Understanding how long your data is stored in ObservePoint is essential for seeing trends over time and ensuring compliance with internal policies and regulations.

ObservePoint uses a sliding window to retain your data until the end of your selected retention policy, or the end of your platform subscription, whichever comes first:

ObservePoint stores two main types of data for retention purposes: Configuration and Results. These are handled differently:

Results data includes the data found by ObservePoint Audits and Journeys.

ObservePoint automatically deletes results data after it exceeds the age specified in your account's data retention policy.

Examples of results data:

Configuration data includes the settings that control how ObservePoint behaves.

ObservePoint retains configuration data indefinitely, while your platform subscription remains active:

Example of configuration data:

ObservePoint retains results data based on the retention policy defined at the account level. For example, if your account has a 13-month data retention policy, ObservePoint automatically deletes all Audit and Journey results data in the account which is older than 13 months, based on the date the results data was originally collected.

You cannot define different retention policies for individual Audits, Journeys, users, or folders. The data retention policy is specified at the account level, and applies to all results data in the account.

ObservePoint determines the age of results data to be retained based on the date it was collected.

Each Audit and Journey run is retained independently, based on its age. For example, if your account has a retention policy of 5 years + 1 month, and you run an Audit on June 1, 2025, ObservePoint will retain that Audit run's results until July 1, 2030, or until you cancel your platform subscription, whichever comes first. Other Audit runs are retained independently, based on their age.

Example retentions below, assuming you have an active platform subscription:

Short answer: forever.

ObservePoint retains configuration data indefinitely. ObservePoint will never automatically delete any configuration data based on its age. The only way configuration data can be deleted is via user action, including the UI, API, or platform subscription cancelation.

If you need to store data longer, you can upgrade to a longer data retention policy (up to 7 years), or you can export results data and store them outside of ObservePoint.

To upgrade to a longer data retention policy, contact your customer success manager or account executive. You can upgrade during your subscription at any time.

Yes. After your platform subscription ends, you may optionally purchase a separate, access-only subscription to maintain read-only access to your retained results data. An access-only subscription is not included in the data retention policy. With an access-only subscription, you cannot run new Audits or Journeys, but you can view all your results data including reports, screenshots, cookies, historical trends, etc., while they are within your account's data retention policy. Contact your customer success manager or account executive to learn about the pricing and terms of an access-only platform subscription.

No. ObservePoint does not offer the ability to retain individual results longer than your account retention policy.

Many customers benefit from longer data retention so they can answer important questions about their website's past, such as:

Yes. For new subscriptions, ObservePoint includes 13 months of data retention for no extra charge. Some accounts use ObservePoint's legacy data retention policy of 3 months, but this is no longer offered for new subscriptions. You can purchase longer data retention policies--up to 7 years--by contacting your customer success manager or account executive.

The best data retention policy depends on your needs, but ObservePoint recommends at least 5 years. This ensures that you have access to important data to answer questions about the state of your website from regulators and internal stakeholders. It also allows you to see valuable trends over 5 years.