Article

Google Workspace export: mail, Drive and Chat

By TrustPast

Updated October 22, 2026

A company of 30 or more that runs on Google Workspace has years of its work in Gmail, Drive and Chat. A buyer pays to license records like these to train AI models. You don’t export anything to apply. You count what you have, and an export comes later, if at all, after an agreement says what it covers. This guide settles what to count, where Google shows the numbers, and how each of Google’s export tools works, in Google’s own words.

Checked on 22 October 2026 against Google’s help pages for Google Workspace, linked at each step. Advanced editions such as Enterprise Plus use a different admin export page, which Google links from its own. Menus change. If a step here differs from Google’s page, Google’s page wins.

You don’t export to apply

micro1 is the buyer on this page. micro1’s published steps start with the company, not with files. First “Get started”. Then “Evaluation”, where “Our team reviews your submission”. Then “Discovery”, where, if there is a potential fit, “we’ll request additional information”. Then “Partnership”. Nothing in those steps asks for an export. Its estimator asks “How many employees does your company have?” and “How many years of data do you have?”, with the note “Typically the number of years you’ve been in business”.

The files come much later, and only after a scope is agreed. micro1 publishes this, word for word: “Before any participation, together we define:”

“Approved data scope and clear boundaries”
“Security and confidentiality standards”
“Anonymization and redaction requirements”
“Internal approval processes and permissions”

Then: “If approved, we’ll finalize the agreement and data requirements and begin the partnership.”

micro1 does not publish how records are delivered; that is agreed in its scope step. So this guide does not tell you to send anything anywhere. It shows what Google’s tools can produce, so you know what you are agreeing to when the scope is written.

Our advice is plain. Count first. Export after an agreement, and only what it names. A full export of a 40-person Workspace is a copy of every mailbox and every file in the company. You don’t make that copy to fill in an application.

Apply & License Your Data

How much you have, and where Google shows it

The two numbers that matter are how many people and how many years. Google shows the first in a report and leaves the second to you.

The report is Apps usage. Google’s path is “Menu > Reporting > User Reports > Apps usage” in the Admin console, and it “Requires having the Reports administrator privilege.” Its columns include “Gmail storage used (MB)”, “Drive storage used (MB)” and “Total storage used (MB)”, and for mail “Total emails”, “Emails received” and “Emails sent”. For Drive it lists “Files added”, “Files edited” and “Files viewed”. (Google’s Apps usage report page)

Google adds two limits. “Depending on your Google Workspace edition, you may not have access to some of the activity reports.” And Drive user reports exclude changes made in shared drives, so a company that works in shared drives will see less there than it holds.

The years are yours to find. Here is how we would do it, as our own advice:

Open the oldest active mailbox, usually the owner’s or the first office manager’s. Sort by date. The first message is the start of the record.
Open the oldest shared drive or the oldest top-level folder in Drive. Note the year of the earliest file that is still there.
Note any switch. A company that moved from another mail system in 2019 may have the earlier years in an import folder, or nowhere.
Write down the Chat spaces that carry the work: the job channels, the operations space, the one where exceptions get settled.

That gives you four lines: people, mailboxes, years of mail, years of files. That is what we would bring to the first call; micro1’s estimator asks for two of them, employees and years. The estimate on our site asks the same kind of question.

Who can export, and what the plan allows

Google has three tools, and each has its own gatekeeper.

The admin console export copies the whole organization, or chosen users. Google says to “Use a Google Workspace or Cloud Identity super administrator account that is at least 30 days old.” The account must have 2-Step Verification on, and “2SV enforcement is required only for the admin who starts the export.” Exporting Gmail, Drive and Chat requires “an active Google Workspace subscription”; Google leaves that data out if the subscription is “canceled or suspended.” To read the exported data, Google Cloud must be turned on for the admin account. (Google’s export page)

Two plan notes from the same page. An organization with Assured Controls or an advanced edition, “such as Enterprise Plus or Education Plus”, uses a different page, “Choose the Workspace data you want to export”. An organization with “FedRAMP Authorization or more than 1000 users” should contact Google Workspace support before it uses the tool.

Vault is the second tool. It searches and exports by matter. Google says your administrator must assign you the “Manage Matters”, “Manage Searches” and “Manage Exports” privileges. A super administrator can turn on multi-party approval, and then every export from the Vault screen needs a second admin to approve it. (Google’s Vault export page) On Vault data in an export, Google’s admin export page says: “Requires Vault licenses.” The Vault pages we checked do not name the Workspace editions that include Vault. Google does not publish that there, so check your own licences in the Admin console before you plan on Vault.

Takeout is the third. It is for one person’s own account. For a work account, Google says administrators control whether users can download data from each product. (Google’s Takeout page)

The steps, in Google’s words

These are Google’s steps, quoted or kept to Google’s menu names. Each ends with the page it comes from. Run them after an agreement, not before.

The whole organization: the admin console export

In the Google Admin console, go to Menu, then Data, then Data import & export, then Data export. Google adds: “You must be signed in as a super administrator for this task.” (source)
Click Set up new export. (source)
In the Name box, enter a name for your export. (source)
In the Scope box, choose one: “Export all user data for the entire organization”, which covers “data for all users and shared drives”, or “Export data for specific users”, then pick the group, organizational unit or users. (source)
Click Start export. Google says “The estimated runtime is calculated, if available for your export.” (source)

On timing, Google says: “The export is available no earlier than 48 hours after you start the export.” And: “Data export typically takes 72 hours but can take up to 14 days, depending on the size of your data export.”

On stopping it: “Once you click Start export, the process cannot be canceled or stopped within the Google Admin console.” Only Google Workspace support can stop a running export. That is the strongest reason to run this tool only when an agreement asks for it, and only with the scope set to the users it names.

A chosen set of mail, files or Chat: Vault

“Sign in to vault.google.com.” (source)
“Open the matter you want to export data from and search for the data.” (source)
“Click Export.” (source)
“Enter a descriptive name for the export.” (source)
“If your organization has a data region policy, select the data region for the export.” (source)
“If you’re exporting from Gmail, Google Groups, or Google Chat, choose the format for the message content files, PST or mbox.” (source)
For Gmail, choose whether to “Include Gmail confidential mode messages” and whether to “Export linked Drive files”. (source)
“If you’re exporting from Drive, choose whether to include access level information for accounts that have indirect access to Drive items.” (source)
“Click Export.” Without multi-party approval, “Vault immediately starts to process your export.” With it, a second admin must approve within 15 days or “the request is removed.” (source)

Vault’s limits, from the same page. “Have no more than 20 simultaneous exports in progress across your organization.” Large exports that haven’t finished after 24 hours are stopped, and you can continue them. Export files “are available for 15 days after you start the export.” After that, they are deleted and the export has to be made again.

Vault is the tool that fits a scope. A matter can be limited to named accounts and a date range, which is what a written scope usually describes. The admin export, by contrast, is everything or nothing per user.

One person’s own account: Takeout

Sign in to your Google Account and open the Takeout page. Google says the products you use are preselected, and you can uncheck any you don’t want. (source)
Select “Next step.” (source)
Choose a delivery method, export type, file type and archive size. (source)
For email delivery, select “Create export.” (source)
When the email arrives, select “Download archive” and follow the steps on screen. (source)

Google says the process “could take from a few minutes to a few days.” And: “Most people get the link to their archive the same day that they request it.” The archive expires about 7 days after it is made, and each archive can be downloaded only 5 times.

Takeout is for one account. It is not the tool for a company’s record, and we mention it because staff will ask about it.

What the file contains

The admin export comes as zip files. Google says the archive is “broken down by service—such as Drive or Gmail—and a file size limit.” It says the tool “exports the same data that’s available with Google Takeout for users”, plus admin-only data such as Vault-retained data. The services it lists include Gmail, Drive, Chat, Calendar, Contacts, Groups, Keep, Tasks and Voice, among others.

What it leaves out, in Google’s words: “Data for user accounts created within 24 hours before the export starts.” And “Deleted data, unless that data was retained or held by Google Vault policies.”

Where it lands: by default, “a temporary, Google-provided, Cloud Storage bucket.” Google says “The exported data is automatically deleted 60 days from the beginning of the export”, and some packets may be deleted before others. Folders and many files at once download with the gcloud command-line tool, not the browser.

Vault exports are smaller and more exact. For Gmail, Google lists “PST or mbox files with the contents and details of the exported messages”, a metadata CSV and XML, a result-counts CSV, an errors file and a checksum. Chat and Groups exports come as zip files of PST or mbox, with their own metadata. Drive exports are a zip of the matching files, with Google files converted, “Google Docs to DOCX” and “Google Sheets to XLSX.” PST files split into new zips above 1 GB per account, mbox above 10 GB, and Drive exports hold up to 10 GB in one compressed file. (Google’s Vault export contents page)

Read that list once more. Google describes the Gmail files as “PST or mbox files with the contents and details of the exported messages.” The metadata CSV beside them lists, for each message, “From”, “To”, “Subject”, the “Attachments count” and the “Attachment names”. A Gmail export is not just the text. It is the metadata too: who wrote to whom, and when. That is what makes the record useful, and it is also why the personal data needs a plan.

The personal data in it

A full export reaches further than the current staff. Google says “A full export includes data from users with these account types:” “Licensed and active”, “Suspended by an administrator”, “Archived” and “Vault Former Employee”. People who left years ago are in it.

A company mailbox holds the work and the people around it. Customer names and addresses. Staff matters. Personal mail that arrived at a work address. The Drive holds contracts and timesheets beside the job files. Chat holds the joke threads beside the job threads.

micro1 publishes how it treats that. “Personally identifiable information (PII) is removed when relevant, access is restricted to a limited number of authorized team members, and customer data is processed through isolated pipelines that prevent it from being commingled with other engagements.” It adds that “certain datasets may undergo synthetic rewrites that preserve workflow structure while reducing direct ties to original records.”

It also publishes the checks the company keeps. “Data is retained only for agreed periods, companies have the opportunity to review representative samples before use, and deletion requests are honored according to the terms of the engagement.” And on ownership: “Companies retain ownership of their underlying data.”

What that means in practice, as our own advice:

Agree the redaction rules before any export, because micro1 puts “Anonymization and redaction requirements” in the list it defines “Before any participation”.
Use the sample review. Ask to see representative samples from your own mail and Drive before prepared data is used.
Keep a list of the mailboxes and shared drives in scope. If HR, legal or a director’s private mail is not on the list, it is not in the export.
Don’t scrub the mailboxes yourself. Deleting mail changes the record and may breach your own retention rules. The redaction step exists for this.

What is never included

micro1 says every partnership has “clear controls over what is shared, how it is handled, and what is never included.” micro1 settles the list with each company in its scope step. It does not publish one fixed list for Workspace data.

Here is what we tell owners to keep out, as our own advice, not micro1’s:

the HR and payroll mailboxes, and any Drive folder with salaries, reviews or medical notes;
attorney-client mail and anything your lawyer marked privileged;
payment-card numbers, bank details and Social Security numbers, wherever they turn up;
health information about staff or customers;
anything a client owns under contract, such as files the client supplied and the contract says stay theirs;
personal accounts and personal folders, and mail from minors.

Two Google points sit beside that list. Confidential-mode mail is a choice in Vault step 7; leaving it out keeps only the metadata of those messages. And Vault can attach “linked Drive files” to mail, which can pull a file from a folder you meant to keep out. Leave that box empty unless the scope names it.

Check the export

If an agreement asks for an export, check it before it goes anywhere. Five checks, as our own advice:

The scope. Compare the list of accounts in the export with the list in the agreement. Nothing extra.
The dates. Open the oldest and newest message in one PST or mbox file. They should match the agreed range.
The counts. Vault gives a result-counts CSV. Compare it with the totals in the Apps usage report for the same people.
The errors. Open the errors file Vault includes. A failed account is a gap in the record.
The checksum. Google includes one. Keep it with the files, so anyone can confirm they arrived unchanged.

Other office systems

Many companies run more than one system. A company on Microsoft 365 for mail and another tool for support has two sets of numbers to count. The Microsoft 365 export guide does the same job for Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams. The Zendesk export guide covers a support desk, which holds the customer side of the work.

The records themselves are described elsewhere on our site. The email archives page goes through what a company inbox shows about how the work was done. The project history page goes through how a whole job reads end to end, which is where Drive files and mail threads meet. Both are written for trade companies; the shape of the record is the same in an office.

Where we fit

We, TrustPast, explain the process and give you a range with our estimate. The estimate is ours, not an offer. You apply to micro1 yourself, through the button on this page, with counts, not files. micro1 pays us a referral fee. You pay us nothing. We never see your mail, your Drive or your exports. Why buyers want records like these at all, and what they leave out, is on what data buyers actually want from a trade business.

What a company of 30 or more holds, and why that headcount is micro1’s published line, is on the page for companies with 30 or more staff. What happens after the application is on what happens after you apply. How the records are protected, step by step, is on how it’s safe.

Worth two minutes to see your range? Count the people and the years first.

TrustPast

Questions and answers

Do we have to export our Google Workspace data to apply to micro1?

No. micro1’s estimator asks how many employees and how many years of data; we would bring a few more counts to the first call: mailboxes, years of mail, years of files. micro1 says the approved data scope is defined together “Before any participation”. micro1 does not publish how records are delivered; that is agreed in its scope step. Run an export only after you have signed an agreement that names it.

Who in the company can run the full export?

Google says to use a super administrator account that is at least 30 days old, with 2-Step Verification on. A Vault export needs the Manage Matters, Manage Searches and Manage Exports privileges. A user can download their own account with Takeout, if the admin allows it for each product.

How long does the admin export take?

Google says the export is available no earlier than 48 hours after you start it, typically takes 72 hours, and can take up to 14 days. Once started it cannot be cancelled in the Admin console; Google Workspace support has to stop it.

Does the export include deleted mail?

Only if Vault kept it. Google lists “Deleted data, unless that data was retained or held by Google Vault policies” among what the admin export leaves out.

Should we delete personal mail before an export?

Our advice: don’t delete anything to apply. micro1 says the anonymization and redaction requirements and the internal approvals are defined before participation. Raise the private folders and the mailboxes you want left out on that call, and keep them out of the scope in writing.

How long can we download the files?

It depends on the tool. Google deletes admin export data 60 days from the start of the export. Vault export files are available for 15 days. A Takeout archive expires about 7 days after it is made and can be downloaded 5 times.