Seven steps, in order
Find your renewal date and tier
Your Klaviyo billing page shows your plan and next billing date. Put the date in your calendar, and note the active profile count next to your tier's ceiling.
Fix your billing preferences first
In Billing > Preferences, set the email upgrade preference to None or Flexible overages, then select Auto-downgrade profiles and click Update. Auto-downgrade can't run with Automatically upgrade. Without it, a smaller list won't make a smaller invoice.
Build a cold segment that spares buyers
A sensible default: profiles created more than 180 days ago, with no opens or clicks in 180 days, and no Placed Order in the last 365 days. Adjust the windows to your buying cycle. A store that sells once a year needs longer windows than one that sells weekly.
Find the bots
Popup and checkout bots leave random-string addresses, throwaway domains and links in name fields, often in bursts from one form. Klaviyo calls this list bombing. The export check above counts likely bots in your file without uploading it.
Suppress before the 24-hour check
Klaviyo checks for a downgrade 24 hours before your billing cycle ends, so suppress before then. We aim for 48 hours. Bulk suppress works on a whole list or segment, and Klaviyo's suppression screen offers to keep profiles with recent clicks or orders. Suppressed profiles keep their history.
Leave the plan alone until renewal
An upgrade before the downgrade takes effect cancels it, including an upgrade made by hand.
Know the 90-day rule before you undo anything
Once a manually suppressed profile is unsuppressed, Klaviyo won't let it be manually suppressed again for 90 days. Keep a list of what you suppressed, and undo only what you mean to.
Suppress or delete?
Both stop a profile counting toward your plan. Suppressing keeps the profile and its history, so you can still see what that person bought or opened. Deleting removes it for good. For cold subscribers, suppression is the safer default. For obvious bots, either works.
Doing it every month
New signups keep arriving, so the cut has to happen before every renewal, not once. TierBrake runs it 48 hours out each cycle: a dry-run preview, your approval, then the suppression with a CSV backup, and a receipt after renewal.