Importing Into systeme.io? Dead Addresses Use Up Your Contact Limit

On systeme.io you pay for contacts, so a dead address is a paid slot. Plans are capped by how many contacts you hold (2,000 on Free, 5,000 on Startup, 10,000 on Webinar), not by how many emails you send. An export from an old platform full of bounced, duplicate and long-inactive addresses can push you up a plan before your first broadcast, and then bounce on the first send. systeme.io's own import guide asks you to clean first.

Sources, read 2 November 2026: systeme.io's pricing page, its help articles essential steps to import contacts successfully and how to import or export a contact list. Prices and limits as listed on that date.

What systeme.io asks for

Item	systeme.io
Contact limits	Free 2,000 · Startup 5,000 · Webinar 10,000 · Unlimited no cap
File	CSV, up to 50 MB; delimiter comma, semicolon or pipe
Consent	Only contacts who explicitly agreed to your emails; keep proof of opt-in
Before import	Remove duplicates, invalid and inactive addresses; use a verification service if your old tool can't
Targets	Bounces under 2%, complaints under 0.1%
Inactive	Remove contacts with no opens or clicks in over six months
Lists of 5,000+	Warm up over 7 to 14 days, about 500 on day one, most engaged first
Course students	Import in stages; enrolment sends an access email

Step by step

1. Export from the old tool with statuses (subscribed, unsubscribed, bounced) and engagement dates.
2. Drop bounced addresses and keep unsubscribes separate. systeme.io lets you import unsubscribes with an Unsubscribed status so they're never re-added as subscribers.
3. Cut the inactive. The inactive subscriber finder splits a list into active, cooling and sunset groups; systeme.io's six-month rule is a sensible cut.
4. Dedupe with remove duplicate emails.
5. Verify the remainder on the verify page and remove invalid results. Count what's left against your plan before you import.
6. Import in batches if the list is over 5,000, most engaged first, following systeme.io's 7 to 14 day warm-up.
7. Students last, in stages, since each enrolment triggers an email.

What verification can't settle

Verification shows which mailboxes accept mail; it can't tell you who still wants yours. That's what the six-month cut is for. Some addresses also come back risky or unknown rather than valid: catch-all domains accept everything, and Microsoft consumer mailboxes (outlook.com, hotmail.com) often don't answer single-mailbox checks reliably. Import those in a later batch. Whether deleting a contact frees its slot right away depends on how systeme.io counts at billing time; check the contacts page of your account after a clean-up.

Where SimpleVerifier fits

Verify the export on the verify page; the first 100 checks are free with a Google sign-in. Pro is $39 a month with the first 100,000 checks a month at full speed, then slower, never cut off. For other contact-priced platforms, which contacts count toward your ESP bill and verify before switching ESPs cover the rules. See pricing.