Data portability clause (data export and switching) template clause

    Updated: 30 October 2026

    Please note: these example clauses are intended as a starting point, not as legal advice. Always adapt the text to your specific situation and have important contracts reviewed by a legal professional.

    Clause text

    1. "Customer Data" means all data that Customer and its users enter or upload into the service or cause the service to generate, including attachments, metadata, configuration settings, users and their permissions, audit logs and report definitions. Customer retains all rights in Customer Data.

    2. Throughout the term, Customer may export the complete Customer Data itself at any time through [the admin console / a documented API], in [CSV / JSON / XML], together with a description of the data structure explaining the meaning of each field. Documents and attachments shall be exported in their original file format.

    3. Once per contract year, at Customer's request, Supplier shall provide a complete test export free of charge within [number, e.g. 10] working days, so that Customer can check that the Customer Data can be used in another system. If any data is missing, Supplier shall complete the export within [number, e.g. 10] working days.

    4. When this agreement ends, for whatever reason, Supplier shall at Customer's request provide a complete export under paragraph 2 within [number, e.g. 30] days of the end date. In addition, Supplier shall keep the Customer Data and the export function available until [number, e.g. 60] days after the end date (the "Retrieval Period").

    5. Exports under paragraphs 2 to 4 are free of charge. Supplier shall provide any further help with migration to another provider at [the hourly rate in Annex X]. Supplier shall not suspend an export or make it conditional on payment of invoices that Customer disputes.

    6. Within [number, e.g. 30] days after the Retrieval Period ends, Supplier shall delete all Customer Data, including from backups, unless a statutory retention obligation prevents this, and shall confirm the deletion in writing. For personal data, the data processing agreement between the parties prevails.

    7. If the service is a data processing service within the meaning of the Data Act (Regulation (EU) 2023/2854), the switching rights in Chapter VI of that regulation apply in addition to this clause. Where the two differ, the provision more favourable to Customer applies.

    What does this clause mean?

    With a cloud service, your data sits with the supplier rather than on your own server. That is fine until you want to leave. Then it turns out the export only works table by table, without attachments, in a format no other product can read, or for a fee that only appears when you say goodbye. A data portability clause settles in advance which data you get back, in what form and at what cost. That keeps switching a real option and protects you from vendor lock-in.

    Paragraph 1 is broader than most templates. A clause that only returns "Customer's data" often leaves out the configuration, the user permissions and the history of who changed what and when, and those are what make a migration quick or slow. Paragraph 3 is the one that makes the difference: an export you have never tried is only a promise. WorldCC found that contract-related data is spread across 24 different systems on average, so there is a good chance some of your business data sits in a product whose export nobody has ever tested.

    Paragraph 7 refers to the EU Data Act. Since 12 September 2025, providers of cloud and SaaS services must allow customers to switch with no more than two months' notice, and from 12 January 2027 they may no longer charge for switching. The regulation applies alongside your contract, but you still need a clause of your own for what the law leaves open: the export format, the test export and what happens during the term.

    When should you use this clause?

    Include the clause in every SaaS agreement where you build up business data you will still need after the contract ends: CRM, accounting, scheduling, electronic health records, a hotel property management system or your contract register. The longer you use the product, the more data the supplier holds and the more the clause matters. Gartner estimated in 2024 that nearly 40% of SaaS spending goes entirely unmonitored, and for those subscriptions nobody usually knows what happens to the data at the end.

    The clause only covers the data. For the wider handover, with a transition plan, knowledge transfer and staff support, add an exit clause. If the supplier processes personal data, the data processing clause governs what happens to it; paragraph 6 gives that clause priority.

    Customize these elements

    • 1In paragraph 2, name the formats your likely next product can import. If you do not know yet, choose open formats such as CSV or JSON with a field description, not a PDF export.
    • 2Schedule the test export in paragraph 3 well ahead of the contract's notice date, so you know whether switching is technically feasible when the renewal decision comes up.
    • 3Record in your exit plan who requests, checks and stores the export. Without an owner, the Retrieval Period in paragraph 4 runs out unnoticed.
    • 4If the supplier will not accept paragraph 5, agree a fixed maximum fee for the final export. A price set only at the point of exit is the price of the party holding the data.
    • 5Check whether the supplier uses sub-processors outside the EU. If so, pair this clause with terms on international data transfers.

    Sources

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