The short answer most lawyers give is seven years. That covers the IRS audit window for most tax-related documents, and it's longer than the statute of limitations for breach of contract in most US states (typically three to six years). If you want a single rule to apply to everything: keep it for seven years after it expires or the relationship ends.
But "everything for seven years" is a blunt instrument. Some contracts need to outlast that window by years or decades. Here's what actually matters for different contract types.
The main reason you need signed contracts is to enforce them — or to defend yourself when someone else tries to enforce theirs. The statute of limitations sets the deadline for filing a lawsuit. Once it passes, the other party typically can't sue, and you wouldn't need the contract as evidence anymore.
Statutes of limitations for contracts vary by state. Most fall between 3 and 6 years, but some states allow up to 10 years for written contracts, and the clock can sometimes reset if there's a payment or other acknowledgment of the debt. The safe habit: keep contracts for at least 3 years after the relevant limitation in your state, and for high-stakes agreements, just hold them until they're obviously irrelevant.
| Contract type | How long to keep it |
|---|---|
| General business contracts (vendor, service, etc.) | 7 years after termination |
| Employment contracts | Duration of employment + 7 years |
| Independent contractor agreements | 7 years after project completion |
| Real estate (purchase, lease, deed) | Life of ownership + 7 years |
| NDAs / confidentiality agreements | Duration of the agreement + 7 years |
| Intellectual property assignments | Permanent (you may need to prove ownership forever) |
| Corporate formation documents (bylaws, operating agreements) | Permanent (life of the company) |
| Loan agreements, personal guarantees | 7 years after final payment |
| Insurance contracts | Duration of policy + 7 years |
| Settlement agreements | Permanent (or 10+ years at minimum) |
Intellectual property assignments are the contracts most people accidentally delete too soon. If you commissioned a logo, a piece of code, a song, a photo — and the creator signed over the rights to you — that agreement is what proves you own it. Copyright disputes can surface years or decades later. A company acquisition might require you to show clean title on every piece of IP you claim to own. "We had an assignment agreement but we lost it" is an expensive problem to have in that situation.
IP assignments, trademark registrations, patent licenses — keep those permanently.
At expiration, or when the obligation under the contract ends — not at signing. A 5-year vendor agreement you signed in 2020 and terminated in 2025 should be kept through 2032. Counting from the signing date would give you until 2027, which misses the statute of limitations window by five years on a recently-expired deal.
Digital documents are perfectly valid for retention purposes, but they have their own risk: file formats change, drives fail, cloud services shut down, email providers purge old accounts. A contract you stored as a Word 2003 .doc file in a folder on a laptop you no longer own isn't "retained" in any meaningful sense.
For retention to be real, you need:
The "it's somewhere in my email" approach works until your email provider changes policies, you get locked out, or you spend two hours searching an archive for a document you need today.
Pick a retention system and use it consistently. A labeled folder in Google Drive or Dropbox is fine for most people. A dedicated vault with organized folders (vendor / employment / IP / real estate) is better. The key is that the documents are findable when you need them, not just stored somewhere.
filefriend is a software tool, not a law firm. This article is general information, not legal advice. Retention requirements vary by industry, jurisdiction, and contract type. Consult a lawyer for specific guidance.