Update Mailchimp Member

Audience: Low-code Engineers

Skill Prerequisites: Mailchimp account, GDPR fields in Mailchimp

Updates the GDPR marketing permissions of a member of a Mailchimp audience (list), for example to record that someone agreed to receive emails but not direct mail.

note

The Mailchimp actions require the Mailchimp feature to be licensed. They use the Mailchimp Marketing API v3.0. GDPR fields must be enabled on the audience in Mailchimp.

Typical Use Cases

• Save the marketing preferences a user chooses on a consent or preferences form
• Update permissions after a user changes their mind in their profile

Don't use it to

• Update merge fields or interests. Use Subscribe to Mailchimp instead.
• Unsubscribe someone. This action saves the member as subscribed.

Related Actions

Action Name	Description
Subscribe to Mailchimp	Subscribes an address and sets merge fields and interests.

Input Parameter Reference

Parameter	Description	Supports Tokens	Default	Required
API Key	Your Mailchimp API key, for example 0123456789abcdef-us21. The part after the dash tells the action which Mailchimp data center to use.	Yes	empty string	Yes
List Name or Id	The audience the member belongs to. The action first treats the value as an audience ID, then looks for an audience with exactly this name. Name matching is case-sensitive.	Yes	empty string	Yes
Email Field	The member's email address. In forms, select an email field. Elsewhere, enter the address or a token such as [Email].	Yes	none selected	Yes
GDPR Permissions	The permissions to set, one row each. See the columns below.	Yes	empty	Yes
Continue on error	When checked, a failure is logged and the following actions keep running. When unchecked, a failure stops execution.	No	Unchecked	No
Enable debug	Not used. It has no effect.	No	Unchecked	No

GDPR Permissions columns

Column	Description
Field Name	The name of the marketing permission exactly as it appears in Mailchimp, for example Email or Customized Online Advertising. Matching isn't case-sensitive. Supports tokens.
Type	Enabled to grant the permission or Disabled to withdraw it. In expression mode, enter a condition or token that evaluates to true or false, for example [AgreeEmail]. An empty expression counts as true.

Output Parameters Reference

Parameter	Description
Error token name	Optional. The name of a token that receives the error message if the action fails. It's set whether or not Continue on error is checked.

Considerations

• The member should already exist. If the address isn't in the audience yet, it's added as subscribed without any permissions, because a new member has no permissions to update. Subscribe the address first with Subscribe to Mailchimp.
• Unsubscribed members are resubscribed. The member is always saved as subscribed. Don't run this action for people who unsubscribed unless they've asked to receive emails again.
• Unknown permission names are ignored. A row whose Field Name doesn't match a permission on the audience is skipped without an error. Check the names carefully.
• Errors. Mailchimp errors fail the action with a message that includes Mailchimp's response. See Subscribe to Mailchimp for common messages.

Examples

tip

To understand how to use the below examples, please see Running Examples.

1. Save email and advertising consent from checkboxes

This action updates the member with the address in the Email field. The Email permission follows the AgreeEmail checkbox, and Customized Online Advertising is always withdrawn.

{
    "Title": "Update Mailchimp Member",
    "ActionType": "UpdateMailchimpMember",
    "Description": "Save the user's marketing permissions",
    "Condition": null,
    "Parameters": {
        "ApiKey": "[MailchimpApiKey]",
        "ListName": "Newsletter",
        "EmailField": {
            "Expression": "[Email]",
            "Value": "",
            "IsExpression": true,
            "Parameters": {}
        },
        "GDPRPermissions": [
            {
                "FieldName": "Email",
                "Status": {
                    "Expression": "[AgreeEmail]",
                    "Value": "",
                    "IsExpression": true,
                    "Parameters": {}
                }
            },
            {
                "FieldName": "Customized Online Advertising",
                "Status": {
                    "Expression": "",
                    "Value": "false",
                    "IsExpression": false,
                    "Parameters": {}
                }
            }
        ],
        "ContinueOnError": false,
        "ContinueOnOutputTokenError": "",
        "EnableDebug": false
    }
}

Revised 09/25/2026