Added vs Unsubscribed, Klaviyo

Added vs Unsubscribed for the selected period. Side-by-side inflow and outflow counts whose net is your true list growth. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it.

Metrics type: Supporting Metrics • Category: Email Marketing

The two numbers that decide whether your list is actually growing: profiles added against profiles unsubscribed, per period. The gap between the bars is net growth.

At a glance

A grouped bar chart placing profiles ADDED next to profiles UNSUBSCRIBED for each interval in the selected period. The net of the two, adds minus unsubscribes, is true list growth, and this card is the raw count comparison that sits directly underneath the derived Subscriber Growth Rate percentage. Where the growth-rate card gives you a single tidy number, this card lets you see which side of the equation is moving: a falling growth rate could mean acquisition slowed, churn rose, or both, and only the two bars side by side tell you which. As with all inflow figures, double opt-in can delay when an add registers, so a tall add bar may belong partly to the prior period’s marketing.

What it counts	Two series per interval: profiles added to lists, and profiles who unsubscribed, over the selected period. The visual gap between them is net list movement.
API endpoint + statistics field	Derived from list membership and consent changes via GET /api/lists and GET /api/profiles, bucketed per interval. Adds and unsubscribes are tallied separately and plotted as grouped bars.
Relationship to growth rate	This is the raw count comparison that underlies Subscriber Growth Rate, the derived percentage. Same inputs, presented as counts rather than a rate.
Lists vs segments	Both series measure list membership (static opt-in groups), not segment membership, which is dynamic and rule-driven.
Consent status	Adds count profiles reaching subscribed; unsubscribes count profiles moving to unsubscribed. Suppression events (bounces, spam complaints) are tracked separately on the suppressed-profiles card.
Chart type	Grouped bar (two series per interval).
Time window	Selected period, bucketed by day or week.
Alert trigger	The card surfaces both series; a period where unsubscribe bars overtake add bars is the at-a-glance warning. Hard thresholds live on the rate and spike cards.
Roles	owner, marketing

Calculation

Calculated automatically from your Klaviyo data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

Worked example

A skincare brand on Shopify sending two campaigns per week to a 60,000-profile list. The 30-day window covers 14 Mar 26 to 12 Apr 26. All figures are illustrative.

Week (in window)	Added	Unsubscribed	Net
14 Mar to 20 Mar	1,180	410	+770
21 Mar to 27 Mar	1,240	390	+850
28 Mar to 03 Apr	1,090	1,520	-430
04 Apr to 12 Apr	1,160	470	+690
Window total	4,670	2,790	+1,880

Net list growth (window) = 4,670 added - 2,790 unsubscribed = +1,880
Average add bar          = 4,670 / 4 weeks  = ~1,168 per week
Average unsub bar        = 2,790 / 4 weeks  = ~698 per week

Five observations:

1. Net growth for the window is +1,880 profiles. The list grew, but the headline hides the story. Three of four weeks were healthily positive; one week went negative. The grouped bars make that single bad week obvious in a way a monthly growth-rate number would mask.
2. Week of 28 Mar is the problem. Unsubscribes (1,520) overtook adds (1,090) for a net of -430. The add bar barely moved, so this was an outflow event, not an acquisition collapse. That points at a specific send, a list-wide blast, a re-engagement campaign to dormant profiles, or a poorly targeted promotion.
3. Acquisition is steady and dependable. The add bars hover around 1,100 to 1,240 every week with no collapse. The growth problem this window is entirely on the unsubscribe side, which is where investigation should focus.
4. This is why the count view matters. The Subscriber Growth Rate card would show the window as net positive, which is true but incomplete. Only the side-by-side bars reveal that one campaign nearly wiped out a week of acquisition. Read the count card when the rate card moves and you want to know which lever caused it.
5. Sustained crossover is the real danger. A single negative week is recoverable. If the unsubscribe bars sit above the add bars for several consecutive periods, the list is shrinking structurally and the brand is burning audience faster than it can replace it. That pattern warrants pausing aggressive sends and auditing send frequency.

Sibling cards merchants should reference together

Added vs Unsubscribed is the count-level view of net list movement. Pair it with these:

Card	Why pair it with Added vs Unsubscribed
Subscriber Growth Rate	The derived percentage this card feeds. When the rate moves, this card shows whether adds or unsubscribes drove it.
Added to List Trend	The inflow series on its own, in area form, for a closer look at acquisition shape.
Unsubscribe Trend	The outflow series on its own, for spotting which send a churn spike followed.
Unsubscribe Rate	Normalises unsubscribes against sends, which separates “we mailed more” from “people are leaving faster”.
List Health Summary	The overall condition roll-up that net movement contributes to.

Reconciling against Klaviyo

Where to look in Klaviyo:

• Audiences → Lists & Segments → [the list] → Growth plots adds and removals over time per list, the closest native equivalent to this card when scoped to one list.
• Audiences → Lists & Segments → [the list] → Subscribers for joined dates, and the suppressed/unsubscribed views for the removal side.
• Analytics → Metrics → Subscribed to List and Unsubscribed from List if those metric events are tracked, for an event-level reconciliation of each series.

Why our number may legitimately differ:

Reason	Direction of divergence
Time-zone. Klaviyo buckets in account time zone; Vortex IQ buckets in UTC. Either bar can shift across a day boundary near midnight.	Per-interval bars move; window totals stay close.
Double opt-in lag. Confirmed adds register at confirmation, so an add bar can belong partly to the previous period’s activity.	Add bars can appear shifted later.
List scope. Klaviyo’s per-list Growth chart shows one list; this card may aggregate across lists unless scoped.	Vortex IQ can run higher when aggregating.
Suppression vs unsubscribe. A hard bounce or spam complaint suppresses a profile but is not the same as a self-service unsubscribe. The two are counted on different cards, so totals will not match a generic “removals” figure.	Unsubscribe bar excludes suppression.
Page caps. Membership and profile reads paginate at 50 per page; large windows are assembled across many pages with minor mid-pull drift possible.	Marginal.

Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Is “net” the same as the number on the Subscriber Growth Rate card? They share inputs but express them differently. This card shows net as a raw count (adds minus unsubscribes); the growth-rate card converts that movement into a percentage of the base. Use this card to see which side moved and the rate card for the normalised headline.

Why doesn’t the unsubscribe bar include bounces and spam complaints? Because those are suppression events, not voluntary unsubscribes, and they behave differently. A subscriber clicking “unsubscribe” is a list-health and content signal; a hard bounce or spam complaint is a deliverability signal. They are tracked on separate cards so you can act on the right cause. See the suppressed-profiles card for the suppression side.

The add bar lags my marketing pushes by a day. Is that a bug? No. With double opt-in, an add counts at confirmation, not at form submission, so an add bar can sit a day or two after the campaign that drove it. The unsubscribe bar, by contrast, registers immediately, which is why a churn spike lines up tightly with the send that caused it.

Unsubscribes overtook adds for one period. Should I be worried? A single crossover, especially right after a large or poorly targeted send, is recoverable and usually traces to that one send. Worry when the unsubscribe bars sit above the add bars for several consecutive periods, which means the list is structurally shrinking and send frequency or targeting needs a rethink.

Can I scope this to a single list? Yes, and you should when reconciling against Klaviyo, because Klaviyo’s native Growth chart is per-list. Aggregated-across-lists totals will not line up with a single-list view in Klaviyo.

Adds are flat but unsubscribes are creeping up. What does that mean? Acquisition is steady while retention is eroding. Common causes are rising send frequency fatiguing the base, content drift away from what subscribers signed up for, or a recent re-engagement push to dormant profiles that prompted them to leave. Read the unsubscribe rate alongside this card to confirm whether it is frequency-driven.

Does a re-subscribe count on both bars? A profile that left and later rejoined registers a fresh add when it returns. The earlier unsubscribe already counted in its own period. So a churned-and-returned profile can appear on the unsubscribe bar in one period and the add bar in a later one.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Added vs Unsubscribed is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Klaviyo and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English.

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