---
title: "Empty an audience"
description: "Takes every contact out of the audience in one transaction. The audience stays, with its id, name and description, and every contact stays in the address book, in the default audience and in its other audiences."
url: "https://openemail.uk/docs/api/audiences/empty"
area: "API"
category: "Mailbox"
---

# Empty an audience

Takes every contact out of the audience in one transaction. The audience stays, with its id, name and description, and every contact stays in the address book, in the default audience and in its other audiences.

`POST /audiences/{id}/empty`

## POST /audiences/{id}/empty

Takes every contact out of the audience in one transaction. The audience stays, with its id, name and description, and every contact stays in the address book, in the default audience and in its other audiences.

## Example

Needs `audiences:write`. There is no body.

**curl**

```
curl -X POST "$OE/audiences/aud_4c1b8e2a7d9f05c36b4e8a71/empty" -H "$AUTH"
```

**Response**

```
{
  "object": "audience",
  "id": "aud_4c1b8e2a7d9f05c36b4e8a71",
  "name": "Product updates",
  "description": "Customers who asked to hear about releases",
  "builtin": null,
  "contactCount": 0,
  "lastContactAt": null,
  "createdAt": "2026-09-18T09:10:00.000Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-09-18T09:10:00.000Z",
  "removed": 3
}
```

> The response is the audience as it now stands, plus `removed`, the number of memberships taken away. Emptying an audience that is already empty answers `removed: 0`.

> There is no undo, and nothing records who was in the list. Walk `GET /audiences/{id}/contacts` first if you may want it back. The app asks the person to confirm who they are before it empties a list, and a key has no such step, so issue `audiences:write` deliberately.

> The built-in default audience cannot be emptied. That call is refused with `409` `audience_immutable`.