Open the link and download the file within 7 days.
- If you also want flat tables, repeat the export with CSV for Contacts and for Opportunities.
JSON is a file format that keeps related items nested inside each other, so a lead's contacts, opportunities and activities travel together in one file. A JSON file opens in any text editor, but reading it comfortably takes a developer or a viewer tool.
What each file type includes
The choice of format decides whether activities come along. The diagram shows the same Close account exported both ways.
Where contacts and opportunities are exported from
Close exports contacts from the Leads page, not from the Contacts page, and it does not allow an export from a Smart View (a saved, filtered list) that was built on the Contacts tab. Only a Smart View built with filters on the Leads tab can be exported. An opportunities export from the Leads page returns the opportunities that belong to the leads matching your search.
Exporting through the Close API
An API (application programming interface) is a way for one program to ask another for data directly. A developer can start the same export with Close's export endpoint, using an API key created under Settings > Developer > API Keys. The request below asks for every lead with its activities as JSON; the developer replaces the placeholder with the key.
curl -X POST https://api.close.com/api/v1/export/lead/ \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-u "<CLOSE_API_KEY>:" \
-d '{"format": "json", "type": "leads", "include_activities": true}'
The endpoint POST /api/v1/export/lead/ accepts the types leads, contacts and lead_opps in CSV or JSON, and it emails the same download link. The file comes gzip-compressed, which is a standard way of shrinking files for download. Activities are included only when include_activities is true on a JSON export of the leads type.
What a built-in export leaves out
Smart Views, custom fields, phone numbers and templates are not part of the standard export. Close provides separate support tools that download them, and also email messages, SMS messages, notes and meetings, as CSV files. Each tool needs an API key. Close's Event Log API reaches back only 30 days, so it is not a source of long history.
Sources: Close Help Center, Exporting data and Super User role, and the Close developer documentation, Export leads based on a search query. Steps checked against these pages in November 2026.
05
What stays private when Close data is licensed?
The short answer
The company decides which fields and activity types are in scope, and the data vendor replaces names and other personal details with consistent stand-ins before an AI lab sees anything. The company keeps ownership of its Close history, and the license covers defined records for a defined use.
You choose what is in scope
Close's exporter lets you pick which fields go into a file, so a company can hold back contact details and share lead status, opportunities and activity history alone. The data vendor also deletes records too sensitive to clean safely instead of anonymizing them.
Names are replaced before a lab sees them
Anonymization means replacing every detail that identifies a person, such as a name or an email address, with a stand-in that is the same every time it appears. The outreach still reads in order, so a lab can learn from it, but it no longer says who the prospect is. The diagram below shows one lead before and after.
The method, including what is deleted outright and how you review samples, is in how company data is anonymized for AI training.
Ownership and payment
Licensing gives the buyer limited rights to a copy, while the company keeps ownership of the originals. The terms that matter, such as exclusivity, permitted use and deletion, are covered in data licensing. micro1 pays in full within 30 days of accepting the data, usually as a single payment.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Does a Close CSV export include emails and calls?
No. Activities such as emails, calls, texts and notes arrive only in a JSON export of the leads type, started either in the exporter or through the API with include_activities set to true.
How long does the Close export download link last?
Seven days. Close emails you a link when the export is ready and the link expires on its own after 7 days, so download the file promptly.
Which Close roles can export data?
Admins and Super Users. They can export lead and opportunity data to CSV or JSON on the Essentials, Growth and Scale plans, while Restricted Users cannot export at all.
Why can't I export contacts from the Contacts page in Close?
Close runs every export from the Leads page. Choose Contacts as the type there, and note that a Smart View built on the Contacts tab cannot be exported.
Does Close show how much data our account holds?
No. Close has no storage or usage page, so the best measure is the number of rows in your leads, contacts and opportunities exports added together.
Do we need to export Close before we apply?
No. The application takes about two minutes and shares no data. You only need your approximate record count, your years of history and your active user count for the intro call. The full export is needed later, when the records are transferred after you sign the license.
What is Close data worth to AI labs and data vendors?
Close history is priced as part of a whole dataset rather than on its own. Companies are paid $100K to $2M or more per dataset, according to micro1, and the price depends on the years of history and how completely the records show each deal. What your data is worth explains the factors.
Bottom line
Know what is in Close, then see what it is worth
You don't need to export anything to apply. Apply in two minutes, describe your records on the intro call, and micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to, prices the whole dataset and sends an offer 1–2 days later.
Not legal, tax or financial advice. Figures come from micro1's published pages and public reporting as of November 2026.