Slack Storage Full? How to Find and Delete the Files Eating It

Short version: delete your biggest uploads, then stop uploading. Click Files in the Slack sidebar (click More if you do not see it), narrow the Types drop-down to videos and PDFs, open the worst offender, click the three dots icon in the top right, choose Delete file, and confirm with Yes, delete this file. There is no bulk delete in the app, so for anything beyond a handful of files you want the API script further down.

The longer version matters too, because "storage full" in Slack is now three different problems wearing the same coat, and only one of them is actually about space.

What Slack documents in 2026

Checked against Slack's own help centre on 2 October 2026, not copied from older write-ups:

The fourth row is the one that surprises people. Almost every article about Slack storage, including earlier versions of our own, quotes 5 GB for a free workspace and 10 GB per member on Pro. Those numbers came from a help article called "File storage in Slack." That URL now redirects to Slack plans and features, which lists message and file history for all four plans and no storage figure at all. The paid versus free pricing page does the same. So if you are hunting for the gigabyte number you are supposed to be under, it is not published, and the limit Slack does document for free workspaces is a clock rather than a quota.

Step 1: find the files that are actually big

Slack's Files browser filters by type, not by size, so there is no sort-by-size button to click. The files.list API method does return a size field in bytes for every file, which is enough to build the ranked list the app will not give you. One request, one jq pipe:

# Rank every file in the workspace by size.
# Needs a token with the files:read scope.
$ curl -s "https://slack.com/api/files.list?count=1000" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $SLACK_TOKEN" \
  | jq -r '.files | sort_by(-.size) | .[:25][]
      | "\(.size / 1048576 | floor) MB\t\(.name)\t\(.id)"'

742 MB	all-hands-q3-recording.mp4	F08XK2P9QAB
664 MB	site-backup.zip	F08W41M7TQZ
512 MB	launch-cut-v4.mov	F08VPL2KD3H

files.list needs the files:read scope and accepts channel, user, ts_from, ts_to, types, count and page. Those last two matter on a busy workspace: page through the results rather than assuming one call saw everything.

If you would rather target age than size, which is usually the easier political argument to win, filter by timestamp instead:

# Everything uploaded before 1 January 2026, biggest first.
# ts_from and ts_to take Unix timestamps.
$ curl -s "https://slack.com/api/files.list?count=1000&ts_to=1767225600" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $SLACK_TOKEN" \
  | jq -r '[.files[] | {name, size, id}] | sort_by(-.size) | .[] | @tsv'

Step 2: delete them

In the app, one at a time. Find the file, click the three dots icon in the top right, select Delete file, then click Yes, delete this file. On mobile, tap the file, tap the three dots icon, then tap Delete. Any member or guest can delete a file they uploaded. Workspace Owners and Admins can delete files in public channels and in any private channel or DM they are already in, which means an admin cannot reach into a DM they are not part of, no matter how large the file sitting in it is.

Slack states plainly that files must be deleted individually and points to its API methods for anything bigger. That method is files.delete, which takes a file ID, needs the files:write scope, and sits in rate limit Tier 3 at 50 or more calls per minute:

# Delete one file by ID. Needs the files:write scope.
$ curl -s -X POST https://slack.com/api/files.delete \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $SLACK_TOKEN" \
    -d file=F08XK2P9QAB
{"ok":true}

# files.delete is Tier 3, so 50 or more calls per minute.
# Sleep between calls if you are working through a long list.

Read the list before you feed it to the delete loop. Deleted files are gone, there is no workspace trash to recover them from, and a video someone still needs is a worse outcome than a storage warning.

Step 3: the admin-side options

Hand deletion does not scale and it does not stop the problem returning. A Workspace Owner can set a retention policy instead: click Admin in the sidebar, select Workspace settings, click Expand next to Data retention, choose a setting, then Save. Paid plans can keep all files for the life of the workspace or keep files for a set number of days, with variants that include files members have already deleted. Free workspaces get the two choices Slack allows there: 90 days, or one year.

Before you change anything, get the size of the problem. Click Admin, then Workspace analytics, pick a range on the Overview tab, and scroll to Where conversations happen. Slack recommends this view specifically for seeing how much history is about to be hidden or deleted, and there is an Export button if you want the numbers outside Slack.

The 90-day rule is probably what you are really hitting

On a free workspace you can view and search messages and files from the last 90 days. When you pass that, Slack starts hiding anything older to make room for new content. Hidden is not deleted: upgrading reveals it again. But anything more than one year old is permanently deleted, and has been on a rolling basis since 26 August 2024.

This reads as "storage full" because the symptom is identical. A file you shared in April is not in search, the channel scrolls back to nothing, and the obvious conclusion is that you ran out of room. You did not. The clock ran out. No amount of deleting will bring those files back, and deleting more files will not stop the next ones from disappearing on schedule.

Worth separating from the per-file cap, which is the other thing people arrive here for: 1 GB per file, identical on every plan including Enterprise+. If a single upload is being refused rather than a workspace complaining, that is the limit you met, and the full breakdown of Slack's file limits covers the compression and splitting options.

Stop re-uploading: share a link instead

Every fix above is temporary while the behaviour that filled the workspace stays the same. A pasted link is a message, not an upload. Slack unfurls it into a preview card with the filename, the recipient clicks through, and nothing lands in your file history. Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and Box links all behave this way, which is why teams that route large files through cloud storage never see this problem.

For one-off shares where a Drive folder is overkill, sto.care takes files up to 25 GB, gives you a link in return, and deletes the file after 7 days. No account, no Slack admin involved, and nothing added to your workspace. If the file is simply too large for the 1 GB cap rather than part of a storage cleanup, the file too big for Slack walkthrough is the three-step version of that.

Either way, the habit is the fix: upload once somewhere files are meant to live, and let Slack carry the link.

FAQ

Why is my Slack storage full?

Usually one of three things. On a free workspace, Slack hides messages and files older than 90 days, so files look missing rather than full. A single upload over 1 GB is refused outright. Or the workspace genuinely needs files deleted, which in Slack means one at a time in the app, or in bulk through the API.

How do I free up space in Slack?

Delete the biggest uploads first: Files in the sidebar, the Types drop-down to narrow to videos and PDFs, the three dots icon, Delete file, then confirm. For the whole workspace, a Workspace Owner sets a retention policy under Admin, Workspace settings, Data retention.

How do I find the largest files in my Slack workspace?

Not in the app: the Files browser filters by type, not by size. Use the files.list API method, which returns a size field in bytes for every file, and sort the response. The script above does it in one request.

Can I bulk delete files in Slack?

Not in the app. Slack's documentation says files must be deleted individually and points to its API methods. The two real routes are a script over files.list and files.delete, or a retention policy that clears files older than a set number of days.

What is Slack's storage limit on the free plan?

Slack no longer publishes one. The 5 GB figure everyone quotes came from a help article that now redirects to Slack plans and features, which lists no storage number for Free, Pro, Business+ or Enterprise+. The documented free-plan limit is time based: 90 days of visible history, permanent deletion after one year.

Do Google Drive or Dropbox links count toward Slack storage?

No. A link is a message, not an upload. The bytes stay in the service hosting the file, so nothing is added to your workspace's file history.