The Right Way to Manage Duplicate Contacts in HubSpot (Expert Tips)

Managing duplicate contacts in HubSpot (and duplicate companies) can be a headache: it clutters your CRM, leading to confusion or tying up your resources on redundant work. While you can’t avoid duplicates entirely (if only), you can mitigate this. However, if they keep showing up, something’s off—either in your HubSpot setup or how your team is entering data.

Whether you're dealing with a single duplicate HubSpot contact or trying to clean up a lot of duplicate records all at once, understanding how to prevent and fix these issues will keep your database accurate and your team more efficient.

So you have a bunch of duplicate contacts and/or duplicate companies in your HubSpot instance. What should you do? Today we’re going to answer everything you might want to know about managing duplicate records in HubSpot.

How does HubSpot handle duplicate contacts?

HubSpot has a few practices in place to handle duplicate contacts. HubSpot will typically reach out about twice a month to let you know you’ve got duplicate contacts that someone will need to go in and merge.

Example: If you try to create two contacts named "Ted Mosby" with the same email, HubSpot will let you know this record already exists, and prompt you to go to their contact page.

Example 2: Similarly, if you add “Mike Wazowski” without an email, then later add him again with an email—HubSpot will flag this for review.

Example 3: If “Luna Lovegood” appears twice in your CRM with the same email but slightly different spellings (e.g., "Luna" vs. "Lunna"), HubSpot will also prompt you to merge them.

To minimize the amount of duplicates you have, HubSpot relies on email addresses and user tokens, which is why you should always add an email address to a new contact. If you add a new contact without an email, HubSpot won’t catch a duplicate.

To mitigate issues, you cannot create multiple contacts with the same email, no matter what. HubSpot won’t let you create this manually.

How do I find duplicate contacts in HubSpot?

If your CRM is cluttered, use HubSpot’s built-in tools to clean it up. To check for duplicate contacts, go to Contacts > Actions > Manage duplicates.

If you suspect duplicates but HubSpot hasn’t flagged them, manually searching a name may show two records with the same company but different emails, helping you merge them.

To find duplicate companies in HubSpot, follow the same steps under the Companies tab.

How do you merge duplicates in HubSpot? Individual method

Whether you want to merge duplicate contacts or merge duplicate companies in HubSpot, the process is similar. Let’s say you found a duplicate record that HubSpot didn’t flag yet.

To merge individual records:

1. Navigate to the primary contact or company, and click Actions > Merge
2. In the popup, search the name of any duplicates (it might be a misspelled name or different phone number for instance). These will be added into the primary contact/company, i.e. the page you’re on.
3. Click Merge to combine them!

HubSpot Quick Guide to Merging Contacts and Companies

But how to merge your HubSpot contacts/companies in bulk

If you’re on Operations Hub (Professional & Enterprise), you can manage duplicates more easily with bulk merging in the duplicate management tool, and automatic duplicate merging based on specific properties with custom coded workflow actions.

For Professional and Enterprise users, HubSpot offers a duplicate management tool:

1. Navigate to Contacts or Companies
2. Click Actions > Manage duplicates (the same process as finding them)
3. The table shows you side-by-side duplicates. Review the potential duplicate pairs identified by HubSpot's AI, which compares properties like name, email, and phone number.
   
4. Merge or reject duplicates as needed using the buttons.

Remember, if you want to combine duplicate companies in HubSpot, it’s the same process as merging duplicate contacts!

Heads up: once you merge records, you cannot unmerge them, so make sure you’re selecting the right ones!

Automatically deduplicate contacts in HubSpot: Is that possible?

​HubSpot doesn't yet offer fully automated deduplication within its native features, but there are workarounds. You can also check out the best practices below to minimize how often you need to deduplicate contacts. 

To automatically deduplicate contacts, HubSpot's Operations Hub allows for custom coding solutions to manage duplicates, such as scheduling deduplication. This is a bit more advanced – you can set up a workflow that triggers on record creation, uses a unique identifier (like email), and runs a custom code action to detect and merge duplicates.

The first method requires coding and API knowledge, so you might consider integrating third-party tools like Insycle or Koalify, which can identify and merge duplicates based on custom rules and schedules.  

Wait – one of my contacts said they’re getting the same email twice. Is that a duplicate?

Short answer is no. HubSpot automatically deduplicates contacts based on email addresses to prevent sending duplicate emails. However, if contacts receive the same email twice, this means you should review your workflows and list segmentations to ensure they're not triggering multiple sends to the same recipient. ​

For instance, if a lead is in both a welcome sequence and a product update campaign, they might get the same message from both. Similarly, If "Mark Scout" is tagged as both a prospect and a customer, and you send a mass email to both lists, he’ll receive two copies.

Alternatively, sometimes contacts use variations of their email, such as through email aliases (like those offered by Apple or Proton Pass), or add extensions to it (e.g. jimothy+test@email.com will send emails to jimothy@email.com despite being different addresses.)

How to avoid duplicates and manage duplicates going forward (so you’re not constantly merging records)

While you can do a one time fix, database health (and your sanity) needs a system. You should have a system for regularly reviewing and merging duplicate records, using HubSpot’s duplicate management tool.

6 suggestions to keep duplicates at bay:

• Always add an email to new contacts and add domain names for companies. HubSpot will automatically merge contacts and companies (i.e. deduplicate them) based on these fields.
• Schedule regular reviews – Set time aside to catch and merge new duplicates before they pile up.
• Use data validation – Set rules in HubSpot to flag duplicate entries before they’re created, like checking if an email already exists.
• Train your team – Make sure everyone knows how to enter data properly and avoid duplicates.
• Standardize data entry – Use consistent formatting for names, emails, and company details.
• Double-check imports – Before uploading a list, clean and format the data to avoid adding duplicates.

Here are a few advanced deduplication strategies:

• Use unique fields – You can prevent duplicates by requiring unique values for up to 10 custom properties per record type. Just check the box when setting up a property—this stops users from entering duplicate values.
• Bulk merge duplicates – If you have a lot to clean up, third-party tools can help with bulk deduplication.

Are the source of your duplicates from other systems (like Salesforce, your website, Zapier, etc)? If yes, special rules apply.

If your HubSpot syncs with tools like Salesforce, duplicates can creep in. To stay on top of it:

• Turn off auto-company creation in HubSpot to prevent unnecessary duplicates.
• Monitor both systems regularly for duplicate records.
• Know the rules – Different platforms handle duplicates differently, so be sure your deduplication strategies align across systems.

Ready to get a hold of duplicates or tackle the larger issue?

Managing duplicate contacts and companies is a good start, but if duplicates keep popping up, the real issue might lie deeper in your HubSpot setup. If your HubSpot feels cluttered, complex, or underutilized, you're not alone—and we can help.

Simple Strat’s “Fix My HubSpot” service untangles your CRM, simplifies complex processes, and ensures your HubSpot setup fully supports your growth. Our HubSpot-certified experts pinpoint exactly what's causing your issues and transform your CRM from a headache into a reliable source of clarity, efficiency, and growth.

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