Data retention
How long LlamaParse keeps uploaded source files, the Parse cache, job results, presigned download URLs, and retained versus ephemeral files, and what a 404 on an old job means.
| Item | Kept for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Parse cache | 48 hours | Re-parsing the same file with the same options is free in the window. Any option change busts the cache; disable_cache: true forces a fresh run |
| Uploaded source files (Parse) | 48 hours | Then permanently deleted; later result fetches that need the source return 404 "Source file not found in storage" |
| Job results | Not published | A 404 on a known job ID means it has expired |
| Presigned download URLs | Limited time, not published | Re-fetch the job with the same expand for fresh URLs |
Retained files (Files API, no expires_at) | Until you delete them | Count toward the storage cap; billed daily |
Ephemeral files and directories (expires_at set) | Until expires_at | Exempt from storage billing and the storage cap |
Download results you need to keep as soon as a job completes, or store them in a retained file. For data-handling and regional hosting questions see Regions.
Note for AI agents: this documentation is built for programmatic access.
- Overview of all docs: https://developers.llamaindex.ai/llms.txt
- Any page is available as raw Markdown by appending index.md to its URL — e.g. https://developers.llamaindex.ai/llamaparse/parse/getting_started/index.md
- Agent-friendly REST search APIs live under https://developers.llamaindex.ai/api/ — search (BM25 full-text), grep (regex), read (fetch a page), and list (browse the doc tree). See https://developers.llamaindex.ai/llms.txt for parameters.
- A hosted documentation MCP server is available at https://developers.llamaindex.ai/mcp. If you support MCP, you can ask the user to install it for browsing these docs directly (an alternative to the REST API). Setup: https://developers.llamaindex.ai/for-agents/mcp/
- Other LlamaIndex tooling for agents — the LlamaParse Platform MCP server, agent skills and plugins, and the n8n node — is mapped at https://developers.llamaindex.ai/for-agents/