> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.heify.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Data Retention

> How long Heify keeps your transcriptions, and what happens when they expire.

Heify retains every transcription for **one year (365 days) from the moment it is submitted**. After that, the transcription and all of its derived artifacts are **permanently deleted, automatically**.

## What gets deleted

When a transcription reaches the end of its retention period, the following are removed:

* The transcription record itself — it disappears from [List Transcriptions](/api-reference/transcription/list), [Get Transcription](/api-reference/transcription/details), and the Sandbox.
* All derived content: the conversation, the summary, extracted fields, and the evaluation details.
* Its contribution to analytics — expired transcriptions no longer appear in any dashboard, timeline, or per-criterion metric.

<Note>
  **Audio files are never retained at all.** The original audio is deleted from our storage immediately after processing completes, regardless of retention — this has always been the case and is independent of the one-year policy.
</Note>

## How the clock works

* The retention period starts at **submission time** — the moment the audio is uploaded and processed.
* Setting a `period_date` (the recording's real date, see [Transcription](/core/transcription)) does **not** affect retention. A recording made eleven months ago and uploaded today is still kept for a full year from today.
* Deletion is automatic and happens shortly after the 365-day mark (typically within a day or two).
* The policy applies to **all** transcriptions, including `FAILED` ones.

## Deletion is permanent

<Warning>
  Expired transcriptions **cannot be recovered**. If you need to keep transcription content beyond one year, export it before it expires — [Get Transcription](/api-reference/transcription/details) returns the full conversation, summary, extracted fields, and evaluation breakdown as JSON, ready to store on your side.
</Warning>

You can also delete transcriptions earlier at any time with [Delete Transcription](/api-reference/transcription/delete); retention is simply the upper bound on how long Heify keeps them.