Retention

Control how long your agent retains conversation history and recordings.

Retention settings allow you to configure how long your conversational agent stores conversation transcripts and audio recordings. These settings help you comply with data privacy regulations.

Overview

By default, ElevenLabs retains conversation data for 2 years. You can modify this period to:

Any number of days (e.g., 30, 90, 365)
Unlimited retention by setting the value to -1
Scheduled deletion by setting the value to 0

The retention settings apply separately to:

Conversation transcripts: Text records of all interactions
Audio recordings: Voice recordings from both the user and agent

For GDPR compliance, we recommend setting retention periods that align with your data processing purposes. For HIPAA compliance, retain records for a minimum of 6 years.

Modifying retention settings

Prerequisites

An ElevenLabs account
A configured ElevenLabs Conversational Agent (create one here)

Update via the dashboard

Update via the CLI

Update via the API

Access retention settings

Navigate to your agent’s settings and select the “Advanced” tab. The retention settings are located in the “Data Retention” section.

Update retention period

Enter the desired retention period in days
Choose whether to apply changes to existing data
Click “Save” to confirm changes

When modifying retention settings, you’ll have the option to apply the new retention period to existing conversation data or only to new conversations going forward.

Reducing the retention period may result in immediate deletion of data older than the new retention period if you choose to apply changes to existing data.