Find how much you have
Start with Setup. Enter Storage Usage in the Quick Find box and open it. Salesforce says the page shows data and file storage limits, the storage in use per record type and the top users by storage. Salesforce's description covers storage in use and not record counts, and the page shows current usage only, so use it to see which objects dominate before you count them. Person accounts count against both account and contact storage, and archived activities count against storage too.
Count each object with a report. Open or build a report on one object, add no filters except the dates you want to cover, and run it. Salesforce says the report header on the run page shows key metrics that include record counts, and toggles in the report footer show or hide the count of rows and the grand total. Repeat for each object in scope and add the numbers up.
A developer or administrator can count the same way with a query. SELECT COUNT() FROM Opportunity returns the number of rows, and Salesforce says the count comes back in the size field of the query result. COUNT() has to be the only item in the SELECT list, and you can add a WHERE clause to restrict the dates.
Count tasks and events with care. Salesforce says Data Loader's Export returns active activities only, and that Export All also returns archived tasks and events, which you can isolate with the condition IsArchived equals TRUE. It adds that reports show archived activities only for a limited number of days unless Salesforce Support enables its Archive Days extension. Tasks and events are separate objects, so count each one.
Find your start date by running a report on your main object and sorting it by created date, oldest first, using the sort option in a column's action menu. If you loaded older records in from another CRM, check whether they carry their original dates and say so in the description.
For files, Salesforce says file storage covers attachments, Files home, CRM Content, Chatter files and the Documents tab, and the Storage Usage description covers space used, not a count of files. We found no account-wide count of files, so open five or six records of different ages, average their files, multiply by your record 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 Salesforce.
- What does it hold?
- Leads, contacts, accounts, opportunities and cases with their stages and owners, plus activity (tasks, events and logged emails), notes, campaign membership and any custom objects. Say which objects you really use, and whether you track field history.
- Data types
- Structured records and Text for record fields, notes, email messages and case descriptions. Add Image only if attachments or Salesforce Files are in scope. Leave Audio and Video unticked, since call recordings usually live in a separate system that you can add as its own entry.
- How big is it?
- Choose Records as the unit and enter the combined count across the objects in scope. Put the per-object counts, for example leads, opportunities and cases, in the description so a buyer sees the shape.
- Verified or estimated
- Verified when each count comes from a report or a COUNT() query with no filter beyond your date range, and activities were counted with Export All. Estimated when you worked from storage use, one object or memory.
- Records start
- The earliest created date on your main object. Note separately that standard field history only reaches back about 18 to 24 months, so change history will start later than the records themselves.
Exporting the full history
If a buyer licenses your records, this is how the full history comes out of Salesforce.
Nothing is exported until you have signed a license and agreed the scope: which objects, which date range, whether activity and email text are in, and whether attachments and Files are in. The steps below show what to expect.
Data Export Service, the broadest route. In Setup, enter Data Export in the Quick Find box and choose Export Now or Schedule Export. The user needs the Weekly Data Export permission. Choose an encoding, tick the options for images, documents, attachments and Salesforce Files if they are in scope, and select Include all data or specific objects. Salesforce emails a link to the user who ran it, and the files are CSVs in a zip. A large org gets several zips of up to about 512 MB each.
Download promptly. Salesforce says users download one file at a time with a 60 second wait between downloads, and that zip files are deleted 48 hours after the email is sent, not counting weekends. Only active users can run export jobs, and Salesforce says it cannot guarantee when an export will finish.
Data Loader, for filtered pulls of one object. Click Export, or Export All to include archived activities and soft-deleted records, choose the object, write a SOQL query with the fields and date conditions you need, and save a CSV. Salesforce says Data Loader does not export attachments, so use the Data Export Service for those.
Change history. Salesforce says standard field history is kept for 18 to 24 months. Customers with Field Audit Trail can keep it until deleted in the FieldHistoryArchive big object, which is read through the API only. If you have it, tell us which objects it covers.
API route, with care. A developer can query objects through Salesforce's APIs within the org's daily allocation. Read the API terms caveat below first, and keep any pull in-house until we have agreed it.
Contact, account and lead 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
Retention warning
Salesforce keeps standard field history (the log of who changed which field and when) for only 18 to 24 months unless you pay for Field Audit Trail, so older change history may already be gone.
- Data Export has a waiting period. Salesforce says you can generate backup files manually once every 7 days for weekly exports or every 29 days for monthly ones. Weekly export is available in Enterprise, Performance and Unlimited Editions. Professional and Developer Editions can generate files only every 29 days, and heavy traffic can delay delivery.
- The export leaves some things out or cuts them short. Salesforce says formula and roll-up summary fields are always excluded, Chatter posts and comments are exported up to 1,000 characters, and the service is not supported in sandboxes. If you use person accounts, contact data includes only the fields that contacts and person accounts share.
- Include all data selects the objects that exist when you tick it, and Salesforce says a recurring export has to be reselected to pick up newly created objects.
- Field history is short by default. Salesforce says Field History Tracking keeps 18 to 24 months and tracks up to 20 fields per object, while Field Audit Trail keeps history until deleted and tracks up to 200 fields. Without Field Audit Trail, older change history may already be gone. Deleting a record does not delete its copy in the archive.
- Archived activities need separate handling. Salesforce says Data Loader's plain Export does not return them, and reports reach them only for a limited number of days unless Support enables the Archive Days extension.
- Data Loader has gaps. Salesforce says it does not export attachments, errors on compound fields unless you pick their individual components, and does not support nested queries, child-object queries or polymorphic relationships.
- API use is metered. Salesforce lists 15,000 calls per 24 hours for a Developer Edition org, and for Enterprise Edition 100,000 plus a per-license allowance and any purchased add-ons. Production orgs also allow 25 concurrent requests lasting 20 seconds or longer, and calls from installed managed packages count against the same total.
- API terms may limit what API data can be used for. Salesforce's APIs License and Terms of Service, last updated July 20, 2026, say they apply to API access in any capacity. Section 11.2 says a Customer's use of the APIs for its own benefit is governed by its Main Services Agreement, while developer activity falls under the API terms, and a Customer can also be a Developer. For developers, Section 3.5 requires explicit, specific consent from the Customer before scraping, building databases or keeping non-transient copies of its data, or before using, sharing or monetizing that data for anyone else's benefit. The terms do not say which case covers a pull made so the data can be licensed, so start with Data Export and reports, ask Salesforce in writing before relying on API pulls, and tell us before you run one. This is not legal advice.
- Leaving Salesforce is a retention cliff. The Main Services Agreement, last updated September 1, 2026, says that if you ask within 30 days after termination or expiry, Salesforce will make your Customer Data available for export or download, and after that period it has no obligation to keep it and will delete it. Export before you cancel.
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 deal is won or lost. Salesforce ties each lead, account and opportunity to an owner, a stage that moves over time, activity such as tasks, events and logged emails, and an outcome. Buyers building sales, forecasting and customer-support agents want that chain from first contact to close, across many reps and many quarters.
Lost and stalled opportunities matter as much as won ones, because they show what did not work, which published data almost never does. Years of consistent stage history also let a buyer compare lead sources, response times and sales cycles against real outcomes, and a long run of case records shows how support work is actually handled.
What stays private
Buyers see de-identified operating records, not your customers. Under the license, identifiers are removed before delivery. The de-identification step removes or excludes:
- People and companies: names, email addresses, phone numbers and mailing addresses on leads, contacts and accounts, including opportunity and case names that contain a customer's name.
- Message content: the text of notes, email messages, task descriptions and case comments, which often carry personal circumstances, pricing and negotiation detail. Counts, timing and outcomes can stay; the words are scrubbed or left out.
- Financial identifiers: payment details, bank details and any account numbers typed into notes or custom fields.
- Your team: the names of reps and managers, and anything about their pay, quotas or commissions.
- Third-party content: purchased lead lists and data supplied by outside providers, which may carry their own terms. Check those agreements before listing them in scope.
- Files: attachments and Salesforce Files are excluded unless a specific package is agreed.
Your user list, login history, integration credentials and org 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 Salesforce.
- Salesforce Help: Export Backup Data from Salesforce (opens in a new tab)
- Salesforce Help: Data and Storage Resources (opens in a new tab)
- Salesforce Help: Customize Report Views in the Run Page (opens in a new tab)
- Salesforce Help: How to Export or Delete Archived Tasks and Events (opens in a new tab)
- Salesforce Developers: COUNT() and COUNT(fieldName) (opens in a new tab)
- Salesforce Developers: Export Data from Salesforce (Data Loader) (opens in a new tab)
- Salesforce Developers: Field Audit Trail (opens in a new tab)
- Salesforce Developers: API Request Limits and Allocations (opens in a new tab)
- Salesforce: APIs License and Terms of Service (opens in a new tab)
- Salesforce: Main Services Agreement (opens in a new tab)