Export Chat History in Slack and Teams
Maybe you are migrating platforms, answering a legal request, or just want an archive before cleaning house. The two apps could not be more different here: Slack has a built-in export that owners can run in minutes, while Teams work accounts have no export button at all for regular users. Here is what each app actually offers, plan by plan, according to their help pages.
Miles Crawford
The quick version
In Slack, Workspace Owners and Admins can export messages and file links from public channels as JSON files on every plan, including Free. Exports that include private channels and DMs require Business+ or Enterprise and Slack's approval. In Teams for work or school, there is no self-serve export: getting chat history out is an admin job through the Teams Export APIs in Microsoft Graph or an eDiscovery search in the Microsoft Purview portal. Teams Free, the personal version, is the exception - it has a self-serve chat history export page.
Slack: what your plan can export
Every plan lets Workspace Owners and Admins export messages and file links from public channels in JSON format; on the Free plan, file links cover only the last 90 days. On Business+, Workspace Owners can apply to export all channels and conversations - public channels, private channels and direct messages - for legal and regulatory compliance, and approved owners can also schedule recurring weekly or monthly exports and request a channel audit report as a CSV. On Enterprise, Org Owners contact Slack Support to enable self-serve exports, which can be scoped by conversation type, member or specific workspace, in JSON or TXT. Regular members cannot run any of these exports themselves.
Slack: run the export
On desktop, click Admin in the sidebar, select Workspace settings, then click Security. Open Import and export data and go to the Export tab. Pick your date range under Export date range and click Start Export. Slack emails you when the file is ready; open the email, visit the export page, and click Ready for download to get the ZIP. Inside the ZIP you will find one folder per channel with a separate JSON file for each date messages were sent, plus links to files rather than the files themselves.
Teams for work or school: no export button
If you use Teams through a work or school account, there is no built-in way for a regular user to download chat history. Microsoft offers two routes, both admin-level. First, the Teams Export APIs in Microsoft Graph can pull 1:1 chats, group chats, meeting chats and channel messages programmatically, by user or team and date range; they require admin-approved application permissions such as Chat.Read.All and ChannelMessage.Read.All, and the users being exported need an active Teams license. Second, an eDiscovery Content search in the Microsoft Purview portal can search Teams messages across the organization and export the results to a local computer, which is the usual path for legal and compliance requests. Note that Microsoft retired the classic eDiscovery experiences on August 31, 2025, so this now runs through the new eDiscovery in the Purview portal.
Teams Free: the self-serve exception
The personal version of Teams does have an export. Sign in to the Export page with your Microsoft account, select Chat history, Media or both, and submit the request - your call log comes along too. Check back on the Export page periodically; when the files are ready they appear under Available Exports with a Download button. One caveat from Microsoft: if you were removed from a community, you cannot export its data.
Which route should you take?
Our read: if you are on Slack, start with the built-in public-channel export - it covers most archiving needs and takes minutes, and only escalate to the all-conversations application if compliance genuinely requires private channels and DMs. If you are on Teams for work, bring your admin in early, because there is nothing you can do self-serve; the Purview eDiscovery search is the practical route for a one-off legal pull, while the Graph Export APIs make sense for ongoing programmatic archiving. If the goal is simply keeping your own notes, the humble copy-paste or printing a conversation to PDF still works in both apps, no admin required. And if the export is preparation for a cleanup, our guide to deleting or archiving channels covers what survives afterwards.
What to be careful about
- Slack exports are JSON, not a readable transcript. You get structured data plus file links, so plan for tooling to read it.
- Free Slack workspaces lose old file links. Exports only include file links from the last 90 days.
- Private data needs approval in Slack. Private channels and DMs require Business+ or Enterprise and an approved application.
- Teams users cannot export themselves. Both work routes need an admin; ask before you promise anyone a copy.
- Teams Free exports are not instant. The request is processed asynchronously and you download it later from the Export page.
- Community removal locks you out. In Teams Free, being removed from a community removes your ability to export its data.
Sources
Checked October 19, 2026. The plan limits, permissions and steps follow each product's own documentation. The route recommendations are ours.