Atlassian Jira/JSM/Confluence Free Tier Inactivity & Data Deletion Timeline

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Estimated time to read: 5 minutes

TL;DR: Atlassian deactivates inactive free Jira and Confluence sites after 40 days, providing warnings on days 26 and 33, with permanent data deletion occurring on day 55. Users can prevent deactivation through UI activity and request data restoration within 14 days of deactivation via Atlassian Billing support. The risk of data loss can be partially mitigated by regularly taking and downloading backups of your app.

Disclaimer:

This article is based on my anecdotal experience and dialogs with Atlassian support during the first 6 months of 2026. I am not an Atlassian employee or speaking on behalf of Atlassian. Atlassian may change their policies and processes at any time. 

Context:

Atlassian has documented in multiple locations that Free Subscriptions that are left inactive will be deactivated. That information can be found here:

What is the Free Jira Cloud plan? > Inactive Free apps will be deactivated

Learn about the features of Confluence Cloud plans

Track storage and move data across apps > Inactivity on Free cloud apps

What is missing from those documents is a clear timeline of the process.

To test this out I created a new site in a new organization and added a Free Jira subscription and a Free Confluence subscription.

Timeline:

The inactivity period is 40 days.

The first warning email is sent on the 26th day of inactivity.

The second warning email is sent on the 33rd day of inactivity.

ℹ️The first and second emails identify the site, the subscription (i.e. Jira, Jira Service Management, or Confluence), and the date that deactivation will occur.

A final email is sent on the 40th day when the subscription is deactivated.

ℹ️The final email includes a warning that the data will be deleted “soon” and a contact us link that directs the recipient to the Atlassian Pricing, Billing, & Licensing support page. Atlassian Billing, Licensing, & Pricing Support

Permanent data deletion occurs on the 55th day, 15 days after the subscription is deactivated. At that point it is no longer possible for Atlassian to restore the data.

Caveat: This timeline may be disrupted/delayed if an infrastructure incident occurs that delays certain scheduled account actions, including deactivations. When this happens, Atlassian policy is to pause these actions rather than risk processing them incorrectly. This occurred during my testing resulting in the inactivity period being extended, the warning emails being sent later, and the actual deactivation occurring on a date later than what was listed in the warning emails.

How to prevent deactivation:

You can reset the inactivity period timer by:

• Confluence: Any page view or login resets the 40-day timer.

• Jira: Any activity such as logging in, viewing a dashboard, report, admin screen, or issue counts toward keeping your site active

Note that these activities must be executed through the UI. API activity will not reset the inactivity period timer.

How to reactivate the subscription and restore the data:

If you are within the 14 days following the deactivation the subscription can be reactivated and the data restored. To ensure your data is restored contact Atlassian Billing, Licensing, & Pricing Support for assistance. Select the options Your account and Reactivate a subscription.

Bonus Tip:

Review Atlassian’s Backup and Restore information.

Overview of Atlassian Backup and Restore

It is the customer’s responsibility to take regular backups of their data. Atlassian will not take backups for you that can be used to restore your site.

For Free subscriptions the backups must be created manually and the backup files downloaded. Refer to:

Confluence > Export a data backup file of your instance

Export data from Jira Cloud

Note that not all data will be included in the backups. Ensure you examine all the available material and fully understand the limitations of the backup processes.

In Conclusion:

To prevent deactivation of your Free Jira, JSM, or Confluence Cloud subscription login through the UI and interact with the data in each subscription at least once every 40 days. Make regular backups of your data. Watch for emails from Atlassian indicating your subscription has been inactive, and immediately login through the UI and interact with the data of the specified subscription on the specified site. If your Free subscription does get deactivated due to inactivity you will have only 14 days to recover the data. Contact Atlassian Billing, Licensing, & Pricing Support for assistance. You can partially mitigate the risk of data loss by manually creating and downloading a backup of your application.

[Martin Runge]

Thank you so much, @Trudy Claspill, for gathering all this information and sharing it here! It's going to be really helpful for answering many community questions.

[Trudy Claspill]

Thanks, @Martin Runge !

I do hope that the information proves useful!

[Tomislav Tobijas]

This for this @Trudy Claspill ! It's much clearer than some parts of the official docs.

Going to bookmark this and guide users to check it out, as I believe it will make more sense than going through official docs. 📚

[Dennis Grochowski]

Fantastic summary! Thanks for the effort. This makes it far more easy to understand what is going on.

[Barbara Szczesniak]

Great content, @Trudy Claspill! Is there a way that the community moderators can get this article to pop up when people post questions about deactivation?

[Trudy Claspill]

That is a good question @Barbara Szczesniak . I'll pass that on to the community managers.

I see that suggestions do come up when writing a new Question, but the suggestions look like they may only be for other Questions.