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 new contact information will be added to the existing contact. For example, if you import a list of contacts that includes "admin@hubspot.com," and an existing contact in your HubSpot account has the email "admin@hubspot.com," the imported information will be added to that existing contact.
  • 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 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, the existing company with that domain will be updated. 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.

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.

Manually review potential duplicate contacts and companies

Understand requirements

For example, a user has Edit permissions set to All Contacts but None for companies. This allows them access to managing contact duplicates only. 

The duplicate management tool identifies duplicates by comparing the records' values for the following properties:

• Contacts: First Name, Last Name, Email address, IP country, Phone number, Zip Code, and Company Name.
• Companies: Company Domain Name, Company Name, Country/Region, Phone Number, and Industry.

The tool automatically calculates results as new contacts and companies are created. It will also check once daily if no records are created on that specific day.

Use the manage duplicates tool

1. Navigate to contacts or companies:
   
   • Contacts: In your HubSpot account, navigate to CRM > Contacts.
   • Companies: In your HubSpot account, navigate to CRM > Companies.
2. In the upper right, click Actions, then select Manage duplicates.
3. View a list of duplicate contact or company pairs for your review. You can also view when the most recent duplicates were identified.

Please note: above the table, Last checked for duplicates on [date] refers to the last time a duplicate was identified by a scan.

• To add or remove columns in the table:
  • On a column header, click the verticalMenuIcon three vertical dots icon, then select Add column or Remove column.
  • In the pop-up box, select the property you want to add. Added properties display as columns for additional detail when reviewing duplicate records. 
• Click the property dropdown menus above the table, then select criteria to filter the records. You can filter by Owner, Create date, Last activity date, and Discovered date (the date the potential duplicate was found). For contacts, you can also filter by Lifecycle stage.
• Click Review next to a pair of contacts or companies to focus on a single pair of possible duplicates. In the dialog box, you can compare the record properties and analyze the record to keep.
  
  • To change which properties are displayed when comparing the records, click Set properties to review. Click Apply once you've selected the properties.
  • Select the contact/company you want to keep, then click Merge. Or, select the contact/company properties you want to keep from each record. Learn more about merging contacts or companies in HubSpot.
  • If the two records are not duplicates, in the dialog box, click Cancel. In the table, click Reject to remove this identified pair from the Manage duplicates dashboard. Rejected suggestions will not appear in the duplicates tool moving forward.

• To reject duplicate suggestions in bulk:
  • Select the checkboxes next to the desired records.
  • At the top of the table, click Reject. The records will be removed from the dashboard and will not appear as a suggestion moving forward.

  Please note: If a record from a previously rejected suggestion is merged into another record, it could reappear in the duplicates tool.

• To undo a rejected pair:
  • In the top right, click Review rejected duplicates.
  • Click Undo.
• To merge duplicate records in bulk:
  • Select the checkboxes next to the desired records.
  • At the top of the table, click Review.
  • In the dialog box, click the Merge criteria dropdown menu, then select the criterion that decides how the records are merged:
    • Most recent engagement: all selected records will be merged into the record with the most recent value for the Last Engagement date property. Engagements that impact this property include interactions with website pages, forms, documents, meetings link, or tracked one-to-one emails.
    • Oldest engagement: all selected records will be merged into the record with the oldest value for the Last Engagement date property.
    • Created first: all selected records will be merged into the oldest record based on the Create date property.
    • Created last: all selected records will be merged into the newest record based on the Create date property.
    • Most recently updated: all selected records will be merged into the record with the most recent property value update. All properties, including hidden internal HubSpot properties, are evaluated.
  • Click Merge all.

Learn more about what happens when you merge contacts or companies.

Manage custom duplicate rules (BETA)

If you're a user in an account enrolled in the Create Custom Rules to Manage Duplicate Records beta, you can configure custom rules that trigger duplicate record alerts. You can create up to two rules per object.

To configure a custom rule:

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Data Management > Data Quality.
2. Click the Manage Duplicates tab.
3. In the Manage Duplicates section, click Create custom rule.
4. In the right panel: 
   • Click the select object dropdown menu and select an object.
   • Click the properties dropdown menu and select properties. You can select up to three.
   • In the Name rule text field, enter a name.
   • When you're finished, click Create.
5. In the Manage Duplicates section, click the object name for which you created the rule.
6. Click the name of a rule on the left sidebar.
7. Review the potential duplicates table.

To delete a custom rule:

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Data Management > Data Quality.
2. Click the Manage Duplicates tab.
3. In the Manage Duplicates section, click Actions then select Manage rules.
4. In the right panel, hover on a rule and click Delete.
5. When you're done, click the X.

View an audit log for duplicate management

View an audit log sharing information about recently auto-merged records and rejected suggestions. This helps you better track automated actions taken by the system, without surfacing manually merged records.

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Data Management > Data Quality.
2. Click the Manage Duplicates tab.
3. Click Actions, then click View history to access the audit log.