Key takeaways
- Zendesk shows no storage figure, so you count tickets with an Explore report on the Support - Tickets dataset (Editor or Admin on Professional and above) or with the ticket count API, which any agent can call.
- An admin exports from Admin Center > Account > Tools > Reports > Export, but the option is off by default: the account owner must ask Zendesk Customer Support to enable it, and Team plans do not include it.
- JSON (NDJSON) is the format that keeps ticket comments; CSV drops comments and descriptions, and XML stops at 500 MB, about 200,000 tickets. Attachments come as links, not files.
- You don't need to export anything to apply: have your ticket count, years of history and agent seats ready, and the data vendor anonymizes the records before any AI lab sees them.
01
What is Zendesk data, and why do AI labs and data vendors buy it?
The short answer
Zendesk data is the history of customer support requests a company handles in Zendesk, its help-desk software: each ticket holds the customer's problem in their own words, every reply from the support team and the final status. 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 shows a real problem being solved from the first message to the last.
What a Zendesk account records
A help desk is software where customers send questions and a support team answers them. Zendesk calls each request a ticket, and every ticket has a comment thread: the customer's message, the agent's replies (an agent is a member of the support team) and private notes the agents write for each other that the customer never sees.
Tickets also carry structure, such as tags, custom fields (extra fields the company added), priority, the group of agents assigned and timestamps for every change.
Why a support 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 support ticket is a complete example, because it shows the question, the steps the agent took and the way the matter ended. Because of the tags and custom fields, a dataset can be grouped by product, kind of issue or result with no one having to read each conversation.
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. An agent learns the job from records of it being done, and the full mechanism is in AI training data: why AI companies want your company's data.
How Zendesk fits into a dataset
Zendesk 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 Zendesk show how much data you have?
The short answer
Zendesk shows no storage figure, so the measure is a ticket count. An Explore Editor or Admin builds a Count of tickets report on the Support - Tickets dataset, which needs a Professional or Enterprise plan, and any agent can read an approximate total from the ticket count API. Explore is Zendesk's reporting tool.
How to count tickets in Explore
The steps below build a one-number report. The same dataset and metric appear in Zendesk's Explore ticket-count recipe.
- Sign in to Zendesk with the Editor or Admin role in Explore.
- Open the Explore reports library and choose New report.
- Pick Support > Support - Tickets as the dataset and choose Start report.
- In Metrics, choose Add, then Tickets > Tickets, then Apply. The report now shows COUNT(Tickets) for the account.
- If you add a date filter, set it to cover the entire life of the account so older tickets are counted.
How to get an approximate count without Explore
An agent can call the address GET /api/v2/tickets/count on the company's Zendesk subdomain. It returns an approximate count, and once the account passes 100,000 tickets, the number refreshes only every 24 hours.
Which plan and role you need
The two ways of counting have different requirements, so pick the one that matches your plan.
| Method | Plan | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Explore report | Professional, Enterprise or Enterprise Plus | Editor or Admin in Explore |
| Ticket count API | Any plan | Any agent |
03
What should you know about your Zendesk 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 seats 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. You don't need to run an export to find them.
The ticket count
The ticket total is the right measure of volume, because each ticket carries its own comment thread and counting individual comments would overstate it. Give the data vendor the number from your Explore report or the API count, and say which one it is.
The years of history
In the same Explore report, add the year each ticket was created as a row and find the earliest year with any tickets. If you cannot build the report, the date the Zendesk account was opened is a reasonable fallback.
The number of seats
A seat is a paid agent license on the Zendesk subscription. 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 Zendesk history?
The short answer
An admin opens Admin Center > Account > Tools > Reports, goes to the Export tab and starts a JSON ticket export for the full date range. The option is off until the account owner asks Zendesk Customer Support to enable it, and it exists only on Suite plans and Support Professional or Enterprise. Zendesk emails a link to the finished file, and the link works for at least three days.
Which plans include account data export
The export is part of every Suite plan (Growth, Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus) and of Support Professional and Support Enterprise. Team plans do not include it. Zendesk's guide to exporting ticket, user and organization data lists the plans.
The steps
- Confirm the plan. If the export option is missing, the account owner must ask Zendesk Customer Support to enable account data exports, giving the account's subdomain.
- Log in as an admin, go to Admin Center > Account > Tools > Reports and select the Export tab.
- Start the JSON ticket export and set the date range to cover everything. Zendesk writes NDJSON, a file with one ticket on each line, which it recommends once an account passes 200,000 tickets.
- Wait for the email with the download link. A large export can take a day or more, and the link remains valid for at least three days.
Why JSON is the format to pick
JSON is Zendesk's native format and the only one that reliably keeps the comments on each ticket. A CSV export drops deleted tickets, comments, descriptions and any multi-line or multi-select fields. An XML export tops out at 500 MB, about 200,000 tickets, and Zendesk does not offer it to larger accounts.
Size limits and what is skipped
When one ticket holds more than 1 MB of data, its comments are left out of the export, and Zendesk names that ticket in a separate file so you can find it. Accounts with over 1 million tickets get the JSON export in 31-day segments. Tickets handled by AI agents are excluded.
How attachments are handled
The export does not contain attachment files, only a link to each one, and the files themselves must be downloaded through the Zendesk API, as Zendesk's guide to downloading attachments explains. On accounts created after December 5, 2024, or accounts that use messaging, private attachment links expire quickly and need authentication, so a developer should download them straight away.
The incremental export API
Admins have another route in the incremental export API, which reads records in batches. Each page holds up to 1,000 records and the rate is roughly 10 requests a minute. The ticket events export can carry the full comment text when it is asked to.
Sources: Zendesk Help, Exporting ticket, user, or organization data from your account, How can I download all attachments in a ticket? and Explore recipe: Count of tickets, and the Incremental Exports API reference. Steps checked against these pages in November 2026.
05
What stays private when Zendesk data is licensed?
The short answer
The company decides which brands, agent groups or ticket forms 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 Zendesk data, and the license covers defined records for a defined use.
You choose what is in scope
Tickets from a sensitive queue, such as human resources or legal, can stay out of the dataset entirely. A company can license the tickets from its customer-facing support brand and keep the rest. 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
Why can't we find the data export option in Zendesk?
Zendesk ships with exports disabled. The account owner must request activation from Zendesk Customer Support, and only Suite plans and Support Professional or Enterprise have the feature. Once it is on, admins and custom roles that hold export permission can run it.
Does the Zendesk export include attachments?
No. The JSON export holds a link to each attachment, not the file, so the files must be downloaded through the Zendesk API. On newer accounts those links expire quickly, so download them right after you fetch each one.
Which Zendesk export format should we use for AI training data?
JSON, because it keeps the comments on each ticket. CSV loses comments and descriptions, and XML cannot go past 500 MB, which is about 200,000 tickets.
How long will a Zendesk export take us?
The time ranges from a few minutes to more than a day, depending on how many tickets there are and how wide the date range is. A link arrives by email when the file is done and works for at least three days.
Are tickets handled by AI agents in the export?
No. Zendesk excludes tickets handled by AI agents from the account export, so the file holds only tickets worked by people.
Do we need to export Zendesk 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 seats for the intro call, and an Explore report or the ticket count API gives you the first. The full export is needed later, when the records are transferred after you sign the license.
What is Zendesk data worth to AI labs and data vendors?
Zendesk 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 Zendesk, 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.