Slack is changing its free plan, impacting how long messages and files are saved. Starting August 26, 2024, free Slack workspaces will only retain 90 days of message and file history. Anything older than that will be deleted. While free users previously had access to a larger portion of their history, this change significantly reduces the accessible timeframe.
This change, announced in a Slack Help Center blog post, means free users will lose access to messages and files older than three months. While most of the recent 90-day history will be retained, the remaining 275 days of the previous year-long retention period will become inaccessible. Importantly, even upgrading to a paid plan after the August 26th deadline won’t recover deleted content.
Slack states this adjustment is necessary to “maintain the quality of Slack for our customers.” This move likely aims to encourage free users to upgrade to one of Slack’s paid plans, which offer more extensive history retention options.
Organizations enrolled in the Slack for Charities program can access discounted or free upgrades to the Pro, Business+, or Enterprise Grid plans. The Pro plan typically costs $8.75 per user per month, while Business+ is $15 per user per month. Pricing for the Enterprise Grid plan requires contacting Slack’s sales team.
Besides the free plan changes, Slack also announced other updates in June, including personalization options for the Home tab. These updates allow paid users to customize quick access to features like Catch Up and Threads. Paid plans also offer flexible data retention policies, enabling users to choose how long their messages are stored, from keeping everything indefinitely to automatically deleting them after a set period.
Slack Computer Graphic.
This shift to a shorter retention period for free Slack users could considerably affect teams relying on the platform for ongoing projects and communication. The reduced access to historical data might disrupt workflows and knowledge sharing for those who depend on the free version. It remains to be seen what further changes free users might encounter and whether this change will drive more users towards premium subscriptions.
