Key takeaways
- Trello shows no card count, so the closest figure comes from a Workspace export (Settings > Export) whose CSV files you count, which needs a Workspace admin on Premium or Enterprise.
- Free and Standard Workspaces export one board at a time as JSON, and that file keeps only the 1,000 most recent actions, so older comments are lost; a board's CSV has no comments at all.
- Board CSV files leave out archived cards, and attachments arrive as links unless a Workspace export selects Include raw attachments.
- You don't need to export anything to apply: have your card count, years of history and seat count ready, and the data vendor anonymizes the records before any AI lab sees them.
01
What is Trello data, and why do AI labs and data vendors buy it?
The short answer
Trello data is the record of a team's task boards: every card, the list it sat in as work progressed, the comments on it and the log of who moved it and when. 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 card's trail from first request to finished job shows how a small team runs a process.
What a Trello Workspace records
Trello is a project-tracking app built around boards. A Workspace is a company's group of boards and members, and each board is a set of lists, usually laid out as columns such as "To do", "Doing" and "Done".
- Card
- One task or request, with a title, a description, a due date, the people assigned to it, checklists and attached files.
- List
- A column on the board. Moving a card from one list to the next shows that the work advanced a step.
- Comment
- A message a team member writes on a card, such as a question to a colleague or a note about a problem.
- Action
- One logged event on a board, such as a card being created, moved, assigned or commented on, with the person and the time.
Why a card's 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 finished project plan shows only the plan. A Trello board shows the work as it happened: the request arrives as a card, a person is assigned, the card moves across lists, and the comments record what went wrong along the way.
AI labs now want to train AI agents, software that carries out a job step by step, and coordinating tasks is a job an agent could learn. A data vendor can turn anonymized card histories into worked examples that an agent studies like an answer key. The full mechanism is in AI training data: why AI companies want your company's data.
How Trello fits into a dataset
Trello is usually one app among several in a company's dataset, alongside chat, email and documents. 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 Trello show how much data you have?
The short answer
Trello shows no card total and no storage figure anywhere. The most complete count comes from a Workspace export, which holds one CSV file per board, so you add up the card rows across those files. A Workspace export needs a Premium or Enterprise Workspace and a Workspace admin.
How to count your cards on Premium or Enterprise
The steps below produce one card count for the whole Workspace. The menu names come from Atlassian's Export data from Trello page.
- Sign in to Trello as a Workspace admin.
- From Trello home, choose the Workspace in the left sidebar, then open Settings and select Export.
- Create a new export. If the screen offers to include archived cards, turn that on, because archived cards can hold real history.
- Download the ZIP file and open the CSV file for each board.
- Count the card rows in every CSV and add the counts together.
How to count on Free or Standard
Workspace exports and board CSV files are Premium features, so a Free or Standard Workspace counts one board at a time. Any member of a board can do it, on any plan.
- Open a board and select the board menu, the three dots at the top right.
- Choose Print, Export, and Share, then pick the JSON export.
- Open the file and count the cards in it. A JSON viewer or Firefox, which Atlassian recommends for reading these files, makes the list easier to scan.
- Repeat for each board and add the counts.
What your plan and role decide
| Who | What they can export |
|---|---|
| Any board member, any plan | One board at a time, as JSON. |
| Any member of a Premium Workspace | One board at a time, as CSV. |
| Workspace admin on Premium or Enterprise | Every board in the Workspace, in both CSV and JSON. |
Trello's pricing page lists a simple data export as a Premium feature and shows Free with unlimited cards, so a Free plan can hold a lot of cards without being able to export them in one go.
Why the count can fall short
A board's CSV leaves out archived cards, so a count made only from board CSV files misses everything the team archived. Workspaces also cover only their own boards, so a board in a separate personal Workspace is not in the number unless you export it too. Cards sitting in a person's Trello Inbox cannot be exported until they are moved to a board.
03
What should you know about your Trello data before you apply?
The short answer
Have three facts ready: your total number of cards, the years your team has used Trello and the number of paid members in your Workspace. 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, and applying through micro1 shares no data.
The record count
The unit for Trello is records, and each card counts as one record. Include archived cards if they hold real history, such as finished jobs the team kept for reference.
The years of history
Count from the year your team created its oldest board. That board may be older than the Workspace you use today if the team moved boards between accounts.
The number of seats
A seat is one paid member of your Workspace. Count the people who pay for a place, not guests who were invited to a single board.
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 Trello history?
The short answer
A Workspace admin on Premium or Enterprise opens the Workspace's Settings, selects Export and creates an export that covers every board, adding raw attachments if the files are wanted. Trello delivers a ZIP file holding a CSV and a JSON version of each board. Free and Standard Workspaces can export one board at a time as JSON, which keeps only the latest 1,000 actions.
The full Workspace export
Only a Workspace admin can create and download this export, and the Workspace has to be on Premium or Enterprise, as Atlassian's export page describes.
- Sign in to Trello as a Workspace admin and, from Trello home, choose the Workspace.
- Open Settings, then select Export.
- Select Create new export. Turn on the option to include archived cards if the screen shows it, and select Include raw attachments if you want the attached files themselves.
- When the export is ready, download the ZIP. It holds a CSV and a JSON version of every board.
Without the raw attachments option, the export contains links to files hosted on Trello and not the files. With it, the files arrive in their original formats inside the ZIP.
Exporting one board on any plan
- Open the board and select the board menu.
- Choose Print, Export, and Share, then select an export option.
- On a Premium Workspace, the options include CSV. On every plan, JSON is available.
To bring archived cards into a board's CSV, open the board, type .csv at the end of the board's address in the browser's address bar and press Enter. The file that downloads holds both open and archived cards.
What each export format keeps
The formats differ most on comments. A board's JSON holds only the 1,000 most recent actions on the board, and comments are stored as actions, so on a long-running board the older comments are gone. A board's CSV has no comments at all, and the Workspace export is Atlassian's recommended route to the full set of comments. The diagram shows the same four kinds of content for a single board CSV and for the Workspace export.
What Trello's export leaves out
Trello's page says it is not currently possible to import a JSON or CSV file to rebuild a board, so an export is a record to keep and not a backup to restore from. Atlassian's help page describes the archived-cards option only for the board CSV address trick, so if your Workspace export screen shows no such option, export the boards you care about with that trick as well.
A board that lives in a different Workspace, such as a personal one, is not covered until someone exports it from that Workspace. Cards in the Trello Inbox, a personal holding area for quick notes, have to be moved to a board before any export can include them.
Sources: Atlassian Support, Export data from Trello, and Trello pricing. Steps checked against these pages in November 2026.
05
What stays private when Trello data is licensed?
The short answer
The company decides which Workspaces and boards 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 data, and the license covers defined material for a defined use.
You choose what is in scope
An export is made per Workspace, so a board in a separate personal or private Workspace stays out until someone exports it. Inside a Workspace, the company can leave out any board, such as one used for hiring or private finances.
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. In a Trello export, the details are mainly member names on cards and comments. The order of the work, from request through each list to done, still reads in sequence, which is what a lab learns from. The method 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
Can we export Trello data on the Free plan?
Yes, but only one board at a time as JSON. Board CSV files and the full Workspace export need a Premium or Enterprise Workspace.
Does a Trello JSON export include comments?
Yes, but only the comments that fall within the board's 1,000 most recent actions, so older comments on a busy board are missing. A board's CSV leaves comments out completely, and a Workspace export is the route to the full set.
Are attachments included in a Trello export?
Only as links by default. When a Workspace admin creates a Workspace export, selecting Include raw attachments puts the original files in the ZIP.
How many cards does our Trello account hold?
Trello doesn't show a total, so you count it. Add up the card rows in the board CSV files from a Premium Workspace export, or on Free and Standard count the cards in each board's JSON export.
Why are the archived cards missing from our Trello CSV?
A board's CSV leaves out archived cards by design. Typing .csv at the end of the board's address and pressing Enter downloads a file with both open and archived cards.
Do we need to export Trello before we apply?
No. The application takes about two minutes and shares no data. You only need your card count, your years of history and your seat count for the intro call, and the export comes later, after you sign the license.
What is Trello data worth to AI labs and data vendors?
Card 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 job. What your data is worth explains the factors.
Bottom line
Know what is in Trello, 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.