Suppressing & unsubscribing contacts

From Manage contacts, each contact has a ⋯ menu with actions for changing their status. The actions you see depend on the contact's current status, and a couple of important rules apply. Here's what each action does and when it's available.

Suppress vs. unsubscribe - what's the difference?

• Suppress - you (the admin) mark a contact as unmailable. Suppressed contacts don't receive marketing email and don't count toward your active contacts. You can reverse this by unsuppressing them (within the rules below).
• Unsubscribe - the contact is opted out of marketing. This reflects the contact's own choice, and you can't undo it for them - only the contact can resubscribe, from your website.

Actions by status

The ⋯ menu changes depending on where the contact sits.

Subscribed contact

• Suppress - stop emailing them without recording an opt-out.
• Unsubscribe - opt them out of marketing.

Not subscribed contact

• Suppress
• Subscribe - this is the only segment with a Subscribe action, moving the contact into your subscribed audience.
• Unsubscribe

Suppressed contact

• Unsuppress - make them mailable again (see the 90-day rule below).
• Unsubscribe

Unsubscribed contact

An unsubscribed contact has no ⋯ menu at all. Unsubscribing is the contact's own decision, so there's nothing to change from your side. If they want back in, they need to resubscribe on your website - you can't re-subscribe them for them.

The 90-day rule after unsuppressing

Keep this in mind before unsuppressing someone: if you change your mind shortly after, you'll have to wait out the cooldown before you can suppress them again.

Common questions

Can I re-subscribe someone who unsubscribed?

No. Only the contact can opt back in, and they do it from your website. Admins can't reverse an unsubscribe.

What happens to a suppressed contact?

They stop receiving marketing email. Unsuppressing them makes them mailable again, subject to the 90-day rule above.

Where do these statuses show up?

In Manage contacts, filtered by segment - see Contact segments & statuses.

Updated on: 31/07/2026