In Mailchimp, a "Cleaned" contact is one that has hard-bounced or experienced too many soft bounces. Mailchimp automatically removes these from future sends. This guide explains what cleaned means, why it happens, and how to reduce it.
Understanding Cleaned Contacts in Mailchimp
1. What cleaned means
Cleaned contacts are addresses Mailchimp has stopped sending to because of delivery failures. A hard bounce (permanent failure) cleans an address immediately. Addresses that soft-bounce multiple times are also cleaned. You cannot send to cleaned contacts without re-importing a new version of the address.
2. Why cleaned contacts hurt your account
High cleaned rates signal poor list hygiene to Mailchimp. Too many cleaned contacts can trigger account review or suspension. They also inflate your subscriber count without contributing to reach or engagement.
3. How to prevent addresses from being cleaned
Verify your email list with BillionVerify before importing into Mailchimp. Remove invalid addresses before they can hard-bounce. This prevents cleaning from happening in the first place.
4. What to do with cleaned contacts
Do not re-import cleaned contacts without first verifying them. If an address was hard-bounced, it is almost certainly permanently invalid. Export the cleaned list, run it through BillionVerify, and only re-import any addresses that come back as valid.