The Klaviyo sunset flow: clean your list without losing a single buyer

A Klaviyo sunset flow is the polite exit door for your email list. It finds people who stopped engaging long ago, sends them a short “do you still want to hear from us?” series, and marks whoever stays silent for suppression.

Two things make it worth an hour of your time. First, inbox placement: Klaviyo's unengaged segment guide warns that mailing people who haven't engaged in 3–6 months can push your emails into spam at Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook. Second, cost: Klaviyo's pricing page says email plans are priced on active profiles, and suppressed contacts don't count.

Here are the tricks first, then the exact build from Klaviyo's own setup guide, in plain English.

6 tricks for a sunset flow that keeps the right people

1. Run two sunset tracks, not one

Klaviyo's sunset flow article splits the problem in two. Never-openers (not a single open in the last 30–45 days) get a short, single-email sunset, since some may be typos or bots. Lapsed engagers, real people who used to open, get a 2–4 email series. Different people, different effort.

2. Make the email easy to click, not easy to buy

The goal of a sunset email is an open and a click, not a sale. Klaviyo's article says to put several clickable content blocks in the email and to avoid subject lines that give the whole offer away, because people can skip the email and go straight to your site. That doesn't count as email engagement.

3. Write it like a person

Klaviyo's help guide recommends plain text, the {{ first_name }} tag and a personal sender name. Combine that with a clearly recognisable brand, as Klaviyo's blog advises, for example “Sam at YourBrand”. Subject lines that say what is happening work: “Is it time to say goodbye?”

4. Offer “fewer emails” before “goodbye”

Klaviyo recommends prominent unsubscribe and manage preferences links. A preference link that lets someone pick a monthly digest keeps a reader you'd otherwise lose, and an unsubscribe is far better for your reputation than a spam complaint.

5. Exclude Apple privacy opens

Apple Mail Privacy Protection can register opens that a person never made. Klaviyo's unengaged segment guide shows how to add a filter on the Opened Email condition with Apple Privacy Open = false, so these machine opens don't keep dead profiles looking alive.

6. Time suppression before your billing date

Suppression is what lowers your active profile count. Do it a few days before the billing date, then actually move to the lower plan. Our guide to lowering your Klaviyo bill covers the billing side step by step. Worried about the smaller list? My email list growth rate benchmark guide shows why net growth of engaged subscribers is the number to watch.

Step 1: Build the sunset segment

Klaviyo ships a prebuilt Sunset (Email) segment in the Segment library (Audience → Lists & segments → Segment library). If you don't see it, build it by hand with these conditions, all joined with AND, as listed in Klaviyo's sunset flow guide:

• Person can receive email marketing
• Created at least 180 days ago
• Received Email at least 5 times in the last 72 weeks
• Opened Email, Clicked Email, Active on Site, Viewed Product, Checkout Started and Placed Order: 0 times over all time

That's strict on purpose. Everyone in it has had plenty of chances and done nothing at all.

Want a wider net? Klaviyo's unengaged segment uses at least 5 emails received and zero opens and zero clicks in the last 90 days. Treat that one as an exclude segment for campaigns first. Only sunset people from it once they're well past your buying cycle. Mattress and furniture brands should wait much longer than coffee brands.

Step 2: Build the Klaviyo sunset flow

Klaviyo recommends the pre-built “sunset unengaged subscribers” template. Search “sunset” in the flow library. Building from scratch is simple too:

1. Trigger: Added to segment → your sunset segment.
2. Profile filters: Opened Email zero times since starting this flow AND Clicked Email zero times since starting this flow. Anyone who engages, even with a regular campaign, drops out and is never tagged.
3. Emails: 1 to 3. Klaviyo says to keep it to no more than 3, because repeated mail to unengaged people can hurt deliverability.
4. Grace period: a time delay after the last email. Klaviyo uses 3 days for brands that send daily, and 7–10 days for brands that send less often.
5. Property update: create a Boolean property Unengaged = True. This tags people. It does not suppress them.

A 3-email sunset sequence to start from

• Email 1 (day 0): “Should we stop emailing you?” Plain text, two lines, one “Yes, keep me subscribed” link to your site and a manage-preferences link.
• Email 2 (about 4 days later): what they missed. New products since they went quiet, several clickable tiles, same keep-me link. Klaviyo suggests featuring new products and, if you want, an incentive.
• Email 3 (about 4 days later): the honest goodbye. “This is our last email unless you click below.” Then the grace period.

For the never-opener track from trick 1, just send email 3 on its own.

Step 3: Turn it on, including the people already waiting

This is where most sunset flows quietly fail. A segment-triggered flow only fires for profiles that newly join the segment after the flow is live. Everyone already sitting in your sunset segment is ignored.

Klaviyo's fix: set the flow live, click Add past profiles on the trigger, and choose At the beginning so they start from email 1. If the flow still sends to no one, Klaviyo's troubleshooting guide points to two usual causes: AND and OR mixed up in the segment, or a time condition your profiles are too new to meet.

Step 4: Suppress the non-responders

1. Create a segment: Properties about someone → Unengaged is true.
2. Open its action menu in Lists & segments and choose Suppress current members.
3. If the dialog offers Suppress inactive profiles, that option keeps subscribed profiles that haven't marked you as spam and have clicked or purchased in the last 6 months. Use it.

Three rules from Klaviyo to remember. Suppression only applies to current members, so repeat it before future campaigns. Email suppression does not stop SMS or push. And if you unsuppress a profile you suppressed manually, you can't manually suppress it again for 90 days. Bounced addresses are a separate job: Klaviyo suppresses hard bounces itself, but repeat soft bouncers need your help. Here's how in my hard bounce vs soft bounce Klaviyo guide.

Worked example: what a sunset flow changes

Sunset flow vs win-back flow

They sound alike but do different jobs. Klaviyo Academy describes the sunset flow as based on all interactions (email, site activity and purchases), while a win-back flow is based on purchase behaviour. A lapsed customer who still opens your emails belongs in a win-back flow, not a sunset. Run win-back first, and let the sunset flow catch people who ignore everything.

How a sunset flow protects deliverability

Mailbox providers watch how people react to your mail. Gmail's sender guidelines ask bulk senders to keep spam complaint rates below 0.3%. Old, silent addresses don't help that number, and some eventually report you. Klaviyo's blog adds that people who once engaged can still get your biggest campaigns every 6 months or so, but anyone silent for 12–18 months should be suppressed even from those.

Pair the flow with a technical check of SPF, DKIM and DMARC using the email deliverability checker, and our Gmail and Yahoo sender requirements checklist.

Your monthly sunset routine

1. Check how many profiles joined the sunset segment this month.
2. Confirm the flow sent to them (no stuck drafts).
3. Suppress the Unengaged = True segment a few days before billing.
4. Track open and unsubscribe rates with the open rate calculator and unsubscribe rate calculator.
5. Re-check value per subscriber in the email list value calculator. A smaller, engaged list should be worth more per head.

FAQ

Keep reading