Key takeaways
- Salesforce shows data storage and file storage on Setup > Storage Usage, with a breakdown by object, so your record total comes from adding up the objects that carry business history.
- A System Administrator exports everything from Setup > Data Export with Include all data, and Salesforce emails a link to zip files of CSV data that stay available for 48 hours.
- Enterprise, Performance and Unlimited editions can export every 7 days and other editions every 29 days; the Recycle Bin and formula and roll-up fields are never included, and files come only if you tick them.
- You don't need to export anything to apply: have your record count, file storage, years of history and user count ready, and the data vendor anonymizes the records before any AI lab sees them.
01
What is Salesforce data, and why do AI labs and data vendors buy it?
The short answer
Salesforce data is the record a company keeps of its customers and sales in Salesforce, a customer relationship management (CRM) system: accounts, contacts, deals, support cases and the activities logged against them. 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 Salesforce stores each deal and each case from first contact to final outcome, with every stage change dated.
What a Salesforce org records
A CRM system is software where a company records who its customers are and what has happened with each one. A company's own Salesforce space is called an org, and an org stores information in objects, which are tables for one kind of thing, such as Accounts (the customer companies), Contacts (the people at them), Leads (possible customers not yet qualified), Opportunities (deals in progress) and Cases (customer problems).
Each row in an object is a record. Salesforce also logs Tasks (to-do items) and Events (calendar entries) against those records, so a single account carries a trail of the calls, meetings and follow-ups that happened around it.
Why a deal 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 sales pipeline is a good source because every opportunity records its stage changes, its amount and its close date, and the opportunity ends as won or lost. A model that studies thousands of them can learn which early signals went with deals that closed.
A support case works the same way, because it keeps the customer's report, the steps taken and the resolution together. Custom objects, which a company builds for its own process (quotes, installations or renewals, for example), often hold the most specific information in the org about how that business works.
AI labs now also 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. The full mechanism is in AI training data: why AI companies want your company's data.
How Salesforce fits into a dataset
Salesforce 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 Salesforce show how much data you have?
The short answer
Salesforce shows storage on the Storage Usage page in Setup, which a user with the System Administrator profile opens by typing Storage Usage into the Quick Find box. The page reports how much data storage and file storage the org uses, and it breaks the data storage down by object. Adding up the record counts of the objects that carry your business history gives the total.
How to read your storage and record counts
The steps below read the size of an org from Salesforce's own storage page, which Salesforce documents in its storage-monitoring article.
- Sign in to Salesforce as a user with the System Administrator profile, which is the safest way to be sure the page is visible.
- Open Setup, type Storage Usage into the Quick Find box and choose Storage Usage.
- Read the data storage and file storage sections. Each one gives the org's limit, the amount used and the share of the limit that is in use.
- Scroll to the breakdown by record type. It shows how much storage each object takes, then the users who store the most and the largest files.
- Add up the record counts of the objects that carry business history (Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, Cases, Tasks and Events) to get your total records.
What the Storage Usage page shows
The page has several parts, and each answers a different question about the size of the org.
| Part of the page | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Data storage | The limit, the amount used and the percentage in use for the records in the org. |
| File storage | The same three figures for attachments, Files, Salesforce CRM Content, Chatter files and Documents. |
| Breakdown by record type | How much storage each object, such as Opportunities or Cases, uses. |
| Top users and largest files | Who stores the most, and which single files take the most space. |
Why the storage figure is only a cross-check
Most records use about 2 KB of data storage, so dividing the data storage figure by 2 KB gives a rough check on the record count. Records vary in size, though, so a storage figure confirms that your sum is the right size without replacing it. The number to report comes from adding up the objects you plan to share.
03
What should you know about your Salesforce data before you apply?
The short answer
Have four facts ready: how many records your org holds, how much file storage it uses, how many years it covers and how many active users it 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 and the file storage
Salesforce is measured in records, and the total is the sum of the objects you listed in the last step above. File storage is separate, so write down the figure in GB beside the record count. Attachments and Files can be part of a Data Export, and a large file store tells the data vendor that the dataset carries more than rows of text.
The years of history
Run a report on Accounts or Opportunities, sort it by Created Date with the oldest first, and note the year of the first record. If the org was migrated from an older CRM, the oldest Created Date can be the migration date, and in that case the original dates may sit in a custom field.
The number of seats
The seat count is the number of active users who hold a Salesforce license. Deactivated users and people who only receive reports by email are not 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 the org. 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 Salesforce history?
The short answer
A user with the Weekly Data Export permission, which the System Administrator profile has by default, opens Setup > Data Export, chooses Include all data and starts the export. Salesforce emails a link when its zip files of CSV data are ready, and they stay available for 48 hours. How often you can run it depends on the edition, from every 7 days to every 29 days.
Who can run Data Export
Only users with the Weekly Data Export permission can use the service, and by default only the System Administrator profile has it. Salesforce sends the completion email to the user who scheduled the export, so that user must stay active in the org, as the Data Export FAQ explains.
The steps
- Sign in as a System Administrator, open Setup, type Data Export into Quick Find and choose Data Export.
- Press Export Now to build the files straight away, or Schedule Export to repeat the export at a regular interval. Export Now appears only after enough time has passed since your last export.
- Pick the file encoding. To include binary content, tick the options for images, documents and attachments and for Salesforce Files and Salesforce CRM Content document versions. Tick Replace carriage returns with spaces if another system will load the CSV files.
- Tick Include all data so that every object is exported, then start the export.
- When the files are ready, Salesforce emails the person who requested the export with a link. Download each zip file from it within 48 hours.
How often you can export, by edition
An edition is the tier of Salesforce a company pays for, and it decides how soon you can run another export.
| Edition | How often you can export |
|---|---|
| Enterprise, Performance and Unlimited | Every 7 days. |
| Professional, Developer and other editions | A manual run every 29 days, or a monthly schedule. |
| Database.com | No access to Data Export. |
File sizes, timing and the 48-hour window
Each zip file is about 512 MB, so a large org receives several, and one very large uploaded file of up to 2 GB can make a zip bigger than that. The files stay available for 48 hours after completion, and Salesforce removes them sooner if anyone queues a new export. Missing the window means waiting until the interval above allows another run.
Salesforce offers no service-level guarantee for the export, and a large one can take more than a week. Start it early and keep the requesting user's account active.
What Data Export includes and leaves out
The export covers active and archived records with their standard and custom fields. It leaves out the Recycle Bin, which holds deleted records that can still be recovered, and it always leaves out formula fields and roll-up summary fields, which Salesforce calculates from other data. Attachments and Files come only if you tick those options, as the diagram shows.
Data Loader, for one object at a time
Data Loader is Salesforce's tool for exporting a single object to CSV, and its Export All option includes soft-deleted records, meaning records in the Recycle Bin that can still be recovered. It handles up to 5 million records with the Bulk API and up to 150 million with Bulk API 2.0, as the Trailhead lesson on data export methods describes.
Sources: Salesforce Help, Data Export FAQ and How to monitor data and file storage usage, and Trailhead, Learn data export methods and steps for Salesforce. Steps checked against these pages in November 2026.
05
What stays private when Salesforce data is licensed?
The short answer
The company decides which objects 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 Salesforce data, and the license covers defined records for a defined use.
You choose what is in scope
Data Export lets you choose which kinds of data to include, so an object that holds sensitive fields can be left out before the files are built. A company can license its Opportunities and Cases and keep other objects out. 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 case 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 support case 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
Which Salesforce user can run a Data Export?
A user with the Weekly Data Export permission, and only the System Administrator profile has it by default. Salesforce sends the completion email to the user who scheduled the export, so that person's account must stay active until the files arrive.
How often can we run a Salesforce Data Export?
Every 7 days on Enterprise, Performance and Unlimited editions, and every 29 days (or on a monthly schedule) on the other editions, such as Professional and Developer. Database.com has no access to the service.
What if we miss the 48-hour download window for a Salesforce export?
Salesforce deletes the files, and you start a new export once the waiting period for your edition has passed. Salesforce also removes the files early if someone queues a new export, so only one person should run it.
Are deleted records and attachments in a Salesforce export?
Deleted records in the Recycle Bin are not in Data Export, though Data Loader's Export All option includes soft-deleted ones. Attachments, Files and Documents come only if you tick those options before starting the export.
Do we need to export Salesforce before we apply?
No. The application takes about two minutes and shares no data. You only need your approximate record count, your file storage in GB, your years of history and your number of active users for the intro call, and Setup > Storage Usage gives you the first two. The full export is needed later, when the records are transferred after you sign the license.
Can we leave out objects that hold sensitive information?
Yes. The company chooses which objects are in scope, and Data Export lets you pick the data types to include, so sensitive objects can stay out of the files entirely.
What is Salesforce data worth to AI labs and data vendors?
Salesforce 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 and case. What your data is worth explains the factors.
Bottom line
Know what is in Salesforce, 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.