Do I really need 70 dedicated IPs for 70 million emails per month?

No, you typically do not need 70 dedicated IPs. A single, well-managed dedicated IP can often handle two million emails per day, totaling over 60 million per month. For 70 million emails, one to two dedicated IPs are generally sufficient, provided you maintain excellent sender reputation and practices.

What factors influence how many dedicated IPs I need for high-volume sending?

Key factors include the type of email you're sending (transactional vs. marketing), your sender reputation, email authentication, and the quality of your recipient list. Consistent engagement and low complaint rates allow you to send higher volumes per IP.

What is IP warming and why is it important for high-volume sending?

IP warming is the process of gradually increasing email volume on a new dedicated IP to build trust with ISPs. For 70 million emails per month, this process can take several weeks or even months to ensure a positive sender reputation and avoid blocklisting (or blacklisting).

Should I use shared or dedicated IPs for 70 million emails per month?

A shared IP might be suitable for inconsistent or lower volumes (e.g., up to 100,000 emails per month) where you benefit from pre-warmed IPs. However, for consistent high-volume sending like 70 million emails, a dedicated IP offers more control over your sender reputation and is generally recommended for optimal deliverability.

What are the most critical aspects of email deliverability for high-volume senders?

Beyond IP numbers, focus on proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), maintaining a clean and engaged email list, segmenting your audience, and continuously monitoring your deliverability metrics to proactively address any issues.

Do you need 70 dedicated IPs to send 70 million emails per month? - Sender reputation - Email deliverability - Knowledge base

The question of how many dedicated IPs are needed for a given email volume often arises, especially for high-volume senders. It is common to hear a rule of thumb, like one dedicated IP for every one million emails sent per month. If we were to follow this strictly, sending 70 million emails per month would imply a need for 70 dedicated IP addresses. This sounds like a monumental task, both in terms of management and cost.

However, this simple ratio often leads to a significant misunderstanding of how email deliverability truly works. While such guidelines exist, they represent a very conservative baseline, and in many cases, they are outdated for modern email sending practices. The reality is far more nuanced, and you likely do not need 70 dedicated IPs to handle 70 million emails per month.

The truth about dedicated IP volume limits

The common guideline suggesting one dedicated IP per one million emails per month is often misconstrued. This figure is a conservative estimate that may apply to specific use cases or older sending infrastructures. Modern email service providers and large-scale senders can often manage significantly higher volumes per dedicated IP, provided their sending practices are optimal.

A single, well-managed dedicated IP address can comfortably handle two million emails per day or more, translating to over 60 million emails per month. This means that for a volume of 70 million emails per month, one to two dedicated IPs are generally sufficient, rather than an excessive number like 70. The key differentiator is the sender's reputation, which is built on consistent, high-quality sending.

Different providers offer varying recommendations on email volume per dedicated IP. Some, like Mailgun, suggest 1 million emails per month as a general average, while others, like UniOne, calculate based on daily volumes that result in a much higher monthly capacity per IP. This disparity highlights that the 1-million-per-IP rule is not universal and can often be conservative, as noted by some in the industry who consider it a money grab from some providers.

Provider	Recommended Volume/IP (approx. monthly)	Notes
Mailgun	1 million	Minimum 100,000 for dedicated IP
UniOne	2.5 million	Calculated from 85,000 per day
Mailjet	90,000	Minimum 3,000 daily for effectiveness
Salesforce Marketing Cloud	100,000 - 250,000	Recommended but not required for this range
Amazon SES	50,000	General recommendation
Twilio SendGrid	500,000	Suggests 2 IPs for up to 1 million/month
Instiller	4.5 - 6 million	Calculated from 150k-200k daily

Ultimately, the capacity of an IP address depends heavily on the sender's reputation. A clean IP with consistent, desired sending patterns and low complaint rates can handle much higher volumes than an IP with a questionable history or bursty sending patterns. Focusing on building and maintaining a strong sender reputation is more critical than simply adding more IPs.

Key factors in dedicated IP allocation

The number of dedicated IPs you truly need is influenced by several factors beyond just raw email volume. It is about understanding your sending profile and optimizing for deliverability, not just capacity. Ignoring these elements can lead to emails landing in spam folders, even with many dedicated IPs.

Different email types, different IP needs

Transactional emails: These are typically high-priority, time-sensitive emails like password resets, order confirmations, and shipping notifications. They generally have very high open and click rates and low complaint rates. It is often recommended to send these from a separate dedicated IP with an excellent reputation to ensure consistent, fast delivery.
Marketing emails: These include newsletters, promotional campaigns, and re-engagement emails. They tend to have lower engagement rates and higher complaint rates than transactional emails. These can often be sent from a different set of dedicated IPs, or even a shared IP if volume is inconsistent or lower, to protect the reputation of your transactional IP.

This segregation helps isolate any potential deliverability issues that might arise from one type of email sending, preventing it from affecting the other.

Your sender reputation is paramount. Whether you use a shared or dedicated IP, your reputation dictates inbox placement. A shared IP means your reputation is tied to other senders on that IP, which can be risky if one sender performs poorly. A dedicated IP gives you full control, but also full responsibility, over your reputation.

Shared IP

Pros: Instantly warmed up, less management, good for lower or inconsistent volumes.
Cons: Deliverability impacted by other senders, less control over sender reputation. Consider if you should use a shared or dedicated IP.

Dedicated IP

Pros: Full control over sender reputation, higher volumes if managed well, better for consistent high volume. Read what volume justifies a dedicated IP.
Cons: Requires careful warming up, poor practices can quickly tank your own reputation. Learn the recommended minimum monthly email send volume.

Your audience engagement, combined with your list hygiene, profoundly impacts your deliverability. Sending to unengaged subscribers or those who frequently mark your emails as spam will damage your IP reputation, regardless of how many IPs you use. Regularly cleaning your list and focusing on sending relevant content to an interested audience are crucial for maintaining a healthy sender score.

IP warming strategies for high volume

When you acquire new dedicated IPs, you cannot immediately send 70 million emails. IP warming is a critical process where you gradually increase your sending volume over time, allowing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to recognize your IP as a legitimate sender. Rushing this process can lead to immediate blocklisting (or blacklisting) and severe deliverability issues. This applies even if you are a compliant sender with a weekly sending pattern.

Example of a gradual IP warming schedule

Day 1: 1,000 emails
Day 2: 2,000 emails
Day 3: 4,000 emails
Day 4: 8,000 emails
...
Day N: Reaching full volume capacity gradually

For a volume as high as 70 million emails per month (approximately 2.3 million daily), IP warming can take several weeks, potentially even a few months, to reach full capacity. It's not about sending as many emails as possible in the shortest time, but about establishing a consistent sending pattern that builds trust with ISPs. This means if you need to warm up a new IP to send a large number of emails, like 25 million emails per day, patience and strategy are vital.

Once warmed, maintaining a good reputation requires consistent sending. Sporadic, high-volume bursts can negatively impact your reputation and even lead to a temporary blocklist (or blacklist) placement. It is crucial to maintain a stable, predictable sending volume on your dedicated IPs to ensure long-term deliverability.

Beyond IP numbers, optimize your email program

While the number of IPs plays a role in managing high volumes, it is secondary to the overall health and optimization of your email program. Focus on foundational email deliverability principles that ensure your messages consistently reach the inbox.

Best practices for high-volume senders

Implement authentication protocols: Ensure your emails are properly authenticated with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. This proves to ISPs that you are a legitimate sender.
Maintain list hygiene: Regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive or invalid addresses, reducing bounce rates and spam trap hits.
Segment your audience: Send targeted content to engaged segments, improving open rates and overall engagement.
Monitor engagement metrics: Keep a close eye on open rates, click-through rates, bounces, and complaint rates. Low engagement or high complaints are red flags.
Provide easy unsubscribe options: Make it simple for recipients to opt out, reducing spam complaints.

Regularly monitoring your email deliverability and IP reputation through feedback loops and monitoring tools is essential. This proactive approach allows you to identify and address any potential issues before they escalate, preventing your IP from being added to a blocklist (or blacklist) and ensuring your messages reach the inbox consistently. This is especially true for large sending volumes, where even small issues can be amplified.

Views from the trenches

Best practices

Maintain a high sender reputation by consistently sending valuable content to engaged subscribers to support high volumes on fewer IPs.

Segment your email streams (e.g., transactional vs. marketing) and consider using separate dedicated IPs for each to isolate reputation risks.

Prioritize strict list hygiene, regularly removing unengaged or invalid addresses to prevent bounces and spam traps.

Implement strong email authentication protocols, including SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, to prove your legitimacy to ISPs.

Common pitfalls

Assuming a large number of IPs is the primary solution for high volume, rather than focusing on sender reputation and quality.

Neglecting IP warming for new dedicated IPs, which can lead to immediate blocklisting and poor deliverability.

Sending inconsistent or bursty volumes on dedicated IPs, which can damage reputation and trigger ISP filters.

Failing to monitor deliverability metrics (bounces, complaints, engagement) which hides underlying issues that impact inbox placement.

Expert tips

For 70 million emails/month, 1-2 dedicated IPs are usually sufficient if your sending practices are impeccable.

Reputation is more critical than the sheer number of IPs; a good reputation allows for higher throughput per IP.

Focus on content quality and recipient engagement to build and maintain the trust needed for high-volume sending.

Proactively address any deliverability issues, like blocklist entries, to protect your sender reputation.

Marketer view

A marketer from Email Geeks says they are not seeing the math for needing 70 IPs for 70 million emails per month, as 70 million emails per month is approximately 2 million emails per day, which is well within the range of a single IP address.

2025-03-04 - Email Geeks

Expert view

An expert from Email Geeks says a basic guideline suggests one could send approximately 2 million emails per day from a single dedicated IP, though actual volume depends on sender reputation.

2025-03-04 - Email Geeks

Final thoughts on scaling email infrastructure

The idea that you need 70 dedicated IPs to send 70 million emails per month is a common misconception, stemming from outdated or overly conservative guidelines. In practice, a well-managed email program sending this volume typically requires only one or two dedicated IP addresses. The emphasis should shift from merely acquiring more IPs to meticulously building and maintaining a stellar sender reputation.

Focus on segmenting your email streams, executing a thorough IP warming plan, ensuring proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and prioritizing list hygiene and recipient engagement. These factors collectively contribute far more to your email deliverability than a high number of dedicated IPs. By optimizing these elements, you can achieve excellent inbox placement for your high-volume sends with a lean, efficient IP infrastructure.