Mailchimp cleaned vs archived vs unsubscribed contacts: which ones you pay for

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Short answer: cleaned and archived contacts don't count toward your contact limit. Unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts do (About Your Contacts). So archiving cleaned contacts won't lower your bill, but archiving unsubscribed ones can.

The statuses side by side

Status	What it means	Counts toward contact limit?	Can receive
Subscribed	Opted in to your marketing	Yes	Ads, marketing emails and texts, transactional emails
Unsubscribed	Received your marketing before, then opted out	Yes	Ads, transactional emails
Non-subscribed	Interacted with you (store, integration, import) but never opted in	Yes	Ads, transactional emails
Cleaned	Hard bounced or repeatedly soft bounced; address considered invalid	No	Nothing
Pending	Filled in a signup form but hasn't confirmed opt-in	No	Nothing
Archived	Removed from the audience, data kept, can be unarchived	No	Nothing
Deleted	Permanently removed; can't be undone	No	Nothing

Source: About Your Contacts. Pending contacts who don't confirm within 60 days are removed and deleted (same source). Legacy paid plans created before May 15, 2019 may follow different contact-limit rules (same source).

Cleaned contacts

Mailchimp says cleaned contacts "have email addresses that have hard bounced or repeatedly soft bounced, and are considered invalid," and that they "don't count toward audience limits" (About Cleaned Contacts). A soft-bouncing address becomes cleaned after 7 soft bounces if it has no subscriber activity, or up to 15 if it has previous activity (Soft vs. Hard Bounces).

Archiving them won't save money. Mailchimp's own note: "If you archive cleaned contacts, it will not reduce your contact count for billing." (source)
Don't delete them either. Mailchimp recommends archiving rather than deleting cleaned contacts, to keep them in your audience and avoid bounces (source).
Fixing a typo is free. You can't edit a cleaned address, but you can add the corrected address as a new contact. Mailchimp says it "doesn't charge for cleaned addresses, so you won't be penalized for adding an extra contact" (source).

Archived contacts

Archiving removes a contact from the contact table and moves them to a separate archived table. You keep their data, including identifiable information in reports, and "Archived contacts don't count toward your billing tier" (Archive or Unarchive Your Contacts). Three things to know:

A contact who is in more than one audience has to be archived from each audience (source).
Contacts can unarchive themselves by signing up through your Mailchimp signup form or interacting with your connected online store (source), which puts them back in your count.
Archiving is not a legal substitute for deletion under GDPR. If an EU contact asks to be removed, delete them from every audience (source).

Unsubscribed contacts

Unsubscribed contacts can't receive marketing email, but they still count toward your contact limit (About Your Contacts). They're the most common contacts people archive to lower a bill. Details and steps: Does Mailchimp charge for unsubscribed contacts? and archive unsubscribed contacts in bulk.

Which ones to archive to lower your bill

Export first. Audience → Export audience gives you a backup (View or Export Your Contacts).
Unsubscribed: usually safe to archive. They count, and they can't get your marketing email.
Non-subscribed: archive only if you don't use them for ads or transactional email. See non-subscribed contacts and your bill.
The same email in several audiences: each copy counts. See duplicates across audiences.
Cleaned: skip if your goal is the bill. They already don't count.

Your bill uses the peak contact total in each billing period, so archiving lowers what counts from then on, not a peak you already hit this period (About Additional Charges).

See your numbers by status

AudienceTrim's free audit reads your audience export ZIPs in your browser (nothing is uploaded) and shows, per audience, how many contacts are subscribed, unsubscribed, non-subscribed and cleaned, plus the same email across audiences. Cleaned contacts are shown but never counted as billable.

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FAQ

Do cleaned contacts count toward my Mailchimp bill? No. Mailchimp says cleaned contacts don't count toward audience limits, so archiving them won't reduce your contact count for billing.

Do archived contacts count toward my Mailchimp bill? No. Archived contacts don't count toward your billing tier, but they can unarchive themselves by signing up through your Mailchimp form or interacting with your connected store.

Should I delete cleaned contacts? Mailchimp recommends archiving them instead of deleting, so they stay in your audience and you avoid sending to bounced addresses again.

What is the difference between cleaned and unsubscribed in Mailchimp? Cleaned addresses bounced and are considered invalid; they don't count toward your limit. Unsubscribed contacts opted out of marketing; they still count toward your limit until you archive them.

Related guides

AudienceTrim isn't affiliated with Mailchimp or Intuit. Quotes are from Mailchimp's help center, accessed October 2026. Privacy · Terms