Key takeaways
- Freshdesk shows no storage total, so a developer counts tickets with the Filter Tickets API, one query per year with a created_at range, and adds the total value from each reply.
- List All Tickets returns only the past 30 days by default and stops at 30,000 tickets, so it is the wrong tool for a count, and Filter Tickets leaves out archived tickets.
- The Account Administrator exports from Admin > Account > Account Details > Export data; Freshdesk emails an XML file of tickets, solution articles, forums and the customer list.
- You don't need to export anything to apply: have your ticket count, years of history and agent licenses ready, and the data vendor anonymizes the records before any AI lab sees them.
01
What is Freshdesk data, and why do AI labs and data vendors buy it?
The short answer
Freshdesk data is the history of customer support requests a company handles in Freshdesk, its help-desk software: each ticket keeps the customer's request, every reply from the support team, private notes and the fields that sort the case. 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 ticket is a worked example of a support problem and how an agent solved it.
What a Freshdesk account records
A help desk is software where customers send questions and a support team answers them. Freshdesk calls each request a ticket, and an agent is a member of the support team who works on it. Each ticket holds a thread of conversation and the details around it.
- Reply
- A message between the customer and an agent, in the order it was sent.
- Private note
- A comment agents write for each other, which the customer never sees.
- Ticket fields
- The details that categorize a case, such as its type, priority, status and any custom fields the company added.
- Solution article and forum post
- Help articles and community posts a company publishes in its Freshdesk portal.
Why a Freshdesk ticket 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 ticket is a complete example, because it shows the request, the agent's replies and notes, and how the case was classified and closed.
AI labs now also want to train AI agents, software that carries out a job step by step, and customer support is one of the first jobs they try. The private notes matter because they show an agent's reasoning, which the public reply leaves out. The full mechanism is in AI training data: why AI companies want your company's data.
How Freshdesk fits into a dataset
Freshdesk is usually one of several apps in a company's dataset, next to email, chat and customer 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 Freshdesk show how much data you have?
The short answer
Freshdesk shows no storage total, so the measure is a ticket count. A developer calls the Filter Tickets API, which returns a total with every search, once for each year of history and adds the results. The call needs an agent's API key, and an admin's key sees the most.
How to count tickets with the API
An API is a way for a program to ask Freshdesk for information, and an API key is the password that proves the request comes from an agent in your account. The steps below describe what the developer does, using the Freshdesk API reference.
- Find an agent's API key in the profile settings of an admin, so that the call can see every ticket.
- Call the Filter Tickets address, /api/v2/search/tickets, with a query that limits created_at to one year, as in the example below.
- Read the total value in the reply. It is the number of matching tickets, no matter how many pages of results come back.
- Repeat for each year the account has been open and add the totals.
/api/v2/search/tickets?query="created_at:>'2024-01-01' AND created_at:<'2025-01-01'"The quotation marks and symbols in a real request must be URL encoded, which the developer's tool handles.
Why you shouldn't count with List All Tickets
List All Tickets, the other obvious call, returns only the tickets created in the past 30 days unless you ask for older ones with the updated_since option. Even then it stops at 300 pages, or 30,000 tickets, so it cannot give the total for a busy account.
What the count can miss
Freshdesk archives closed tickets that have been inactive for 120 days on accounts where archiving applies, and Filter Tickets does not include archived tickets. A company with archiving on can therefore see a total that is lower than the real figure, and the archived tickets are reached through their own endpoints.
Which plan and role you need
| Method | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Filter Tickets API | Any agent's API key, for the tickets that agent can see | Use an admin's key for the full count |
| Account export | Account Administrator | Found on the Account tab |
03
What should you know about your Freshdesk data before you apply?
The short answer
Have three facts ready: how many tickets your account holds, how many years it covers and how many paid agent licenses you have. 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 ticket count
Report the ticket total, which is the sum of your yearly Filter Tickets results. Say whether you have archiving on, because archived tickets are not in that total.
The years of history
Use the earliest year for which the Filter Tickets query returns any tickets.
The number of seats
A seat is a paid agent license on your Freshdesk plan. The customers who send in tickets do not take up seats.
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 tickets. 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 Freshdesk history?
The short answer
The Account Administrator goes to Admin > Account > Account Details, clicks Export data and downloads the XML file Freshdesk emails. The file holds the account's tickets and their content, its solution articles, its forums and its list of customers. A developer then converts the XML into a format that is easier to read, such as CSV or JSON.
The steps
Freshdesk's guide to exporting account data describes the same route, and a second article on exporting tickets with their content confirms where the file goes.
- Sign in as the Account Administrator, the one role that can open the Account tab.
- Open Admin > Account > Account Details and click Export data.
- Watch the account administrator's email for the message with the download. Freshdesk lists earlier exports, with their progress, under Admin > Account exports.
- Give the XML file to a developer, because Freshdesk does not convert it for you.
Which plans include the export
Freshdesk's help article is tagged for the Free, Growth, Pro and Enterprise plans, and neither export article names a minimum plan. Some write-ups elsewhere claim the full export is only for Pro and Enterprise, which Freshdesk's own pages do not say, so ask Freshdesk support about your plan if the Export data button is missing.
The API route for the conversations
Ticket replies and private notes are also available one ticket at a time from the conversations address, /api/v2/tickets/[id]/conversations. Freshdesk limits how many calls an account can make each minute, and the limit depends on the plan, from 100 on Growth to 700 on Enterprise at the time of writing.
The API reference also lists an Export Account call, POST /api/v2/account/export, that only the Account Administrator can use. It lets a developer pick a date range, the resources to include, such as tickets with their notes and attachments, and JSON as the output format.
Sources: Freshdesk Support, How do I export the data in my account? and How can I export tickets including the content of the ticket?, and the Freshdesk API reference. Steps checked against these pages in November 2026.
05
What stays private when Freshdesk data is licensed?
The short answer
The company decides which groups and products 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 Freshdesk data, and the license covers defined records for a defined use.
You choose what is in scope
An internal IT or HR help desk that runs in the same account can stay out of the dataset entirely, and so can any group or product the company would rather keep back. 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 or a company, such as a name or an email address, with a stand-in that is the same every time it appears. The ticket still reads in order, so a lab can learn from it, but it no longer says who the people are. The diagram below shows one ticket 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
What format is the Freshdesk account export?
XML, which Freshdesk emails to the Account Administrator. Freshdesk does not convert it, so a developer needs to turn it into CSV or JSON.
Who can export data from Freshdesk?
Only the Account Administrator, because that role can open the Account tab where the export lives. Other admins and agents do not see it.
Why does the Freshdesk API return only recent tickets?
List All Tickets gives back tickets created in the past 30 days unless you say otherwise. To reach older tickets, add the updated_since option, or switch to Filter Tickets and give it a date range.
Why is my Freshdesk ticket count lower than I expected?
Archived tickets are not part of a Filter Tickets result. Freshdesk archives closed tickets that have been inactive for 120 days, where archiving applies, so add the archived ones through the archive endpoints.
Does the Freshdesk export include replies and private notes?
The account export covers tickets with their content, and the conversations address of the API returns the replies and notes of any one ticket. If the notes matter to you, check the XML for them, or use the API's Export Account call, which can include notes and attachments.
Do we need to export Freshdesk before we apply?
No. The application takes about two minutes and shares no data. You only need your approximate ticket count, your years of history and your number of agent licenses for the intro call. The full export is needed later, when the records are transferred after you sign the license.
What is Freshdesk data worth to AI labs and data vendors?
Freshdesk 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 tickets show each problem being solved. What your data is worth explains the factors.
Bottom line
Know what is in Freshdesk, 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.