Last updated: January 15, 2026
In line with the GDPR’s data protection principles, starting January 15, 2026, we are deactivating accounts belonging to users who have been inactive on Meetup for 3 years or longer.
What does "inactive" mean?
An inactive account is one where the user hasn't interacted with Meetup in any way for the past three years. This includes:
Not opening or clicking emails from Meetup
Not using the Meetup mobile apps
Not visiting the Meetup website
How may this affect my group?
Members of your group: on January 15h, you may have seen a one-off decrease in your group's member count. This reflects the removal of long-inactive accounts, not a drop in your active community.
Attendees to your past events: when it comes to past events attendance, you won't see any changes. This data remains unchanged and you will be able to access historical attendance data as before:
Total attendee count per event
RSVP counts
Manually tracked attendance (if you used the attendance feature)
Will this hurt my group's visibility?
No. Total historical member count isn't used as a ranking metric for groups on Meetup. Your group's visibility is based on factors like:
Activity levels
Member engagement
Overall quality
This cleanup won't negatively impact how your group appears in search results or recommendations.
Did inactive users get notified?
Yes. Before this cleanup, we contacted all affected users and gave them the chance to re-engage with Meetup. Any user who interacted with that notification email will keep their account active.
Will this happen again?
The same inactivity rules will continue to apply going forward, but future account removals will happen gradually over time rather than all at once.
If you — member or organizer — have questions or concerns about this change, contact our Customer Support team and we'll be happy to help.