Deduplicate records in HubSpot

HubSpot automatically deduplicates contacts using email addresses, and companies using domain names. Record IDs can also be used to manually deduplicate contacts, companies, deals, tickets, products, admin-activated objects (e.g., appointments) and custom objects. To deduplicate via import, you can include the Record ID property or custom properties that require unique values in your import file.

Automatic deduplication in HubSpot

HubSpot automatically deduplicates contacts and companies that are created in the CRM (e.g., imports, forms submissions) in the following ways:

• Automatically deduplicate contacts by email address
• Automatically deduplicate companies by company domain name

Learn more about how cookies are used for tracking in HubSpot or managing form submission duplicates.

Automatically deduplicate contacts by email address

When a new contact is added, HubSpot will look for a matching value in the Email property. 

• Manual: if you try to manually create a contact with the same email address as an existing contact, HubSpot will alert you that a contact already exists, and you won't be able to add the additional contact.
• Form submission: if a contact already exists in your account with the same email address, the new contact information will be added to the existing contact. If the contact submits a form with their secondary email address, the email address will overwrite the existing email address for the contact. Learn more about HubSpot form submission deduplication settings or non-HubSpot forms.
• Import:
  • If a contact already exists in your account with the same email address, the imported information will update the existing contact rather than create a new one. Only mapped properties are updated, and the import won't delete existing records.

• • If your import file contains secondary email and Record ID columns and you're using the secondary email as the unique identifier, the secondary email replaces the primary email on the existing contact. To prevent the primary email overwrite, don't include the Record ID column for the above scenario.
  • If you don't include the Email property or other unique identifier in your import, each row of your import file will be imported as a new contact record.
  • If multiple records already exist with the same email address as a contact you're importing, you'll receive an import error and that contact won't be imported. 

Automatically deduplicate companies by company domain

• Manual: if you try to manually create a company with the same domain name as an existing company's primary domain, HubSpot will alert you that a company already exists.
• Form submission: if a form submission includes company properties, when the Company domain name is included, an existing company matching the domain will be updated or a new one will be created if the domain doesn't match an existing value. When there's no domain in the submission, if applicable, the contact's primary associated company will be updated.
• Import: when added via import, the primary and secondary Company domain name values are used to deduplicate companies unless you've selected a custom unique value property as the unique identifier instead. If you use a custom unique value property, your file can include duplicate company domain names.
  • If a company already exists in your account with the same domain name or custom unique ID property value, the new company information will be added to the existing company.
  • If multiple companies already exist with the same domain name or custom unique ID property value, you'll receive an import error and that company won't be imported. 

• • If you don't include the primary or secondary Company domain name or another custom unique ID property in your import, each row of your file will be imported as a new company. Learn more about the required format for domain name property values.

Please note: companies created through API will not be deduplicated by the Company domain name property. This includes installed third-party sync apps. 

Manual deduplication in HubSpot

You can manually deduplicate objects (e.g., contacts, listings, custom objects) that are created in the CRM in the following ways:

• Manually deduplicate records by the Record ID property
• Manually deduplicate records by custom unique value properties

Manually deduplicate records by the Record ID property

When you want to import contact, company, deal, ticket, product, admin-activated object (e.g., service) or custom object records, you can use the Record ID property to match up these records with existing records in HubSpot. This is a default property that stores the unique value of the record and can be used to deduplicate records during the import process, or to search for a specific record in HubSpot.

1. To get the Record IDs, export your records or view an individual record's value for their Record ID.
2. Include a Record ID column in your file when you import your records into HubSpot. If you include the Record ID column in your import file, any rows without a value for Record ID will create new records.
3. During the import, you'll be prompted to match the column with Record ID in the HubSpot property column.

Learn more about importing Record IDs and how to set up your import files.

Manually deduplicate records by custom unique value properties

For each object, you can create up to ten custom properties that require unique values. When a property requires unique values, users will be unable to enter the same value for multiple records.

For example, your company creates an order number for each online purchase. You can set up an Order number property that requires a unique number for each deal. If a user tries to create or edit a deal using an existing Order number value, they'll be notified that the number is already in use and will be unable to save the deal.

The following behavior is expected for unique value properties:

• Supported when manually creating or editing a record in HubSpot, and when creating, updating, or associating records via import.
• Not supported in forms. If your goal is to update or associate existing records via form submissions, it's recommended to use the default deduplication properties instead (i.e. Email, Company domain name, Record ID).
• Supported when converting visitors to contacts; visitor property values that violate unique value requirements will be cleared. Learn more about identifying visitors.

Next steps

Learn how to review and manage potential duplicate records.