Events data retention
Contents
PostHog keeps your events for a period that your plan sets. This page tells you what that period is and what it does not do.
This page describes general data retention rules, with the following exceptions:
- Session recording retention
- AI events for AI Observability
- Data deletion tools
Your retention period
Your retention period comes from your plan:
| Plan | Events data retention |
|---|---|
| Free | 1 year |
| Paid plans | 7 years |
Retention applies on PostHog Cloud only. A self-hosted instance keeps your events until you remove them.
What retention does to your data
When retention applies to your project:
- A query on the events table reads only the events inside the window. PostHog does not include older events in the result.
- An insight whose date range goes past the window shows a banner, so that you do not read a smaller number as a drop in your product.
- Tables in the Data Warehouse keep all of their rows, because retention applies to the events table only.
Removing data sooner
Retention deletes events only after they pass the window. To remove data sooner, use the tools in controlling data storage:
- Delete a person, together with their events and recordings, to answer a right to be forgotten request.
- Delete a project or an organization to remove all of the events in it.
To keep events for longer than your retention period, send them to your own storage with a batch export.
Custom retention
Organization admins can choose a shorter window than their plan's. PostHog deletes events older than the window at the next monthly cleanup. Deleted events can't be restored.
Organization window
Set a window for every project in your organization under Settings > Organization > General > Events retention. It applies to every project that doesn't have its own window.
Project window
Set a window for one project under Settings > Project > Product analytics > Events retention. The project then uses this window instead of the organization's.
If you remove a project's window, the project uses the organization's window. If the organization has no window either, the project uses the retention period from your plan.
Who can change a window
- Only organization admins can change a window. Project admins and members can see it but not change it.
- Each setting shows the range of months you can choose from. A window can't be longer than your plan's.
- PostHog asks you to confirm before it saves or removes a window.