How quickly must unsubscribe requests be honored under CAN-SPAM?

CAN-SPAM requires that unsubscribe requests be honored within 10 business days. Once someone clicks your unsubscribe link and completes the opt-out process, you have that window to remove them from your promotional email lists. After that deadline, sending them commercial email violates federal law.

Additionally, your unsubscribe mechanism must remain functional for at least 30 days after sending the email. If someone opens an email three weeks after receiving it and clicks unsubscribe, the link must still work. Broken unsubscribe links violate CAN-SPAM requirements regardless of when the email was sent.

While 10 days is the legal maximum, best practice is immediate suppression-most ESPs process unsubscribes in real-time. The 10-day window exists to accommodate legacy systems and manual processes, not as a target to aim for. Recipients expect instant results; delayed unsubscribes often result in spam complaints because people assume the link didn't work. The 10-day requirement is a legal ceiling, not a goal-modern email operations should suppress recipients within minutes, not days.