Can you sell your Zendesk data for AI training?

Zendesk lets the account holder export only part of its data, depending on the plan, and its API terms bar using data pulled through the API to train AI, so a sale should start from the holder's own export. The content itself carries high rights risk. This is research from public sources, not legal advice.

The holder's own export
Export is limited
Data pulled through its API
Bars training AI on it
Rights risk of the content
High

What a holder should know

Its Developer Terms are among the most restrictive we read. A connector or script that pulls tickets through the API to build a training set, or to sanitise them for that purpose, appears to fall within clause 3.6; that would include a Team-plan customer whose only route out is the API. The native export, enabled by the account owner, is the route least exposed to those terms. Content is customer conversations: the end customers' personal data and often the holder's own customers' confidential information, usually covered by a DPA. Treat it as hard to sell unless properly de-identified and permitted by customer contracts.

Getting your own data out

Native JSON, CSV or XML export after the account owner asks Support to enable it; exports can be restricted to certain admins by email domain. AI agent tickets cannot be exported. Team plans: REST API only, which is bound by the Developer Terms above.

Zendesk help (Exporting ticket, user, or organization data from your account): "To protect the data in your Zendesk account, data exports are not enabled by default in Zendesk accounts." "The account owner must contact Zendesk Customer Support to enable data exports in your account." Available on Suite Growth, Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus, and Support Professional and Enterprise; not on Team plans (which can use the REST API).

Apps that use its API

Zendesk Developer Terms (Effective Date: August 12, 2025), 3.6(iii): developer must "not use API Data for any purpose other than to provide its Application functionality", "including creating, training, or improving any general AI model, such as, but not limited to, a large language model", "or sanitizing API Data for such purposes;" 3.6(iv): "not directly or indirectly use the APIs to develop Applications that allow bulk export of API Data;" 3.6(v): "not create persistent copies, archives, indexes, or long-term data stores using API Data". 3.3(iv): may not "repackage or resell the Services, APIs, or API Data;"

The sources, word for word

Research from public sources, read on the day shown. It is not legal advice: a sale needs a lawyer who has read the records and the contracts.

What Zendesk holds that buyers ask for

  • Support and service records

    Tickets, macros, resolutions and call notes

Who buys it

  • Mode (BizBuyData)

    "The operating history of companies and nonprofits could be worth $100K-$5M."

  • Handshake AI

    "Payouts range from $100K to $4M." Its estimator shows $383,083 to $896,969 for 100 employees and 10 years.

  • Polyshares

    Typical licences of $100K to $2M, sometimes more. Its track record page lists four anonymous licences from $110,000 to $450,000.

  • micro1

    $100k+ for a qualified partnership, $500k+ for large or multi-team datasets, $1M+ for highly unique data.

  • Scale AI

    "$10K–$1M+ illustrative value per data partnership", scaling with how often data is delivered.

  • SuperAnnotate

    "Indicative $100K – $1M+", priced on rarity, depth and exclusivity.

Every buyer and its published terms

What your Zendesk records are worth, and what to settle before anyone sees them.

Value your dataCheck your rights

In this topic

Rights and law

  1. Start hereCan this data legally be sold or licensed for AI training?Privacy law, copyright and fair use, software vendors' terms, de-identification, bankruptcy sales and what a licence agreement holds.
  2. GuideIs It Legal to Sell Customer Data? A US Guide for AI TrainingOften yes, but through layers: your privacy policy, the FTC Act, state and sector laws, and customer contracts. De-identified records are the main lawful path.
  3. GuideFair Use and AI Training: What US Courts Have RuledUS courts are split: training was fair use in Bartz v. Anthropic and Kadrey v. Meta, not in Thomson Reuters v. Ross, and pirated copies lost. Where each stands.
  4. GuideIs It Legal to Scrape Data for AI Training? (US Law, 2026)Scraping public pages is rarely a federal crime after Van Buren and hiQ, but contract, copyright, anti-circumvention and privacy law apply. Resale is hard.
  5. GuideCan a Company License Employee Emails and Slack for AI Training?Usually yes for business records the company controls, but only after it handles monitoring notices, third parties in the messages, privilege and vendor terms.
  6. GuideSelling Customer Data in Bankruptcy: Section 363 ExplainedA bankrupt company can sell customer data only if the sale fits its privacy policy, or a court-appointed privacy ombudsman reports and the judge approves it.
  7. GuideWhat Is a Data Licensing Agreement? The Terms for AI TrainingA data licensing agreement lets a buyer use data for set purposes while the holder keeps ownership. Each clause AI buyers ask for, and where holders stand.
  8. GuideHIPAA De-Identification for AI Training: Safe Harbor vs Expert DeterminationHealth data leaves HIPAA only through Safe Harbor (remove 18 identifiers) or an expert's determination of very small risk. How each works for AI training.
  9. GuideLicensing Company Data for AI Training Under the GDPR (2026)Yes, an EU, UK or Swiss company can license its records for AI training, if it has a lawful basis, tells people, drops sensitive data and uses a transfer tool.
  10. GuideSelling Data for AI Training: Privacy Law by CountryOutside the EU and UK, licensing records for AI training mostly needs consent or anonymisation, and a contract or consent to send them to a US buyer.
  11. RegisterLawsuits and rulingsEvery case, ruling and settlement over training data.
  12. RegisterLicence termsWhat buyers ask for in a licence, and where holders stand.
  13. PageDe-identification standardOur rules for removing people from records, each with its source.
  14. RegisterAI crawler censusA daily census of robots.txt across the most visited sites.

Other systems

Selling Zendesk data for AI training: what its terms allow | AIData.Broker