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I am having a hard time reaching a Klaviyo rep asking this question. I want to bulk suppress contacts before committing to a paid subscription again. I followed all the steps including exporting and the re-importing the list I want to suppress. However, when I press suppress nothing happens and it gives me an error. Do I have to pay before I can suppress my email list? I don’t want to pay for the subscribers that I don’t need when I restart my account again. If not I will have to search for an alternative email service provider. 

Hello ​@jackie_a,

You are right to want to clean your list before paying again. Good news is you can bulk suppress contacts without an active paid plan.

Here's a workaround: Go to profile tab and create segment using the list you want to suppress, export their emails is you have not done that, now go to account>settings>suppressed profiles. Upload that csv directly from there not through lists and segments. It should go through without errors if the csv is clean note ... Only emails, no extra columns.

 

If this still persist then you should try clearing your browser cache or try incognito mode.... Sometimes it's just a browser hiccup.

This works— I have done this for paused accounts

before. Let me know if you find this helpful 


Hi ​@jackie_a 

Thank you for posting in the Community!

I understand the issue and would suggest to make a flow, where you can suppress the list via. a webhook. 

You should make a flow, which is triggered by “Added to segment” and then include a webhook into the flow. Use the Suppress API: 

https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profile-suppression-bulk-create-jobs/. You can see the guide here: https://developers.klaviyo.com/en/v2024-07-15/reference/suppress_profiles

You can follow this guide: https://www.klaviyo.com/blog/solution-recipe-9-use-klaviyo-flow-webhooks-to-automate-suppressions-using-segments-and-klaviyos-apis

The script will look like the following: 



Authorization: Klaviyo-API-Key your-private-api-key
accept: application/json
content-type: application/json
revision: 2024-07-15

{
  "data": {
    "type": "profile-suppression-bulk-create-job",
    "attributes": {
      "profiles": {
        "data": b
          {
            "type": "profile"
          },
          {
            "type": "profile",
            "attributes": {
              "email": "Insert e-mail here"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    "relationships": {
      "list": {
        "data": {
          "type": "Insert List ID here"
        }
      },
      "segment": {
        "data": {
          "type": "Insert segment ID here"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

When the webhook is set active, then re-back populate the segment profiles into the flow. That should work.

Hope that helps or else let me know! :-) 

Christian Nørbjerg Enger
Partner & CPO
Web: Segmento.dk
LinkedIn: @christianfromsegmento
Voldbjergvej 22b, 8240 Risskov


Hi Jackie,

Were these profiles manually suppressed at any point in the last 90 days? Klaviyo has a safeguard in place that prevents a profile from being manually suppressed again within a 90-day window after it has been unsuppressed. This could be what’s triggering the error you’re seeing.

However, this restriction does not apply during the first 30 days of a new Klaviyo account, so if your account was recently created or reactivated, the rule may not be active yet, but it’s good to double-check.

As for your primary concern, you do not need to be on a paid plan to suppress profiles. You should be able to bulk suppress contacts while on a free tier to ensure you only pay for active, intended subscribers when you upgrade.

If you still see an error even though the profiles weren’t recently unsuppressed, it could be a bug or a temporary system issue. In that case, I’d recommend trying again with a smaller list to test, or using the “Upload Suppression List” option via CSV under the "Profiles" tab → Manage Suppressions.

I hope this helps you.