Do this before you need it. Not when you have decided to leave, not when the renewal lands — today, while your account is fully active and every button still works.
Exporting your contacts takes about four minutes. Getting locked out of the export takes one cancelled subscription.
Why the timing matters more than the task
Most platforms let you export while you are paying and make it awkward once you are not. Cancel or downgrade, the account drops to a restricted state, and the export sits behind the plan you just left. People discover this at exactly the wrong moment.
There is no downside to having a copy. It costs nothing, it changes nothing, and it means the decision to leave is never a technical one.
What to export from your email list
Most exports default to email addresses only. That is the least useful version. Take everything the platform will give you:
- Email address. Obviously.
- First name, if you collected it.
- Signup date. Matters more than people expect — see below.
- Source or tag. Which freebie or form they came through. This is what lets you segment later instead of treating a 2023 subscriber the same as last week's.
- Consent record. When and how they opted in.
Signup date and consent source are the two people skip, and they are the two you cannot reconstruct afterwards. If your platform offers them, take them.
The one almost everybody forgets
Export your unsubscribes as well.
Every platform keeps a suppression list — people who opted out, bounced, or marked you as spam. That list does not travel with a normal contact export, because a normal export gives you active contacts only.
Import your active list into a new platform without it, and the people who unsubscribed from the old one are now fair game on the new one. They will get emailed again. They opted out, and from their side you have ignored it.
That is a genuine compliance problem, not just bad manners. Find the suppression or unsubscribed list, export it separately, and add it to the new platform's suppression list before you send anything.
Where the export usually lives
It varies by platform, but it is almost always in one of three places: the contacts or audience section, account settings under data or privacy, or an admin export area. If you cannot find it in ten minutes, search the platform's help centre for "export contacts" rather than clicking around — the wording differs and the path is rarely where you expect.
You will get a CSV, either downloaded straight away or emailed to you. Save it somewhere that is not the platform you are leaving.
After the import, slow down
Once the list is in a new platform, resist the urge to announce it.
Send one ordinary email first — normal subject, normal content, nothing about the move. You are checking that it arrives in inboxes rather than spam. A new sending setup with an imported list is exactly the profile that gets filtered, and you want to find that out with one email rather than a campaign.
If it lands, carry on as normal. If it does not, you have a deliverability problem to fix before you have an audience problem.
Should you actually leave?
Exporting is worth doing either way. Leaving is a separate decision, and there is one number that settles it: what your list or your product earns per month against what the subscription costs. If it clears the bill comfortably, stay and stop thinking about it.
If it earns nothing, you are paying to store contacts. Here is what six of the main platforms charge, and what you actually need to run the same setup — which for most people is fewer tools than they are currently paying for.
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Having somewhere to import to before you cancel is the whole point of doing this early. A free account is enough to hold the list, run the import and send that first test email, and it does not ask for a card — so you can have the safety net in place today whether or not you actually move.
Set up somewhere to import toFree forever plan — 2,000 contacts, no credit card
What happens to the list once it is there
Worth knowing before you import: the email side handles the opt-in pages, the sequences and the sending from one place, so a list arriving from elsewhere does not need a separate form builder or automation tool bolted on.
If you would rather watch the import done than read about it, there is a free video course covering contacts and imports — no signup needed to watch.
Once it is imported, the next thing worth setting up is what new subscribers receive automatically — a three-email welcome sequence that sends itself takes about an hour and then runs without you.
The short version
Export today, not when you need it. Take names, dates, tags and consent, not just addresses. Export the unsubscribes separately and honour them. Import somewhere, send one ordinary email, and check it arrives.
Four minutes now against a list you cannot get back later.
If you want the whole setup laid out in order with screenshots of every step, the free 30-page quickstart guide takes it from empty account to first delivery.
Common questions
Can you export your email list after cancelling?
Sometimes, but do not count on it. Many platforms restrict the account once billing stops, and the export is one of the first things to go. Export while the subscription is still active.
What format do email list exports come in?
A CSV file, either downloaded immediately or emailed to you. Any email platform will import a CSV, so the format is rarely the obstacle — the missing columns are.
Do you have to keep unsubscribes when you switch platforms?
Yes. An opt-out applies to you as the sender, not to the tool you happened to be using. Export the suppression list separately and load it into the new platform before your first send.
Will an imported list land in spam?
It can. A new sending setup with a freshly imported list is a common filtering trigger. Send one ordinary email first and check where it lands before running any campaign.
How often should you back up your email list?
Monthly is plenty for most people, or after any significant growth. The point is that a copy exists somewhere outside the platform holding it.
Related reading: how to start an email list with zero followers · the free tools that actually run an online business