Message history
Message history and storage, included on every plan
Your users can scroll back to the first message of any conversation, and open every file shared in it, on every TalkJS plan. You pay per monthly active user, with no overage fees for stored messages or files.
Messages never expire on Basic, Growth and Enterprise. Users can read them as long as the conversation exists.
Every plan includes unlimited conversations and messages.
There's no limit on file storage. Each file can be up to 100 MB, or a custom size on Enterprise.
Which chat APIs include message history and storage in the price?
Of the seven below, only TalkJS includes all of it on every plan. Elsewhere, “unlimited storage” on a pricing page can still come with a time limit on what users can read, a cap on stored messages, or a fee for files.
A time limit hurts most when people come back to old conversations: a buyer checking what a seller promised last spring, or a student looking for a file from last term’s class chat.
How far back users can read, on each entry paid plan
| Chat API | How far back users can read | Cap or fee on stored messages | File storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| TalkJS, every plan | No time limit | None | Included, 100 MB per file (custom on Enterprise) |
| Stream | For as long as your plan is active | 5M messages on Start, 10M on Elevate, then $5 per 1M | $0.07 per GB stored and $0.17 per GB delivered |
| Sendbird | 6 months, longer on Enterprise | Listed as unlimited | Not published |
| CometChat | 6 months through its APIs and SDKs, longer at extra cost | None: messages are stored with no limit | No storage charge |
| PubNub | 1 or 7 days on Free, up to 6 months on Starter, 1 year or unlimited on Pro, once you turn history on | None for standard chat storage | Kept 30 days on Starter, 5 MB per file |
| Ably Chat | 30 days on Standard, 365 days on Pro | Each message read from history is billed as a message | Not hosted: files go in your own storage |
| Twilio Conversations | Not published | Not published | $0.25 per GB per month |
For prices at 10,000 and 25,000 monthly active users, see our chat API comparison.
What do users see when they open an old conversation?
Everything that was said in it, including what happened before they joined.
Add someone to a conversation and they can read every earlier message, even if they were removed and added back.
Take away someone's access and they can still read the messages from before, but nothing new.
The Data API starts with the latest messages and loads older ones in batches, as far back as the conversation goes.
On Growth and Enterprise, users can search the Inbox. To include messages sent before you turned search on, choose “Index all messages”.
Can I bring my existing chat history to TalkJS?
Yes. Your users keep their old conversations when you switch.
The import API brings in users, conversations and messages with the times they were first sent, up to 1,000 messages per request.
Your users won't get emails or push notifications for messages you import.
How do I export or delete message history?
Your chat data is yours. Read it, copy it or remove it whenever you need to.
Read all chat and user data through the REST API at any time, or run our export script to save it as JSON.
Webhooks tell your server each time a message is sent, edited or deleted.
Delete one message, every message in a conversation, or the whole conversation with one REST API call.
Where does TalkJS store message history?
On our servers in the EU, unless you run TalkJS yourself. More on our security page.
Messages and files are encrypted on our servers and on their way to your users.
TalkJS is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant, acting as a data processor for your chat data.
Need history in your own infrastructure? Run TalkJS on-premise as an Enterprise add-on.