# Using subscription management
<a name="sending-email-subscription-management"></a>

Amazon SES provides a subscription management capability, in which Amazon SES automatically enables the unsubscribe links in every outgoing email when you specify the `contactListName` and `topicName` within [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_ListManagementOptions.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_ListManagementOptions.html) in the [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_SendEmail.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_SendEmail.html) operation request.

If a contact unsubscribes from a particular topic or list, Amazon SES does not allow email sending to the contact for that topic or list in the future.

**Note**  
Amazon SES subscription management supports *Bulk Sender Requirements* as enforced by many email service providers, see *Section 2* in [An Overview of Bulk Sender Changes](https://aws.amazon.com//blogs/messaging-and-targeting/an-overview-of-bulk-sender-changes-at-yahoo-gmail/) for more information.
Subscription management is available for those using [Easy DKIM in Amazon SES](send-email-authentication-dkim-easy.md), but it’s not possible for Amazon SES to add the unsubscribe links to your email for senders who are signing emails themselves before calling Amazon SES.

For information about list management and how to use it, including retrieving a list of all your contacts who have subscribed to a particular topic, see [Using list management](sending-email-list-management.md).

## Subscription management overview
<a name="subscription-management-overview"></a>

You should consider the following factors when you use subscription management:
+ Subscription management will be fully managed by Amazon SES. This means that Amazon SES receives unsubscribe emails and requests from the unsubscribe webpage and then updates the contact’s preference in your list. You can receive unsubscribe notifications using configuration set notifications. For more information about configuration sets, see [Using configuration sets in Amazon SES](using-configuration-sets.md).
+ You need to specify the contact list while sending the email. Subscription management via the `List-Unsubscribe` header and `ListManagementOptions` footer links will be handled accordingly. 
+ Amazon SES adds support for the `List-Unsubscribe` header standards, which will enable email clients and inbox providers to display an unsubscribe link at the top of the email *if they support it* - not all email service providers support these headers.
+ `List-Unsubscribe` headers follow the following behavior:
  + If a contact clicks the unsubscribe link in an email which has both the contact list and topic specified, then the contact will be unsubscribed only from that specific topic.
  + If the topic is not specified, then the contact will be unsubscribed from all the topics in the list.
+ Contacts will be taken to an unsubscribe landing page when they click an unsubscribe link in the email footer.
+ The unsubscribe landing page will give contacts an option to update their preferences, meaning `OPT_IN` or `OPT_OUT`, for all the topics in a particular list. The landing page also gives an option to unsubscribe from all topics in the list.
+ If using [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_ListManagementOptions.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_ListManagementOptions.html), you must include the `{{amazonSESUnsubscribeUrl}}` placeholder in your emails to indicate where Amazon SES needs to insert the unsubscribe URL. You can include the placeholder two times maximum. If used more than two times, only the first two occurrences are replaced.
+ The `List-Unsubscribe` header and `ListManagementOptions` footer links are added only if the email is being sent to a single recipient.
+ For transactional emails where you don't want contacts to be able to unsubscribe, you can omit the [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_ListManagementOptions.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_ListManagementOptions.html) field with your [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_SendEmail.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_SendEmail.html) request.

## Unsubscribe header considerations
<a name="unsubscribe-header-considerations"></a>

Subscription management through an unsubscribe link is enabled when the email contains the following headers: 

`List-Unsubscribe`

`List-Unsubscribe-Post`

When you use Amazon SES's subscription management, [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_ListManagementOptions.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_ListManagementOptions.html), Amazon SES will override these headers if they are present in the email. 

Recipients who unsubscribe by clicking the link produced by these headers will have a different experience depending on their email client or inbox provider because some providers do not recognize the `List-Unsubscribe` and `List-Unsubscribe-Post` headers; email sent to recipients using such providers will not see the Unsubscribe link.

Recipients whose email client recognizes these headers will see the Unsubscribe link and will be able to unsubscribe via the link but will not have the option of choosing which topics they unsubscribe from, and will simply be unsubscribed from the topic to which the email was sent.

For more information about the `List-Unsubscribe` header, see [RFC 2369](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2369), and for the `List-Unsubscribe-Post` header, see [RFC 8058](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8058).

**Note**  
Amazon SES supports *one-click unsubscribe* in accordance with *Bulk Sender Requirements* as enforced by many email service providers, see [ Using one-click unsubscribe with Amazon SES](https://aws.amazon.com//blogs/messaging-and-targeting/using-one-click-unsubscribe-with-amazon-ses/) for more information.

## Adding an unsubscribe footer link
<a name="adding-unsubscribe-footer"></a>

You will need to use the `{{amazonSESUnsubscribeUrl}}` placeholder in templated and non-templated emails to specify where Amazon SES needs to insert the unsubscribe URL.

Placeholder replacement is supported only for HTML and TEXT content types.

You can include the placeholder two times maximum. If used more than two times, only the first two occurrences are replaced.

**Note**  
The `{{amazonSESUnsubscribeUrl}}` placeholder can only be used if [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_ListManagementOptions.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_ListManagementOptions.html) is specified as a header while using the [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_SendEmail.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/APIReference-V2/API_SendEmail.html) operation or X-SES-LIST-MANAGEMENT-OPTIONS is specified as a header while using the SMTP interface. (Not to be confused with the `List-Unsubscribe` or `List-Unsubscribe-Post` headers which are not dependent on `ListManagementOptions` and can be used by themselves.)