# Handling opt-out replies to cold email

> What to do when a prospect replies "remove me": suppress them at once, tell an opt-out apart from a plain no, and read stop requests in every language.

Source: https://docs.ayinbox.com/learn/handling-opt-out-replies/

A reply that asks to stop must end all campaign mail to that person right away, from every mailbox and campaign. AY Inbox reads every reply to a campaign email and puts a sender who writes "unsubscribe", "remove me" or the same request in another language on the suppression list immediately. A plain "not interested" stops the sequence but does not suppress.

An **opt-out reply** is a reply in which the recipient asks not to be emailed again. It is the most important reply you will get, not the least: ignoring one turns a cold email into unwanted mail, invites a spam complaint, and in most places breaks the law. This page covers how to tell one apart from an ordinary no, what AY Inbox does with each, and what you take on if you handle them by hand. The product reference is [unsubscribe and suppression](/guides/unsubscribe/).

Opt-out versus no [#opt-out-versus-no]

The two look alike and need different handling.

| Reply        | Example                             | What AY Inbox does                                                                                                         |
| ------------ | ----------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Asks to stop | "Please remove me from your list"   | Suppresses the address across the workspace and clears the contact's **Subscribed** flag                                   |
| Declines     | "Not interested, thanks"            | Classes the reply as negative. It can stop the sequence, but the contact stays subscribed                                  |
| Defers       | "Not right now, maybe next quarter" | With [inbox tagging](/guides/inbox-tagging/) on, can hold the contact's sequences for a set number of days (30 by default) |

Someone who says no today may be a fit next year; someone who says stop is asking not to be contacted at all. Treating every no as an opt-out throws away people who only meant "not this", and treating an opt-out as a no keeps mailing someone who asked you to stop. How the other reply types are sorted is covered in [classifying cold email replies](/learn/reply-classification/).

What counts as asking to stop [#what-counts-as-asking-to-stop]

AY Inbox looks for explicit requests, read the way a person writes them:

* **Plain phrases.** "Unsubscribe", "opt out", "remove me", "take me off", "stop emailing", "stop sending", "do not contact", "don't email", "please stop", "delete my data" and similar wording.
* **Whole words only.** Phrases match on word boundaries, so "stop by our booth" does not opt anyone out.
* **Only the new text.** The quoted history under a reply carries your own opt-out line, so it is cut before reading. Matching the whole body would opt out everyone who replies.
* **The subject too.** A subject line that says "Unsubscribe" counts.
* **Typed punctuation.** The curly apostrophes mail clients insert are folded, so "don’t email me" matches like "don't email me".

Replies are read the same way in more than 40 languages, whatever languages your workspace tags in: "bitte austragen", "désinscrivez-moi", "denme de baja", "wypiszcie mnie", "отпишите меня" and "配信停止" all opt the sender out. The quoted history is cut in each of those languages as well. A German objection to processing under GDPR ("ich widerspreche der Verarbeitung meiner Daten") counts too, but only in the first person, so a privacy notice in a signature does not.

What does not count [#what-does-not-count]

Only a person answering you can opt out by reply: someone writing in one of your campaign threads, or one of your contacts writing to you. Everything else that lands in a mailbox is left alone, even when it says "unsubscribe":

* a bounce, which returns your own email and its unsubscribe header inside the notice
* an out-of-office or other automatic reply (see [out-of-office replies](/learn/out-of-office-replies/))
* a newsletter or notification sent to a list, whose footer is its own sender's
* mail a contact sent before they became a contact, which cannot be an answer to anything you sent them

The suppression list [#the-suppression-list]

**Contacts > Suppression list** holds every address and domain that no campaign in the workspace will email. An entry stops the address in every campaign, in campaigns created later, and in new emails and replies from the unibox. Importing a list that contains a suppressed address creates the contact but never mails it. A bare domain such as `acme.com` suppresses every address at it.

That is the difference from pausing one lead. A pause on a campaign's Leads tab holds that lead's flow until it is resumed or the hold ends; suppression is workspace-wide and stays until someone removes it. Removing an entry the recipient made, by unsubscribing, complaining or bouncing, asks for a stronger confirmation and is recorded in the audit log. Suppression entries travel with a [workspace export](/guides/workspace-export-import/), so moving instances does not re-mail people who opted out.

Each reply opt-out also fires the `campaign.unsubscribed` webhook with a `source` of `reply`, so a CRM can record it.

Never answer an opt-out automatically [#never-answer-an-opt-out-automatically]

An opt-out deserves silence, not a reply asking why. [Auto-reply](/guides/auto-reply/) checks for opt-out language before it reads the classifier's verdict, and hands the thread to a person with no AI-written text at all. The inbox agent does not draft a reply to a thread tagged **Unsubscribe**, so no credits are spent answering it.

Once the address is suppressed, a unibox reply to it is refused too, with the address named, so nobody on the team answers by accident.

Phrase lists catch explicit requests; they miss looser wording such as an angry complaint that never says "remove". With inbox tagging on, the optional switch **Suppress a contact who asks to be removed** (under **Settings > Sending > Classified replies**) suppresses a sender the classifier reads as asking for removal at confidence 0.80 or above. It is off by default because suppression is the one action AY Inbox cannot undo for you.

Legal requirements [#legal-requirements]

Most regimes require a working opt-out that you honour. CAN-SPAM allows up to 10 business days to honour one, while relying on legitimate interest for business mail in the EU and UK means honouring opt-outs immediately. AY Inbox suppresses as soon as the reply syncs. For what each law asks of cold email, see [cold email rules](/learn/cold-email-rules/). This is general information, not legal advice.

Turning it off [#turning-it-off]

Automatic suppression of reply opt-outs is on by default. Turn it off with **Settings > Sending > Honour replies that ask to stop** only if you will handle every one by hand. Leaving it off while campaigns carry the default reply-to-opt-out line means promising an opt-out you then have to keep yourself. A manual routine looks like this:

1. Each day, filter the unibox on the **Unsubscribe** label (it needs inbox tagging) or search replies for stop requests.
2. Add each sender to **Contacts > Suppression list** with **Add**, one address per line. An entry stops the address in every campaign.
3. Check that nothing more was sent to them since the reply arrived.

If that routine slips even once, a person who asked to stop gets another email. That is why the automatic setting is the default.

## Frequently asked questions

### What should I do when someone replies "unsubscribe" to a cold email?

Stop all campaign mail to that address at once, from every mailbox and every campaign, and do not try to win them back in the same thread. AY Inbox does this automatically by putting the sender on the workspace suppression list as soon as the reply syncs.

### Is "not interested" the same as an unsubscribe request?

No. "Not interested" declines the offer, so the sequence should stop, but it does not ask you never to write again. AY Inbox classes it as negative and does not suppress the contact, while "remove me" or "stop emailing me" does suppress.

### Does a reply count as a valid way to opt out?

CAN-SPAM, CASL and the Australian Spam Act all accept a reply as the opt-out method, which is why AY Inbox's default opt-out line asks people to reply. It only works if every reply asking to stop is honoured, which AY Inbox does automatically unless you turn it off.

### Can I email someone again after they opted out?

Only by removing them from the suppression list on purpose. AY Inbox asks for a stronger confirmation when an entry the recipient made themselves is removed, and records who lifted it in the audit log.