Importing contacts as non-subscribed in Mailchimp: what it means for your bill

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When you import contacts, Mailchimp asks you to choose an email marketing status: Subscribed, Unsubscribed, or Non-subscribed (Import Contacts to Mailchimp). If you import contacts as subscribed, Mailchimp says you need permission to send them email marketing content (source). A manual import is one of the usual ways non-subscribed contacts get into an audience (About Non-Subscribed Contacts).

What non-subscribed contacts can receive

Transactional emails, such as order notifications, and ads (source).
Not marketing emails or marketing text messages (About Your Contacts).

They still count toward your bill

Non-subscribed contacts are included in your contact total and count towards your monthly contact limit (source). If an import brings your total contact count above the limit of your plan tier, you'll be subject to additional charges (source). See non-subscribed contacts and your bill for the billing side in more detail.

Import a file as non-subscribed

Click Audience, then the Add contacts drop-down, then Import contacts.
Click Upload a file, then Continue, and select your CSV or TXT file.
Confirm the audience, optionally add groups or tags, then match your columns to audience fields. Unmatched columns aren't imported.
On the subscribe step, choose Non-subscribed from the Select email marketing status drop-down.
Click Finalize import, review the summary, then click Complete Import.

Source steps: Import Contacts to Mailchimp — Import your file to Mailchimp.

Import rules to know first

You can only import 1 status at a time (source).
Imports won't update the marketing status of email contacts already in your account (source).
Importing to an existing audience skips duplicate, bounced, or unsubscribed addresses already stored in that audience. Mailchimp can't detect duplicates across separate audiences (source; duplicates across audiences).

Find them later

Click Audience, open the Subscription status drop-down, and check Email non-subscribed and SMS non-subscribed. From there you can save or export the segment (source). If you only use Mailchimp for bulk email sending, Mailchimp notes you may find more value in archiving them (source).

Export each audience, then run AudienceTrim's free audit in your browser. It counts unsubscribed, non-subscribed and cross-audience duplicates (nothing is uploaded).

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FAQ

Do contacts imported as non-subscribed count toward my Mailchimp bill? Yes. Non-subscribed contacts are included in your contact total and count toward your monthly contact limit.

Can I send marketing emails to contacts imported as non-subscribed? No. Non-subscribed contacts can receive transactional emails and ads, but not marketing emails.

Can I import subscribed and non-subscribed contacts in one Mailchimp import? No. Mailchimp's import tool only lets you import 1 status at a time, so use a separate import for each status.

Will re-importing change an existing contact's status to non-subscribed? No. Mailchimp says imports won't update the marketing status of email contacts already in your account.

Related guides

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