Find how much you have
Sign in, or ask your ServiceNow administrator, and list the ticket tables you actually use. Incident is the usual one. Others depend on which modules you run. Each table has a dictionary name, and that name is what you type into the tools below. Ask your administrator for the names of any custom ticket tables.
Open a table's list by typing its dictionary name followed by .list into the filter box of the application navigator, for example incident.list. ServiceNow documents a .filter ending too, which opens an empty list so you can set filters before a large list loads.
Count with a report. Go to All, then Reports, then View / Run, open or build a report on the table, and on the Configure tab set Aggregation to Count. ServiceNow says Count is the default and shows the number of records selected, and lists itil, report_user, report_group, report_global, report_admin or admin as the roles that can do this. Run it with no filters other than the date range you want to report.
Cross-check with a list export. Right-click a column header in the list, choose CSV from the export options, download the file and count the rows. The default export limit is 10,000 rows, so a file with exactly that many rows probably means the limit was reached, not that you have exactly that many tickets.
A developer can read the count without opening the screens. ServiceNow's Aggregate API takes GET /api/now/stats/{tableName} with the sysparm_count flag, and Table API responses carry an X-Total-Count header with the query's record total. Both depend on the calling user's roles, so use an account that can read every record.
Find your start date by sorting the list by its created date (the system field sys_created_on), oldest first, and noting the earliest ticket. Then check whether older tickets were removed on purpose. Type sys_auto_flush.list to see the table cleaner rules that delete old records, and check All > System Archiving > Archive Rules for any rule on a ticket table. ServiceNow says it creates a data management policy for every table that has an archive or table cleaner rule, so the Data Management Policies module is a quick cross-check. Your count and start date only cover what is still in the live tables.
What to put on your intake
Your intake has five boxes for each system. Here is what goes in each one for ServiceNow.
- What does it hold?
- Tickets from the tables you run, with their work notes and comments, assignment history and attachments. Say which tables you use, for example incidents and service requests, and which of them hold real written notes.
- Data types
- Structured records and Text for ticket fields, work notes and comments. Add Image only if you want ticket attachments such as screenshots included, since attachments are stored separately and are excluded by default.
- How big is it?
- Choose Tickets as the unit and enter the combined count across the tables in scope. Put the per-table counts in the description so a buyer can see the shape of the data.
- Verified or estimated
- Verified when the count comes from a report or API call on each table, run by someone whose access reaches every record, with no filter except your date range. Estimated when it came from a single list page, a rounded export or memory.
- Records start
- The earliest created date in the live tables. If a cleanup or archive rule removed older tickets, say so, because the history you can offer starts after that point.
Exporting the full history
If a buyer licenses your records, this is how the full history comes out of ServiceNow.
Nothing is exported until you have signed a license and agreed the scope: which ticket tables, which date range, and whether attachments are in or out. The steps below show what to expect.
List export. For each table in scope, filter the list to the agreed range, right-click a column header and choose an export format. ServiceNow offers Excel, CSV, XML, JSON, PDF, Export Set and Google Sheets. It says CSV suits larger exports, and that exporting to XML requires the admin role.
Split large histories. The default limit is 10,000 rows for CSV, XML, Excel and JSON, set by system properties such as glide.csv.export.limit and the general glide.ui.export.limit. ServiceNow suggests keeping format limits at or below the default and having people export in smaller chunks, so plan one file per slice of the date range.
Scheduled export route. An export set can push data to a remote destination on a schedule, and delta exports send only records that changed since the last run. Scheduling needs the export_set_scheduler or export_set_admin role, and the Run as user needs roles that let them view the data.
REST route. A developer reads each table with the Table API, paging with sysparm_limit (default 10,000) and sysparm_offset. Attachments come through the Attachment API, which lists metadata with GET /now/attachment and returns each file's content one request at a time. Inbound rate limit rules can cap requests per hour, so tell your administrator before a large pull.
Archived tickets are not in the live list. An administrator can restore archived records from the Archive Log, one choice restores only the record and another also restores related records. Do not delete Archive Log entries, because ServiceNow warns that doing so prevents restoring those records.
Requester, caller and assignee identifiers, hostnames and addresses typed into text, and anything that looks like a credential 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
- Export limits are low by default. CSV, XML, Excel and JSON exports stop at 10,000 rows, PDF at 1,000 rows, and Excel stops when a sheet passes 500,000 cells, with the message that the export stopped due to excessive size. ServiceNow also notes that Excel exports hold 32,000 rows per spreadsheet and advises CSV for complete exports.
- An export can differ from what you see on screen. ServiceNow says data exported from a list may differ from the list view when a table has ACLs that depend on the user's session, because the export runs in a background thread without session data. Sample an export against the screen before you trust a total.
- Work notes and additional comments are journal fields. ServiceNow's list export page does not say whether journal entries come through in an export, so open a sample file and check that the notes you care about are there before you promise text.
- Old tickets may already be gone. The table cleaner deletes records under rules in the Auto Flush table, and ServiceNow says its scheduled job runs once per hour by default. The page gives no default retention periods and does not say whether cleaned records can be recovered. Archive rules are a separate mechanism that moves records out of the live table.
- The REST APIs have their own limits. The Table API returns at most 10,000 records per request by default, so you page with an offset. Inbound rate limit rules cap requests per hour for a user, a role or everyone. A request over the limit gets a 429 response with a Retry-After header, and ServiceNow's page does not say whether any limits are set by default, so ask your administrator.
- Attachments are a separate pull. The Attachment API lists metadata with a default page size of 1,000, returns file content one attachment per call, and refers to a system property that sets the maximum attachment size at 1,024 MB by default. We found no bulk attachment export in the pages we read.
- ServiceNow publishes each documentation page per release, and menu names and defaults can differ on an older version. Check the page for the release you run.
- We found no ServiceNow documentation that says what happens to your instance data when a subscription ends. Your subscription agreement and order form govern, so ask your ServiceNow account team in writing how you can get a copy before you let a contract lapse.
- If you run ServiceNow for your own clients, tickets may hold their names, systems and details. Some client agreements restrict that use, so check yours before you list the system. 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 ticket system records how problems get reported, routed and solved. Each ServiceNow ticket links a request to a series of work notes, reassignments and a closing outcome. Buyers building IT-operations and service-desk automation want that chain in volume, because it shows how real organizations triage, escalate and resolve work over time.
Years of continuous history matter more than any single export. They show which categories grow, which tickets bounce between groups and how fixes were written down, and that is hard to learn from public sources. The longer and more consistent the history, the more useful it is for training and evaluating agents that handle this kind of work.
What stays private
Buyers see de-identified operating records, not your people or your systems. Under the license, identifiers are removed before delivery. The de-identification step removes or excludes:
- People: names, email addresses, phone numbers and user IDs of the people who raised, worked or approved tickets.
- Free text: work notes, comments and descriptions, which often carry names, locations, device names, network addresses and sometimes pasted passwords or keys. Counts, timing and outcomes can stay; sensitive wording is scrubbed or left out.
- Attachments: screenshots, logs and documents are excluded unless a specific package is agreed.
- Systems detail: hostnames, IP addresses, internal URLs and credentials of any kind.
- Other people's data: ticket content that belongs to your own customers or clients, unless you can show you have the right to license it.
Your login details, user list, integration credentials and instance 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 ServiceNow.
- ServiceNow Docs: Export limits (opens in a new tab)
- ServiceNow Docs: Export data from a list (opens in a new tab)
- ServiceNow Docs: Schedule an export (opens in a new tab)
- ServiceNow Docs: Navigate directly to a table (opens in a new tab)
- ServiceNow Docs: Aggregate a report on count (opens in a new tab)
- ServiceNow Docs: Table API (opens in a new tab)
- ServiceNow Docs: Aggregate API (opens in a new tab)
- ServiceNow Docs: Attachment API (opens in a new tab)
- ServiceNow Docs: Inbound REST API rate limiting (opens in a new tab)
- ServiceNow Docs: Journal field type (opens in a new tab)
- ServiceNow Docs: Deleting older or unwanted records in Data Management Console (opens in a new tab)
- ServiceNow Docs: Managing archived data in Core UI (opens in a new tab)