MailerLite organizes subscribers into groups, and an export gives you the group you selected with its custom fields. Accounts here are usually small enough that the whole file is comprehensible in a spreadsheet.
Getting the addresses out of MailerLite
Subscribers, select a group or filter, then Export to CSV.
Before the account review, ideally. MailerLite approves new senders by hand and the first import is part of what they are looking at.
What MailerLite does with the file you bring back
The import rules decide what a re-import actually changes, which is worth knowing before you upload.
The short version
- Imports match on email and update the existing subscriber.
- Bounced and unsubscribed subscribers are not reactivated by an import.
- Custom fields import alongside and can hold a verification verdict.
- A large import on a newly approved account may draw a second look, so pacing the first few sends is sensible.
The mistake to avoid
Some addresses come back unresolved, and that is a fact about the receiving server rather than a gap in the check. We label those and never bill for them. What that means, and why roughly 28% of business addresses land there, is set out on our page about catch-all domains.
9,200 subscribers, a 10,000 limit and a 1,000-row import
Picture a bakery chain with 9,200 active subscribers on a MailerLite plan that allows 10,000. A loyalty app hands over 1,000 addresses collected on tablets at the till. Upload them all and the count reaches 10,200.
Deleting the duds afterwards won't bring you back under in time. MailerLite's billing help describes a cumulative count inside each billing cycle, where any address that was active at some point in the cycle counts toward the limit even if it's deleted later. Tablet signups are typo-heavy, so suppose a check finds 190 invalid and 50 unknown among the thousand. Import the 760 that passed and you're at 9,960. The bakery stays on its plan and the 190 never touch the account.
For a file this small our free 100 checks a month won't stretch far enough, but the 1,000 pack is $5 and the 50 unknowns aren't charged.
Delete and forget are two different buttons
MailerLite offers two ways to remove a subscriber, and the difference matters for hygiene. Delete takes the person off your list while keeping their history, so an old unsubscribe is still remembered. Forget is the privacy option that erases their data for good. Check the wording in your own account before using either in bulk.
Here's the trap. If you forget a batch of unsubscribed people to tidy up, the platform may have no memory that they opted out, and a later import of an old spreadsheet can bring them back as active. Unsubscribed and bounced subscribers don't count toward your bill, so there's nothing to gain by erasing them unless someone has asked you to.
MailerLite also has a built-in cleanup for inactive subscribers. That tool answers a separate question, which is who stopped reading, and it works best after the undeliverable addresses are already out.
Questions people ask
Should I verify before MailerLite approves my account?
Yes. The first campaign carries unusual weight on a new account, and arriving with a clean list and a clear consent story is what makes approval straightforward.
How do groups help with verification results?
Put each verdict into its own group. Confirmed addresses go out first, unresolved ones follow later, and your campaign statistics stay readable.
Does a smaller list cost less?
Yes, billing is by subscriber count. Removing addresses that cannot receive mail lowers the tier as well as the bounce rate.