Email Provider Sending Limits & the Pause Feature

Almost all email providers have sending limits. These are usually limits per date or a sliding 24-hour period, and some providers also have burst-limits for the number of email sent per hour or other short period  – which is what will happen when using the Batch Email Manager.  For example, Gmail Workspace accounts can send a maximum of 2,000 emails per sliding 24-hour period, and they also seem to have an undocumented limit of about 60 emails sent in a burst

Typically when a limit is reached, you’ll get a server error that will either say something like “too many email” (in server-speak) or will indicate that the server is refusing your credentials/logging you out.

When this happens you may be blocked form sending for a few minutes, an hour, or a day, depending on the type of limit you hit and the provider’s policies.

To help with burst-limits, the Email Manager includes the “pause technique” feature. When using it you can specify how long to pause and how many emails to send between pauses.

Here we will describe limits for popular providers, link to them, and offer advise for sending using the pause technique.

Gmail

Gmail offers two kinds of email accounts: Personal accounts and Workspace accounts. Personal accounts are free and offer one email address/mailbox. Workspace accounts are paid accounts and offer custom domain names, multiple email addresses/mailboxes, and other features not available for free accounts.

Personal Accounts

Gmail: Email Limits

Send limit: 500 per 24-hour period.

Observed burst limit: ~ 80.

Recommendation: Use the pause technique and set it to send 25 emails and then pause for 30 seconds. We sent 300 emails using these settings with no server errors.

Workspace Accounts

Gmail: Email Limits

Send limit: 2,000 per 24-hour period.

Observed burst limit: ~ 80.

Recommendation: Use the pause technique and set it to send 25 emails and then pause for 30 seconds. We sent 500 emails using these settings with no server errors.

iCloud

Apple: Email Limits

Send limit: 1,000 per day

Observed burst limit: None!

Recommendation: In our testing, the pause technique was not needed. We sent 500 email rapid-fire without pausing.

Office365 & Outlook.com

Microsoft: Email Limits

Send limit: 10,000 recipients per day.

Recommendation: Not yet tested for pause technique settings.

Outlook.com – using Exchange Online

Microsoft: Email Limits

Send limit: 5,000 recipients per day.

But also: Because outlook.com hosts your email account from a different provider, that provider’s limits apply.

Yahoo

Yahoo: Email Limits

Send limit: 500 per day – unverified (Yahoo claims it varies by account, at their whim.)

Recommendation: Not yet tested for pause technique settings.