How many emails can I send from one IP address per day?
Matthew Whittaker
Co-founder & CTO, Suped
Published 7 Aug 2025
Updated 17 Aug 2025
7 min read
The question of how many emails you can send from a single IP address per day is one that comes up frequently in email deliverability discussions. It's a critical point, because exceeding hidden limits or mismanaging your sending volume can quickly lead to emails landing in spam folders, or worse, your IP address ending up on an email blocklist (or blacklist).
The simple answer is, there isn't one universal number. The effective daily sending limit for an IP address is a dynamic figure, heavily influenced by a complex interplay of factors, rather than a fixed cap set by some central authority. While an IP technically has the capacity to handle millions of messages per day, practical deliverability constraints mean this raw capacity is rarely reached in a way that ensures inbox placement.
Instead, it's about managing your sender reputation, understanding the nuances of how Internet Service Providers (ISPs) view your sending patterns, and adapting your strategy accordingly. This guide explores these factors to help you understand your actual daily sending potential.
Understanding IP capacity and reputation
While an IP address can technically process a very high volume of emails, such as 1 to 2 million messages per day, this refers to its technical throughput, not its deliverability potential. The real challenge isn't the IP's ability to send emails, but rather the willingness of recipient mailbox providers to accept those emails into the inbox.
The primary determinant of your effective sending limit is your sender reputation. ISPs utilize sophisticated filters that assign a reputation score to your sending IP (and domain), which then dictates whether your emails land in the inbox, spam folder, or are rejected entirely. A new IP address, for instance, has no established reputation and must be carefully warmed up to build trust with ISPs. This process involves gradually increasing your sending volume over time.
Ignoring this warming process or sending too much too soon from a new IP can severely damage your reputation, leading to immediate blocklisting or throttling. For more on this, explore our insights on IP warming best practices.
Factors influencing daily sending limits
Several key factors beyond raw IP capacity influence how many emails you can effectively send daily:
Sender reputation: This is the most critical factor. Your history of sending clean, desired mail to engaged recipients directly impacts your deliverability. A poor reputation (due to high bounce rates, spam complaints, or sending to spam traps) can drastically reduce the number of emails an ISP will accept from your IP, regardless of its technical capacity. Regularly checking your IP's status on public blocklists and monitoring your domain's reputation are vital steps.
Recipient engagement: High open rates, click-through rates, and low unsubscribe rates signal to ISPs that your emails are valued. Low engagement can quickly lead to filtering. It's about sending to people who actually want your emails.
Content type: Transactional emails (like password resets or order confirmations) typically have higher deliverability expectations and different volume tolerances than marketing or promotional emails.
List quality: Sending to invalid or inactive addresses inflates bounce rates and can quickly lead to your IP being flagged by spam traps. Regularly cleaning your email lists is essential.
ISPs like Google and Microsoft (Outlook/Hotmail) have their own internal filtering rules and volume guidelines, which are often not publicly disclosed as hard limits. For example, Google provides email sender guidelines that emphasize reputation over specific numbers, while Salesforce suggests a guideline of 2 million emails per day from a single, fully warmed-up IP. These numbers are highly dependent on maintaining a pristine sender reputation.
Proactive steps
Monitor your lists: Regularly remove inactive or unengaged subscribers. This reduces bounces and spam complaints.
Segment your audience: Send highly relevant content to engaged segments to boost interaction and maintain a good reputation.
Authenticate your emails: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to prove your emails are legitimate and prevent spoofing. Find out more about email authentication.
Shared versus dedicated IP addresses
Your choice of IP address type, whether shared or dedicated, significantly impacts your effective daily sending volume.
Shared IPs are common for smaller senders or those with inconsistent volumes. Your reputation is pooled with other senders using the same IP, which can be both a benefit and a drawback. While it requires less individual management, a poor sender on the same shared IP can negatively impact your deliverability, regardless of your own practices.
Dedicated IPs offer complete control over your sender reputation, making them ideal for high-volume, consistent senders. However, they require careful warming and consistent sending to maintain a good reputation. If you don't send enough mail, or if your volume is erratic, a dedicated IP can actually hurt deliverability. General recommendations suggest a minimum of 50,000 to 100,000 emails per month (or even daily, depending on the provider) to justify and maintain a dedicated IP's reputation.Understanding what volume justifies a dedicated IP is key.
Shared IP addresses
Your sending reputation is shared with others using the same IP. This can be beneficial if other senders maintain a good reputation, as it gives new or low-volume senders a baseline level of trust. It's often the default for smaller email service providers (ESPs).
Pros: No IP warming required, lower maintenance, often cheaper.
Cons: Vulnerable to reputation issues caused by other senders, less control over deliverability.
Dedicated IP addresses
You are solely responsible for your IP's reputation. This provides maximum control and is crucial for high-volume senders who need consistent performance and predictable deliverability. It requires careful IP warming and ongoing volume.
Pros: Full control over reputation, higher throughput potential, better for predictable, high-volume sending.
Cons: Requires careful IP warming, consistent high volume, can be expensive.
Practical guidelines and monitoring
Given the dynamic nature of email sending limits, a proactive approach to deliverability is essential. This involves strategic sending practices and continuous monitoring.
Always start with low volumes, especially if you're using a new IP address or haven't sent emails in a while. Gradually increase your sending volume over days and weeks, closely monitoring your deliverability rates. This IP warming process helps build trust with ISPs and avoids triggering spam filters.
Monitoring is non-negotiable. Keep a close eye on your bounce rates, spam complaint rates, and inbox placement. Utilize DMARC monitoring to gain insights into how your emails are being authenticated and handled by ISPs. If you notice a sudden drop in deliverability or an increase in complaints, investigate immediately. Timely action can prevent long-term damage to your sender reputation, which can be difficult to recover.
Finally, ensure all your emails are properly authenticated with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. These protocols verify that your emails are legitimate and come from your authorized domain, significantly reducing the likelihood of them being marked as spam or rejected.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Maintain consistent sending volumes to help ISPs build a reliable profile of your email behavior.
Segment your audience and tailor content to ensure high engagement, reducing spam complaints.
Regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive users and prevent hitting spam traps.
Always warm up new IP addresses gradually, starting with small volumes and increasing slowly.
Common pitfalls
Sending a sudden burst of emails from a cold IP can trigger spam filters and lead to immediate blocklisting.
Ignoring low engagement metrics, which signals to ISPs that your emails are not desired.
Neglecting to monitor blocklists (blacklists), leading to unawareness of reputation damage.
Failing to implement or properly configure email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
Expert tips
Consider a dedicated IP if you consistently send over 100,000 emails per month for better reputation control.
Pay close attention to ISP-specific feedback loops (FBLs) to identify and address issues promptly.
Prioritize email quality and audience relevance over raw sending volume to protect your sender reputation.
If your sending volume exceeds 1-2 million emails per day, proactively consider adding more IP addresses.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says there is no single correct answer regarding daily email volume, as it depends on many factors including recipient mailbox distribution, sender types, content, and reputation metrics. Infrastructure considerations managed by your ESP also play a role. While an IP can technically send 1-2 million messages per hour, specific circumstances greatly influence actual limits.
2023-05-01 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that a general guideline for daily email volume from a single IP is around 1 to 2 million messages.
2023-05-01 - Email Geeks
Maximizing your email sending potential
The maximum number of emails you can send from one IP address per day is not a fixed universal rule, but a flexible guideline primarily governed by your sender reputation. While an IP's technical capacity can be in the millions, your actual deliverability hinges on how ISPs perceive your sending behavior.
Factors like recipient engagement, content relevance, list quality, and consistent sending volume are far more influential than a static number. Proactive IP warming, diligent monitoring of deliverability metrics, and robust email authentication are critical to maximizing your daily sending potential while ensuring your messages reach the inbox. Prioritize quality and relevance over sheer volume, and your IP reputation will follow.
Google and 
Microsoft (Outlook/Hotmail) have their own internal filtering rules and volume guidelines, which are often not publicly disclosed as hard limits. For example, Google provides email sender guidelines that emphasize reputation over specific numbers, while 
Salesforce suggests a guideline of 2 million emails per day from a single, fully warmed-up IP. These numbers are highly dependent on maintaining a pristine sender reputation.
