# Tagging Contacts

Apply and remove tags from individual or multiple contacts.

Tags can be applied to contacts in several ways: from the contacts list (one contact or many
at once), automatically by an automation step, or from your own code through the API. This
page walks through each approach and explains how to remove tags and use them to drive
automations.

## Tagging from the contacts list

The Contacts page is where you tag contacts by hand. It works the same whether you tick one
contact or a whole page of them, and it is the fastest way to tag a group after an import.

1. Navigate to **Contacts**.
2. Use the search box, the status filter and the **Any tag** dropdown to find the
  contacts you want to tag.
3. Tick individual checkboxes, or tick the checkbox in the header row to select the whole page
  and then click **Select all N matching** in the banner to cover every contact
  matching your filters.
4. In the toolbar that appears, click **Add tag** and pick the tag from the
  dropdown. SendBeam applies it to all selected contacts, starts any **Tag Added**
  automation for that tag for the subscribed ones, and reloads the page.

> "Select all matching" covers up to 50,000 contacts in one action, so tagging a whole
> filtered cohort — everyone with status Subscribed, or everyone who already carries another tag —
> is a single click.
> 

## Tagging from the Tags page

The other way round works too. On **Tags**, the **Apply a tag** panel
(or **Add contacts** in a tag row's **⋯** menu, which preselects it) lets you pick the tag and
then either search for the contacts it should go on — type a name or email, click each match to
add it — or describe them with the same filter the Contacts page uses (name or email contains,
status). **Add tag** and **Remove tag** apply to the chosen contacts or
to everyone matching the filter, through the same bulk action, so *Tag Added* automations
fire exactly as they would from the Contacts page.

## Tagging automatically

An automation can add or remove tags as contacts move through it, using the
**Add Tag** and **Remove Tag** steps. Typical patterns:

- Tag everyone who completes a welcome sequence with `onboarded`.
- When a contact submits a particular form, tag them with the campaign or event it belongs to.
- Use a **Condition** step on the contact's existing tags to branch a sequence.

See [Action steps](https://sendbeam.io/docs/automations/steps) for details.

## Tagging via the API

From your own systems, tag a contact with `POST /api/v1/contacts/{id}/tags`
and remove a tag with `DELETE /api/v1/contacts/{id}/tags/{tagId}`;
to tag many at once, `POST /api/v1/contacts/bulk` with `action: "add_tag"`
and either `contact_ids` or a `filter`. These need an API key with the
matching write permission on a Pro or Business plan. This is
the way to record things SendBeam cannot see itself, such as a purchase or a plan change.

> Use a source tag like `import-april-2026` when you bring in an external list:
> tag the imported contacts straight after the import so you can find the batch later.
> 

## Removing tags

You can remove a tag from a contact in three ways:

- **From the contacts list** — select the contacts, click **Remove tag**
  in the toolbar and pick the tag.
- **Automatically** — with a **Remove Tag** step in an automation, or
  through the API.
- **By deleting the tag entirely** — deleting a tag from the Tags page removes it
  from every contact. See [Deleting a tag](https://sendbeam.io/docs/tags/managing#deleting-a-tag) for
  details.

Removing a tag from a contact does not affect the tag itself — it continues to exist and
remains applied to any other contacts that have it.

## Tags in automations

Tags are the main way to start an automation for a specific contact at a moment you choose.
The **Tag Added** trigger enrols a contact the moment the chosen tag is applied —
by hand, by another automation, or via the API.

1. Navigate to **Automations → New Automation**.
2. Choose the **Tag Added** trigger and select the tag.
3. Add your steps — for example a **Send Email**, a **Wait**, and a
  **Condition** that checks the contact's tags before a second email.
4. Activate the automation. From now on, tagging a contact starts the sequence for them.

> To send a campaign to everyone with a tag, build a segment with a **Tag** rule
> (*has tag* / *does not have tag*) and pick that segment as the audience. Tag rules
> combine with the other segment rules, so "has tag *customer* and country is UK" is one
> segment. See [Fields and operators](https://sendbeam.io/docs/segments/operators).
>

---
Source: https://sendbeam.io/docs/tags/tagging-contacts