Find how much you have
Sign in with export permissions and list the CRM objects you actually use. HubSpot's backups cover contacts, companies, deals, tickets, custom objects, products, calls, conversations and tasks, so start there and add anything else you rely on.
HubSpot's help pages on viewing and filtering records do not say where an index page shows a total, so count from a file. Open the object (CRM, then Contacts, for example, which may sit under More) and its All view, which HubSpot says is the view to use when exporting every record of an object. Add no filter except the date range you want to cover, click Export in the top right of the table, choose CSV and export. Count the rows. A large export can take a few hours and arrive as several files in a zip, so add up the rows across the files.
For a whole-account snapshot, click the settings icon, choose Backup & Restore under Data management, and create a manual backup. This needs Super Admin permissions and a paid Starter, Professional or Enterprise subscription. Starter and Professional allow a backup once a week, and Enterprise once every 24 hours. HubSpot delivers a zip with one CSV per object, and an object with no records produces no file, so count the rows in each CSV. Changes made while a backup is processing may not appear in it.
A developer can read counts without exports. The example responses in HubSpot's CRM Search API guide carry a top-level total field. The guide caps results at 200 per page and 10,000 per query, allows five requests per second per account, and says archived records do not appear in search results. Read the total rather than paging, and cross-check it against an export, because the guide does not say whether the total itself stops at 10,000.
Find your start date by including the Create date property in the export and sorting it, oldest first. HubSpot describes Create date as the date a record was created in your HubSpot account, set automatically, so records you imported from another system probably show the date they came into HubSpot and not their original dates. Say so in the description if that applies.
Activities are separate. HubSpot says record exports do not include them. Calls and tasks are objects you can count from a backup, but notes, meetings and logged emails have no documented bulk count. From a contact's Actions menu you can export that one contact's data with the Contact activities box ticked, so do that for five or six contacts of different ages, average the results, multiply by your contact count and mark the figure Estimated.
What to put on your intake
Your intake has five boxes for each system. Here is what goes in each one for HubSpot.
- What does it hold?
- Contacts, companies, deals and tickets with their properties, owners and associations, plus calls, tasks and logged activity such as notes and emails. Say which objects you really use and whether deals run through a pipeline.
- Data types
- Structured records and Text for record properties, notes and email bodies. Leave Audio unticked, because the pages we read do not describe exporting call recordings.
- How big is it?
- Choose Records as the unit and enter the combined count across the objects in scope. Put per-object counts, for example contacts, companies and deals, in the description so a buyer sees the shape.
- Verified or estimated
- Verified when each count is the row count of a full export or a backup CSV, or the total from the Search API, with the same filters used throughout. Estimated when you worked from a saved view, a single object or memory. Activity counts are usually Estimated.
- Records start
- The earliest Create date on your main object. If you imported records from another CRM, say so, because their Create date can reflect the import and your real history may reach further back.
Exporting the full history
If a buyer licenses your records, this is how the full history comes out of HubSpot.
Nothing is exported until you have signed a license and agreed the scope: which objects, which date range, whether associations and activities are in, and which properties. The steps below show what to expect.
Record exports. On each object's page, click Export in the top right of the table, choose CSV, XLS or XLSX, and under Customize choose All properties on records, with or without associations. HubSpot lists Record ID first and the rest alphabetically. Export permissions are required, and download links expire after 30 days.
Plan around the limits. HubSpot allows 300 exports in a rolling 24 hours with up to three running at once, splits CSV or XLSX files over 1,000,000 rows into several files, and zips CSV files over 2 MB. XLS allows 256 columns and XLSX 16,384, and extra columns are dropped, so use CSV for wide objects. Associations default to 1,000 associated record IDs per column, and the All associated records option is for CSV only.
Backup & Restore. A Super Admin can create a backup that delivers a zip of one CSV per object. The download window is 14 days. Recurring schedules need an Enterprise subscription, and HubSpot says backups do not include associations or activity data.
Activities and history. HubSpot points to custom reports or the Engagements API for sales activity such as calls and meetings, and its page gives no clear bulk path for notes or standalone emails. It lists properties and property history as exportable through separate steps, and a single contact's export includes default properties with their historical values. Tell us which history you need before you plan it.
API route, with care. HubSpot files its Exports API guide under its legacy API reference, so your developer should check for a newer version first. The API exports an index page view or a list as CSV, XLS or XLSX and returns a download link. The app needs the crm.export scope, and with OAuth the installing user must be a Super Admin to grant it. HubSpot allows thirty exports in a rolling 24 hours, one at a time. The link expires after five minutes and works for anyone who holds it, so handle it carefully. Read the developer terms caveat below first.
Contact, company and owner identifiers come out before anything is delivered to a buyer.
We only ask for an export after you sign a license and agree the scope. Sizing your data for the intake never needs one.
Limits to know
- There is no documented total on the screen. HubSpot's help pages for viewing and filtering records do not say where a record count appears, so use an export, a backup or the Search API for your number.
- Export limits differ between routes. The screen allows 300 exports per rolling 24 hours with three at once, while the CRM Exports API allows thirty per rolling 24 hours, one at a time. Extra requests are queued.
- Record exports leave out activities, and backups leave out associations as well as activity data. A backup also contains sensitive-data properties, so HubSpot says to store the file securely.
- Deleted records are restorable only for a time. HubSpot says you can restore deleted records up to 90 days after deletion, up to 10,000 at a time, and that permanent deletions cannot be restored and may take up to 30 days to be purged. A count taken now does not include records deleted earlier.
- API limits depend on your plan. For privately distributed apps HubSpot lists 100 requests per 10 seconds and 250,000 per day for Free and Starter, 190 per 10 seconds and 625,000 per day for Professional, and 190 per 10 seconds and 1,000,000 per day for Enterprise. Apps that go over get 429 errors. The Search API has its own stricter limits.
- Developer terms may limit what API data can be used for. HubSpot's Developer Terms, last modified May 4, 2026, cover a Customer building a solution for its own use. Section 4.B.8 bars using Customer Data or Content to train or otherwise develop any AI or machine learning model, product or service. The only exception is a model trained on one customer's data, with that customer's express permission, for that customer's exclusive benefit. Section 4.C.1 requires express permission from each customer before sharing their data with third parties. The terms cover use of HubSpot's developer tools, and we found nothing that addresses in-app exports, so ask HubSpot in writing and tell us before you run any API pull. This is not legal advice.
- HubSpot's Customer Terms of Service, last modified September 16, 2026, say you own and retain all rights to your Customer Data. Section 5.3.1 also lets HubSpot use Customer Data to develop its AI features and train its AI models, and you can opt out of the model training in your account settings. Keep that in mind if a buyer asks for exclusivity.
- Leaving HubSpot is a retention cliff. HubSpot's Product Specific Terms, last modified September 16, 2026, say that for the Smart CRM, the Free Services and the Hubs covered by their Other Hubs section, HubSpot will not provide any access to Customer Data after the subscription term ends, and they strongly recommend retrieving it first. Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise (Marketing Contacts) allow a written request within 30 days, and a re-activation fee may apply. Export before your term ends. This is not legal advice.
This guide isn't legal advice. Check your contracts, and any recording-consent rules that apply, with your own lawyer.
Why buyers value it
A CRM records how a relationship with a buyer develops. HubSpot ties each contact and company to an owner, a deal that moves through stages, and the calls, tasks and notes logged along the way. Buyers building sales, marketing-operations and customer-success agents want that chain from first touch to outcome, across many reps and many campaigns.
Closed-lost deals and contacts that never converted are as valuable as the wins, because they show the follow-up that did not work. Long runs of consistent property history let a buyer compare how leads were sourced, how quickly they were worked and what finally closed, which public data almost never shows.
What stays private
Buyers see de-identified operating records, not your contacts. Under the license, identifiers are removed before delivery. The de-identification step removes or excludes:
- People and companies: names, email addresses, phone numbers, mailing addresses and social profile links on contacts, along with company names and domains that point to a specific customer.
- Message content: the text of notes, logged emails, call notes and task descriptions, which often carry personal circumstances, pricing and negotiation detail. Counts, timing and outcomes can stay; the words are scrubbed or left out.
- Financial and sensitive properties: payment details, account numbers and any properties you have marked as sensitive data.
- Your team: the names of reps and owners, and anything about their pay, quotas or commissions.
- Third-party content: enriched data and purchased lists from outside providers, which may carry their own terms. Check those agreements before listing them in scope.
Your user list, login history, integration credentials and account settings are not part of the license.
Common questions
Sources
Vendor documentation, checked . Screens and plans change, so if a step looks different in your account, check with HubSpot.
- HubSpot Knowledge Base: Export your records (opens in a new tab)
- HubSpot Knowledge Base: Export your content and data (opens in a new tab)
- HubSpot Knowledge Base: Export contact data (opens in a new tab)
- HubSpot Knowledge Base: Back up CRM data (opens in a new tab)
- HubSpot Knowledge Base: Restore deleted records (opens in a new tab)
- HubSpot Knowledge Base: View and filter records (opens in a new tab)
- HubSpot Knowledge Base: HubSpot's default contact properties (opens in a new tab)
- HubSpot Developers: API usage guidelines and limits (opens in a new tab)
- HubSpot Developers: Search the CRM (opens in a new tab)
- HubSpot Developers: Exports (legacy reference) (opens in a new tab)
- HubSpot Legal: Developer Terms (opens in a new tab)
- HubSpot Legal: Customer Terms of Service (opens in a new tab)
- HubSpot Legal: Product Specific Terms (opens in a new tab)