SMS Unsubscribes
How many people left your SMS list — the part of a send that costs you audience.
What it means
SMS Unsubscribes is the number of people who left your SMS list, counted on the day they left. It's a count at list level, not a rate per message, and it includes everyone who opted out that day whatever prompted them — a campaign, an automated flow, or a message they'd been meaning to stop for weeks. Opt-outs cluster on the days you send, so read the column against your sending calendar rather than as a flat daily figure.
Show the math
Formula and a worked example
SMS Unsubscribes counts the people removed from your SMS list on a given date. Each point on the SMS Subscriber Growth chart is one day, drawn below the line; the Total row adds the days in your range.
It's a count, not a rate. The per-message version is Unsubscribe RateUnsubscribe RateLower is better; a high rate suggests content or frequency issues., which divides opt-outs by DeliveredDeliveredHigher usually means a larger reachable audience. for one send. This column doesn't care which message they came from.
Worked example. A week runs 40, 35, 260, 55, 30, 25 and 20 opt-outs, so the week totals 465. Against 850 joins in the same seven days, Net SMS Subscribers is +385 — the list grew, and it cost 465 people to do it.
Day three is 260 of that 465. One message accounted for more than half the week's losses, and a monthly total would have buried it completely.
It answers the question
What did this period's sending cost you in people? Every number here is permanent — an opt-out can't be messaged again, and getting that person back means paying to acquire them a second time.
Why it matters
SMS permission is spent once. A quiet subscriber who ignores three campaigns might still buy in March; someone who opted out has closed the channel, and no future campaign, flow or offer reaches them.
It also tells you where the damage happened. Unsubscribe RateUnsubscribe RateLower is better; a high rate suggests content or frequency issues. sits on the campaign and flow rows and names the message; this column sits on the calendar and names the day, catching the losses from automations and one-off sends that nobody thinks to check.
What good looks like
There's no standard number, and zero isn't the target — a list with almost no opt-outs usually belongs to a shop that barely sends. The honest test is the trade: as long as joins outrun opt-outs across the period, the list is growing, and you can read that directly as Net SMS Subscribers. What deserves attention is a single day whose opt-outs dwarf the rest of the month, because that's one decision you can find and stop repeating.
How to improve it
| Lever | What you do | Expect | How long | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast Retire the send that did the damage | Find the spike day on the growth chart, identify what went out, and stop repeating that format | The next comparable week loses fewer people | 2–4 weeks | That send earned something. You're giving up a known revenue row for list health you won't see for a quarter. |
| Fast Stop texting the people who never engage | Hold back profiles that haven't clicked or ordered in months instead of sending to everyone | Fewer opt-outs on the same sending calendar | 2–4 weeks | Smaller sends earn less. Some of those quiet numbers do buy, and you won't know which ones you gave up. |
| Slow Say what you'll send at the moment they join | Put the message type and rough frequency on the sign-up unit itself, not in the terms | Steadier opt-outs from a list that expected what arrived | 1 quarter | Some people won't join once they know the frequency, so SMS Subscribers falls before this column improves. |
| Slow Split the list so each message fits who gets it | Segment by what people bought and how recently, then send different messages to each group | Fewer opt-outs per send at the same volume | 1 quarter | More messages to build and maintain every month, and smaller segments make each send's numbers noisier to read. |
Every lever costs something somewhere. The last column is the one to read twice.
Read it with
Losing people is only a problem relative to what the sending earned. Read the two together or you're judging a cost with no price beside it.
Paying for revenue in people
Harder sending worked and it cost you audience. That's a decision, not a mistake, as long as somebody made it deliberately.
The worst trade
You lost people and the channel earned less. Frequency, relevance or both — either way, nothing here paid for the names.
Welcome sending
More revenue from fewer losses, which usually means the messages fitted the people getting them. The rare corner worth copying.
Quiet
Few losses and little revenue is what a list looks like when you leave it alone. Safe, and it doesn't grow anything.
The count says how much you lost; the rate says which message caused it. A count that climbs while the rate holds steady means you sent more often. A count and a rate rising together points at one specific send, and only the rate column names it.
These two are the same list from both ends, and the gap between them is the whole story. Both rising is churn hiding under growth; opt-outs rising while joins fall is a list that shrinks faster every week you leave it alone.
Common misreads
Near-zero opt-outs usually means near-zero sending. A list nobody hears from stops being an asset — it ages, forgets you, and reports the next message as spam instead of unsubscribing.
This is a count, so it grows with the list and with how often you send. A list twice the size losing twice as many people is holding exactly the same rate — check Unsubscribe Rate before you rewrite anything.
Automated flows send on their own triggers alongside your campaigns, so one day's total can mix the two. Confirm it on the campaign and flow rows before you blame the message you happen to remember.
Also called
SMS opt-outs · unsubscribes · list churn · removals
See yoursYour SMS Subscriber Growth day by day, with opt-outs below the line and joins above it, so the spikes are easy to date.
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