# Suppressions

> Addresses that will never receive email from this project — where they come from, how to add and lift one, and why the list protects you.

Source: https://knowledge.estage.com/crm/suppressions/
Part of the ESTAGE knowledge base (https://knowledge.estage.com). Full corpus: https://knowledge.estage.com/llms-full.txt

---
The **suppression list** is the set of addresses your project will never email, whatever a
broadcast or automation says. It's the single most important safety net you have: it's what stops
you mailing someone who unsubscribed, and what keeps dead addresses from wrecking your
[sending reputation](/email/deliverability/).

Find it under **Suppressions** in the sidebar.

## Where entries come from

| Reason | Added by |
| --- | --- |
| **Unsubscribed** | The system, when someone opts out |
| **Bounced** | The system, when the address rejects mail |
| **Complained** | The system, when someone marks your email as spam |
| **Manual** | You |

The first three arrive on their own. An empty page says so: *"Unsubscribes and bounces will
appear here automatically."*

## Suppressing an address

At the top of the page, type an address — or start typing a name and pick the contact from the
results — choose a **reason**, and click **Add**.

You can also suppress from [Contacts](/crm/contacts/): the **⋯** menu on a row, or **Actions →
Add to suppressions** for a selection.

:::note
Suppressing is not deleting. The contact stays in your list with all their history, tags and
list memberships — they're just excluded from every send. If you re-suppress an address that's
already on the list, its original reason is kept.
:::

## Lifting a suppression

The trash icon on a row asks *"Allow sending to this address again?"* and removes the entry.

Think before you do this. Lifting a **manual** suppression you added yourself is routine. Lifting
an **unsubscribed**, **bounced** or **complained** one means emailing someone who asked you to
stop, or an address that already failed:

- **Unsubscribed** — mailing them again is what generates spam complaints, and in most
  jurisdictions it isn't legal either.
- **Bounced** — the address didn't work. It usually still doesn't, and repeated hard bounces are
  what push your bounce rate over the line.
- **Complained** — this person reported you. There is no version of re-mailing them that ends
  well.

Only genuinely lift one when you know something the system doesn't: a colleague who was
suppressed by mistake, or a domain that had an outage during a send.

## Why this list matters

Mailbox providers judge you on two numbers, and both are driven by mailing people you shouldn't:

- **Bounce rate** — elevated at 2%, over the limit at 5%.
- **Complaint rate** — elevated at 0.1%, over the limit at 0.5%.

Sustained rates above those limits get your project's sending paused and drop your
[sending level](/email/sending-levels/). The suppression list is what keeps you under them, so
working *around* it — re-importing a cleaned-out CSV, say — is the most reliable way to lose your
ability to send at all.

See [Deliverability & reputation](/email/deliverability/) for the full picture.