Key takeaways
- Confluence shows storage used in admin.atlassian.com under Site settings > Storage, and on Standard, Premium and Enterprise, Space Reports adds storage and content counts for every space.
- A Confluence admin exports the full site from Settings > Data management > Backup manager, with Backup attachments ticked, and has 14 days to download the file.
- Databases, soft-deleted spaces and (in space exports) comments in PDFs and Team Calendars are left out, so a backup is not a complete copy of everything.
- You don't need to export anything to apply: have your storage in MB, your years of history and your user count ready, and the data vendor anonymizes the records before any AI lab sees them.
01
What is Confluence data, and why do AI labs and data vendors buy it?
The short answer
Confluence data is the written knowledge base of a company: the pages, page edits, comments and attachments stored in its Confluence wiki. AI labs (companies that build and train AI models) and data vendors (companies that anonymize business records and package them for those labs) buy a copy because a wiki shows how a company documents its procedures, decisions and mistakes, and how those documents change over time.
What a Confluence site records
Confluence is a wiki, an app where a team writes and organizes its internal documents. A company's site is its own Confluence, and it holds several kinds of records.
- Space
- A section of the wiki that belongs to one team or project, with its own list of people allowed in.
- Page
- A single document inside a space. Pages nest under parent pages, so a postmortem (a write-up of what went wrong in an outage and what changed afterward) can sit beside the runbook it updated.
- Version history
- The saved copy of a page from every edit, which shows what changed and who changed it.
- Comment
- A note that colleagues attach to a whole page or to a highlighted passage, which records the review that a draft went through.
- Attachment
- A file uploaded to a page, such as a PDF, a spreadsheet or a diagram.
The long-lived documents are the valuable part: runbooks (step-by-step instructions for handling an operational task), product requirements, architecture decisions and postmortems.
Why a wiki 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. Public documentation shows a finished manual, but it hides how the manual was written. A Confluence page shows the draft, the objections colleagues raised in comments and the revision that settled them.
AI labs now want to train AI agents, software that carries out a job step by step. An agent learns how an incident is handled from a runbook and from the postmortem that corrected it. A data vendor can turn anonymized pages into worked examples that the agent studies like an answer key. The mechanism is explained in AI training data: why AI companies want your company's data.
How Confluence fits into a dataset
Confluence is one of several apps in a company's dataset, which usually also includes chat, email and tickets. 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 Confluence show how much data you have?
The short answer
Confluence shows storage used at admin.atlassian.com under Site settings > Storage, which only Confluence admins can open. On Standard, Premium and Enterprise, Space Reports adds storage and a content count for every space. Both figures are measured in storage, not in an all-time page count, so they can differ from the size of a backup.
How to read your storage figure
Atlassian keeps the storage meter outside Confluence, in the administration site for the whole organization. The steps below follow the path in Atlassian's storage guide.
- Sign in to admin.atlassian.com with a Confluence admin account and pick your organization.
- Go to the site's page. Under original user management, click the site's name or URL in the left menu; under centralized user management, click Apps and then the site.
- Under Site settings, select Storage. The page lists the storage used and remaining for each app, Confluence among them.
- To see the figures space by space, switch to Confluence itself and open Confluence Administration > Settings > Space Reports.
- Download the CSV file. Each space gets one row, with columns named Storage used (MB), Content Count, Attachments, Creation Date and Last Activity.
Atlassian says the Storage page refreshes every 4 hours, so a figure you read right after a large upload may be out of date.
What each plan limits
Every plan has a storage ceiling, and the plan decides whether Space Reports is available.
| Plan | Storage limit | Space Reports |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 2 GB | Not available |
| Standard | 250 GB | Available |
| Premium | Unlimited | Available |
| Enterprise | Not listed on the storage page | Available |
When a site goes over its limit, nobody can add or change content until space is freed or the plan is upgraded.
Why storage is not a page count
The storage figure counts attachments and their older versions, so a site full of PDFs and images shows a far larger number than its text alone. Archiving a page does not free its storage, because archived pages keep their attachments. The Content Count column in Space Reports is the closer guide to how many pages exist.
03
What should you know about your Confluence data before you apply?
The short answer
Have three facts ready: how many MB your Confluence site stores, how many years it has been in use and how many people have access. They go into the data manifest, the written summary of which apps hold your records, how many years each covers and roughly how much. Applying shares no data, and you don't need to run an export first.
The size in MB
The size is the storage figure from Site settings > Storage, written in MB. If you downloaded Space Reports, adding up its Storage used (MB) column gives a second number to compare it with. Keep the Content Count column as well, since it gives a rough page count to quote on the call.
The years of history
The earliest Creation Date in the Space Reports CSV is the date your wiki began. Without Space Reports, the date of the oldest space or page you can find is a good substitute, and the date the company started paying for Confluence is another.
The number of people with access
Count the users who have access to Confluence on your site in admin.atlassian.com. This is the number of people who read or write in the wiki.
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 the pages. 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 Confluence history?
The short answer
A Confluence admin creates a site backup from the gear icon > Settings > Data management > Backup manager, ticks Backup attachments, and downloads the file from the link Confluence provides, which works for 14 days. A site backup holds up to 30 GB plus 800 GB of attachments. A single space can be exported on its own as XML, HTML, CSV or PDF.
Who can export
A Confluence admin runs the site backup. Atlassian notes that an organization can block exports, so if the option is missing, ask whoever manages your Atlassian organization.
The steps for a full site backup
- Log in as a Confluence admin and select the gear icon at the top right.
- Go to Settings > Data management and select Backup manager.
- Select Backup attachments so that files come along with the pages.
- Choose Create backup for cloud. Confluence keeps one backup file at a time, so a new backup replaces the previous one.
- When the backup finishes, download it from the link shown. The link stays valid for 14 days.
Atlassian describes this procedure, and the size ceiling of 30 GB plus 800 GB of attachments, in its site backup guide.
How to export a single space instead
- Open More actions (the three dots) next to the space name in the sidebar and choose Space settings.
- In the General menu, select Export space.
- Choose XML, HTML, CSV or PDF, pick all content or specific items, and select Export space.
- Download the file when Confluence says it is ready.
A space export only contains what the exporting person can view. The exception is a CSV or XML export run by a site admin, which contains everything in the space.
What a site backup contains
A site backup holds pages, whiteboards, team calendar data and some user and group settings. With Backup attachments ticked it also holds every attachment, including those in the archive and trash, so the backup can be larger or smaller than the storage figure you read earlier.
What the exports leave out
Databases appear in the page tree of a backup but keep none of their content, so they must be exported separately. Soft-deleted spaces, which sit in the trash until someone removes them for good, are not in the backup unless they are restored first.
Space exports have their own gaps. PDF exports never include comments, and neither PDF nor HTML space exports include blog posts. HTML exports skip page comments, and no space export includes Team Calendars.
How long an export takes
Atlassian gives no time estimate for a backup. Start it early and watch for the download link, and download the file within the 14 days.
Sources: Atlassian Support, Export a data backup file of your instance, Manage your storage usage and Export a space's content as Word, PDF, or data files. Steps checked against these pages in November 2026.
05
What stays private when Confluence data is licensed?
The short answer
The company decides which spaces 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 wiki, and the license covers defined pages for a defined use.
You choose what is in scope
A company can leave personal spaces, and restricted spaces such as HR and legal, out of what it licenses. The data vendor also deletes records that are 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 page still reads in order, so a lab can learn from it, but it no longer says who wrote or reviewed it. The diagram shows one page with a comment and an edit 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. 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 the Confluence Cloud backup include attachments?
Only if you tick Backup attachments before you create it. When ticked, it includes attachments that sit in the archive and the trash as well.
Why does our backup size not match the storage number in admin?
The backup counts attachments in the archive and trash, which Atlassian says can make the file differ from the reported storage. The storage page also refreshes only every 4 hours, so it can lag behind recent changes.
Can a space admin export everything in a space?
A space admin can export a space, but the file holds only the content that person can view. A CSV or XML export run by a site admin includes all content in the space.
Are Confluence databases included in a site backup?
No. A backup lists each database in its page tree but leaves the database empty, so the rows and fields have to be exported separately.
Do we need to export Confluence before we apply?
No. The application takes about two minutes and shares no data. For the intro call you need your storage in MB, your years of history and the number of people with access, and you can read all three from admin.atlassian.com and Space Reports. The full export is needed later, when the records are transferred after you sign the license.
Can we license only some of our Confluence spaces?
Yes. The company chooses the spaces in scope, so personal spaces and restricted HR or legal spaces can stay out. A space export or a backup you review first makes it easy to confirm what is being shared.
What is Confluence data worth to AI labs and data vendors?
Confluence history is priced as part of a whole dataset, not 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 job. What your data is worth explains the factors.
Bottom line
Know what is in Confluence, 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.