Submission retention
Every plan keeps submissions for two stretches of time, not one: a full access window where everything behaves normally, followed by a longer kept window where a submission stays in your list but its full content is paywalled - until it's finally deleted.
The two windows
| Plan | Full access | Kept, then deleted |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 30 days | 6 months |
| Starter | 6 months | 1 year |
| Pro | 5 years | 7 years |
| Business | Unlimited | Never deleted |
Full access is the normal state: open a submission, see every field and attachment, export it, star/archive it, or set its moderation status, exactly like a brand-new submission.
Kept starts the moment a submission ages past its plan's full-access window. It still shows up in your submissions list - title/snippet visible, so you always know it exists and roughly what it says - but opening it, exporting it, or changing anything about it requires upgrading your plan first. Once a submission ages past the kept window too, it's deleted for good; there's no recovery after that point. Its uploaded files go with it.
Upgrading doesn't just widen the window going forward - it immediately unlocks whatever of your own past data is currently sitting in the paywalled "kept" state, since the new plan's full-access window is measured from each submission's own creation date, not from when you upgraded.
Every window is counted from when a submission arrived. Opening, starring or archiving it never restarts the count. BootForm deletes submissions once a day, so one can outlive its window by up to a day.
Delete submissions sooner
On every plan you can make BootForm delete a form's submissions earlier than the plan's window, for example after 30 days for a job application form that collects CVs. Personal data you no longer need is data you no longer have to protect.
- For one form: open the form, go to Settings, then Delete submissions after, and pick 7, 30, 90, 180 or 365 days, or a custom number of days.
- For a whole workspace: on the Workspaces page, edit the workspace's defaults and set Delete submissions after (days). Every form in the workspace without its own setting follows it.
A form's own setting wins over its workspace's. You can only shorten your plan's window, never lengthen it. Submissions are deleted together with their uploaded files.
If the new period means some submissions you already have are now too old, BootForm tells you how many before you save, and deletes them within a day once you confirm. This can't be undone.
An AI agent connected over MCP can set the same thing with retention_days on bootform_configure_form or bootform_configure_workspace. It gets the same count and has to confirm with confirm_delete before anything is deleted.
Downgrading shortens existing data
A plan's window applies to every submission you have, not only new ones. If you downgrade, submissions older than the new plan's window are deleted, with their files, within a day. For example, downgrading from Pro to Starter deletes the submissions older than 1 year. The downgrade confirmation lists this before you go ahead, so export anything you want to keep first (see Managing submissions).
Upgrading works the other way: a longer window applies to everything you still have, right away.