Data retention in InfluxDB Cloud Serverless

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• Bucket retention period
• When does data actually get deleted?

Bucket retention period

A bucket retention period is the duration of time that a bucket retains data. Retention periods are designed to automatically delete expired data and optimize storage without any user intervention.

Retention periods can be as short as an hour or infinite. Points in a bucket with timestamps beyond the defined retention period (relative to now) are not queryable, but may still exist in storage until fully deleted.

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View bucket retention periods

Use the influx bucket list command to view your buckets' retention periods.

When does data actually get deleted?

InfluxDB routinely deletes Parquet files containing only expired data. InfluxDB retains expired Parquet files for at least 100 days for disaster recovery. After the disaster recovery period, expired Parquet files are permanently deleted and can't be recovered.