How to see every subscription type a HubSpot contact has

Updated September 2026

HubSpot stores an opt-in status for every subscription type on every contact. Finding and changing it is the slow part. Here's where it lives, how to change one type without touching the others, and when it's worth a faster tool.

What a subscription type is

Subscription types are the categories HubSpot uses for marketing email: things like Newsletter, Product updates or Event invitations. Each marketing email is sent under one type. For each type, a contact is subscribed, unsubscribed, or not specified (never set either way).

A contact can also unsubscribe from all email at once. Then they receive no marketing email of any type, whatever each individual type says.

Where to see them in HubSpot

1. Go to Contacts.
2. Search for the contact and open their record.
3. In the left sidebar, find Communication subscriptions.
4. Click View subscriptions.
5. In the panel that opens, choose the Subscriptions tab to see each type: Subscribed, Unsubscribed or Not specified.
6. Use the History tab in the same panel to see past changes.

That's fine once. It gets slow when your team handles these requests every day: "keep the event invites but stop the newsletter" means going through every one of those steps, for every person who asks.

Changing one type without unsubscribing them from everything

• On the record: edit the status of the one type they asked about and leave the rest.
• In your emails: HubSpot can make an email's unsubscribe link remove the contact from that email's subscription type only, rather than from all email. Check this in your email settings; it stops one unwanted newsletter costing you every other channel.
• In bulk: import a file with subscription statuses, or use the communication preferences API.

When it's worth a faster way

If your team changes subscriptions every day, whether support, membership or events, the clicks add up. The same few steps repeat for every request.

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