Add or remove contacts from a list
Last updated: November 17, 2020
Applies to:
All products and plans |
When using your list in other HubSpot tools, you may want to include or exclude certain contacts in the list. To do this, you need to understand the type of list you are working with and the contacts you want to add to or remove from the list.
You can create and use active and static lists in your HubSpot account:
- An active list automatically updates its members based on its criteria. Contacts will join the list only when they meet the criteria and leave the list only when they no longer meet the criteria.
- A static list does not update its members after its creation. It is a snapshot of contacts who meet a set criteria at a point in time. The contacts in the list do not change automatically.
When you want to add or remove contacts from a list, you should identify whether your list is active or static. When accessing your list, view the left panel below the list name.


Add or remove contacts from an active list
Because contacts automatically enter and leave a list based on an active list's criteria, to add a contact to an active list, you can:
- update the contact to meet the active list's criteria; or
- update the list criteria to include the contact.
To remove a contact from an active list, you can:
- update the contact to fail the active list's criteria; or
- update the list criteria to exclude the contact.
Example
- List A is an active list with only one filter: Deal property | Amount | is greater than $5,000. This filter includes only contacts associated to deals that have an amount more than $5,000.
- You want to use List A but you want to exclude Bill, whose email is bill@aldersoncorp.com. Bill is included in the list because he is associated to a deal that has an amount of $8,000.
- You can remove Bill from the list by updating his record. Possible actions include removing Bill from being associated to the deal or updating the Amount in the deal Bill is associated to to be below $5,000. Both actions may affect the sales process.
- You also can remove Bill from the list by updating the list criteria. To the existing active list criteria, add an AND criteria of Contact property | Email | is not "bill@aldersoncorp.com".
- If you want to remove a group of contacts, including Bill, from the list, consider using the List membership criteria and excluding the list that Bill and the other contacts are in.
Add or remove contacts from a static list
When a static list is created, there will be no change to its members, unless another user in your HubSpot account specifically adds contacts to the list or removes contacts from the list.
If you have access to workflows, you can create a contact-based workflow and use the Add to static list and Remove from static list actions to modify a static list.
Bulk add contacts to a static list from your contacts home
- In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Contacts.
- Select the checkboxes next to the contacts you want to add to the static list. You can use saved filters to help with this selection.
- To add a few individual records, select the checkboxes next to the records you want to edit.
- To add all of the contacts on a page, select the Select all checkbox at the top of the table. Learn how to customize the number of contacts that appear in a page.
- At the top of the table, click the More dropdown menu and select Add to static list.
Add a single contact to a static list from the contact record
- In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Contacts.
- Click the name of the contact you want to add to a static list.
- In the right panel under the List memberships section, click Manage list memberships.
- In the upper right, click Add to list.
- Click the Search for a static list dropdown menu and select the static list to add the contact to, then click Add [contact name] to this list.
Remove contacts from a static list
Please note: removing contacts from a static list does not delete them from your HubSpot portal. Learn more about permanently deleting contacts in a list.
- In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Lists.
- Click the name of the static list.
- In the list, select the checkboxes next to the contacts to remove from the list.
- At the top of the table, click Remove from list.

- In the dialog box, click Remove to confirm.
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