Export my mailing list out of ActiveCampaign

This is the ActiveCampaign half of moving your list. Do it first, in one sitting, before you open bernard. Move my mailing list from ActiveCampaign is the whole journey; this page is only the downloads.

What you are collecting

Two kinds of file, and the second kind matters more than the first.

• Your people. Each list you actually use, exported with the Active filter. Add Unconfirmed as its own file if you have people sitting in that state and want them as records.
• Your do-not-email side. Each list again with the Unsubscribed filter, each list again with the Bounced filter, and your account exclusion list.

Bernard writes the second kind first, before a single contact exists. That is why it will not read an upload that has none of it unless you tick the box saying there is genuinely nothing to bring.

Exporting a list, by status

1. In ActiveCampaign, open Contacts, then Lists.
2. Click the list you want.
3. Open the Status dropdown and choose one of Active, Unconfirmed, Unsubscribed, Bounced or Any. Active is already selected. Choose one real status. Never Any.
4. Click Export.
5. Name the export in the options window. Use plain letters and numbers: ActiveCampaign warns that special characters make it download as a text file instead of a CSV. Leave every field ticked.
6. Click Export again.

Repeat from step 2 for each status, then for each list. Name them so you can tell them apart later, because when you hand them to bernard you have to say which list and which status each one is: newsletter-active, newsletter-unsubscribed, newsletter-bounced.

Downloading what you exported

The export runs in the background, so you can carry on or close the tab. When it is done, open Contacts, then Exports, and click Download beside it. ActiveCampaign says that download link lasts seven days.

Your exclusion list, by hand

The exclusion list is the account-wide block that stops sending whatever a list says. It is worth understanding why it cannot be skipped: ActiveCampaign is explicit that somebody can be Active on a list and on the exclusion list at the same time, and that they will not be sent your campaigns. So those people are sitting in the Active file you just exported, looking perfectly reachable, and only the exclusion list says otherwise.

There is no export button for it. Open Contacts, then List Exclusions, and copy the addresses into a plain text file, one address per line. Bernard reads that, and it also reads a CSV with an email column if that is easier.

Exporting every contact instead

If you would rather take everything in one file, open Contacts, click the ellipsis at the top right of the overview, and choose Export. That file carries email, first and last name, phone, organisation, account, your custom fields, lead and deal scores, and every tag in a single column.

What it does not carry is any subscription status at all. So it tells you nothing about who unsubscribed, and it is not a substitute for the per-list exports above. Use it as your record of everything, and the per-list files as the thing bernard reads.

What no export will give you

• Contact notes. ActiveCampaign states plainly that notes cannot be exported, in both of its export guides. Copy anything you need by hand now, while your account is still open.
• Automations. There is no export of an automation you own. If your business runs on one, read Move my mailing list from ActiveCampaign before you go any further.
• Where a permission came from. The file may carry a subscribe date, but not whether that person filled in a form, was imported, or was added by hand. That is why bernard asks you, list by list, rather than reading it.

Then come back here

Open Community, the Email campaigns tab, and Bring your list from ActiveCampaign. Bring my mailing list across from another email tool takes it from there, and What does my mailing list import report mean? explains the report you will be asked to approve. Nothing is written until you approve it.

Keep the files. If something looks wrong afterwards you can undo the import and read them again.

Where this comes from

Every instruction on this page is taken from ActiveCampaign's own help centre, read on 5 September 2026 through a text read-proxy because the help centre refuses direct fetches:

• How do I export all contacts? (221393808): the ellipsis route, the export options window, the special-characters warning, the seven-day download link, the column list, and that notes cannot be exported.
• How to export a list (360000055810): the Status dropdown and its five choices, Active being the default, and the columns a list export carries.
• Exclusion list overview (207362110): that an Active contact can also be excluded, how spam complaints are handled, where the list lives, and the absence of any export for it.

Anything ActiveCampaign does not publish is not asserted here. If a screen does not look like this description, trust the screen: ActiveCampaign changes its own product and we would rather you checked in ActiveCampaign than followed a stale instruction from us.