What is a good email sending speed and what is the minimum volume to send on a dedicated IP?
Matthew Whittaker
Co-founder & CTO, Suped
Published 7 Jun 2025
Updated 15 Aug 2025
5 min read
Understanding what constitutes a "good" email sending speed and the appropriate volume for a dedicated IP address is crucial for ensuring your messages reach the inbox. It's not just about raw throughput, but about maintaining a healthy sender reputation that allows for efficient and reliable delivery.
Email deliverability is a complex dance between your sending practices and the receiving mailbox providers. Factors like sender reputation, engagement, and content quality often dictate how quickly your emails are accepted and delivered, more so than the technical speed limits of your sending infrastructure.
Understanding email sending speed
A good email sending speed is not a fixed metric like emails per second. Instead, it's defined by your ability to deliver emails consistently without encountering significant throttling or deferrals from mailbox providers. These providers (like Gmail and Yahoo) employ sophisticated algorithms to evaluate incoming mail streams, prioritizing messages from reputable senders.
The actual speed at which your emails are accepted is largely determined by their policies, not simply your system's technical capacity. Poor sending practices can severely limit your throughput, reducing it to mere hundreds of emails per hour to major providers.
This means that while your sending system might technically be capable of sending thousands of emails per second, your effective speed will be constrained by the recipient servers. Focusing on a consistent sending cadence and building a strong sender reputation is far more important than achieving maximum technical speed.
The role of dedicated IP addresses
A dedicated IP address is an IP address exclusively used by your organization for sending emails. Unlike shared IPs, where your sending reputation is influenced by other senders, a dedicated IP gives you complete control over your reputation. This is why many high-volume senders opt for them.
Having a dedicated IP allows you to establish a consistent sending history directly tied to your brand. This can lead to more predictable deliverability outcomes and better control over your inbox placement. However, this also means you bear full responsibility for maintaining that reputation.
The decision to use a dedicated IP versus a shared IP pool largely depends on your sending volume and consistency. Here’s a quick comparison:
Shared IP
Volume: Ideal for low to medium senders or those with inconsistent volumes.
Reputation: Reputation is shared among multiple senders. Good for small bursts.
Management: Typically managed by the email service provider (ESP).
Risk: Your deliverability can be impacted by the sending practices of others sharing the IP.
Dedicated IP
Volume: Best for high-volume senders with consistent email campaigns.
Reputation: You have full control, meaning your practices directly determine your sender reputation.
Management: Requires careful IP warming and ongoing reputation monitoring.
Benefit: Essential for maintaining high inbox placement rates for large volumes.
Recommended minimum volumes for dedicated IPs
The minimum volume for a dedicated IP varies significantly across different email service providers (ESPs) and experts. There isn't a single universal threshold because it depends on various factors, including the type of mail you're sending, your target audience, and your sending cadence.
Many providers suggest a minimum monthly volume to justify a dedicated IP. For instance, some suggest at least 50,000 emails per month, while others recommend 300,000 messages monthly. The common thread is the need for consistent, significant volume to establish and maintain a positive sender reputation on that IP.
If your volume drops below a certain point, the dedicated IP can go "cold," which negatively impacts its reputation. This can make it harder to reach the inbox when you do send emails, as mailbox providers may view infrequent sending from a dedicated IP with suspicion. It is often said that if you have to ask about minimum volume, a dedicated IP might not be necessary.
Here’s a general overview of some stated minimums:
Source
Minimum Monthly Volume
Consistency
Twilio SendGrid
50,000+ emails
Consistent sending advised
Postmark
300,000+ messages
High volume for reputation establishment
Adobe Marketo Engage
100,000+ emails
Stable campaign cadence
Brevo
150,000+ emails (5,000 daily)
Gradual increase from 3,000 daily
MailerSend
50,000+ emails daily
Optimal for sender reputation protection
The importance of IP warming
When you get a new dedicated IP, it has no sending history. You must gradually increase your sending volume over several weeks to build a positive reputation with ISPs. This process is called IP warming, and it's essential regardless of your initial volume.
Failing to warm up your IP or sending inconsistently can lead to emails landing in spam folders or being blocklisted (blacklisted). Even if you have a high monthly volume, it needs to be spread out consistently rather than in large, infrequent bursts.
Beyond volume: other deliverability factors
While sending speed and dedicated IP volume are key considerations, they are part of a broader ecosystem of email deliverability. Your sender reputation, for example, is influenced by factors far beyond just volume. It encompasses your bounce rates, spam complaint rates, and engagement metrics.
Email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are also fundamental. They help mailbox providers verify that your emails are legitimate, reducing the likelihood of them being flagged as spam. Without proper authentication, even emails from a well-warmed, high-volume dedicated IP can face delivery issues.
Additionally, proactively monitoring for blocklist (blacklist) listings is critical. Getting listed on a blocklist can severely impact your deliverability, regardless of your sending speed or dedicated IP status. A holistic approach that considers all these elements is key to optimizing your email program.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Maintain a consistent sending cadence: Regular sending, even at lower volumes, is better for reputation than sporadic, large bursts.
Segment your audience effectively: Send relevant emails to engaged subscribers to minimize complaints and improve positive engagement.
Implement strong authentication: Properly configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to build trust with mailbox providers.
Common pitfalls
Sending inconsistent volumes: Infrequent large sends can make your dedicated IP appear suspicious to ISPs.
Ignoring IP warming: Skipping or rushing IP warming can damage your new IP's reputation from the start.
Poor list hygiene: Sending to unengaged or invalid addresses leads to high bounces and spam traps, hurting reputation.
Expert tips
Consider a dedicated IP only when your consistent daily volume exceeds several hundred thousand emails, as mailbox providers are adept at filtering regardless of IP.
If you're not consistently sending at least 10,000 emails per day, a dedicated IP might not be beneficial and could even harm your deliverability.
Mail stream reputation at specific providers dictates sending limits more than raw technical speed.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that sending limits vary greatly based on the recipient provider and the reputation of your mail stream with them.
2021-01-26 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that a theoretical maximum of 20 million emails per day per IP, around 230 emails per second, can be achieved, but most senders top out at 1-2 million per day per IP.
2021-01-26 - Email Geeks
Optimizing your email sending strategy
Achieving a "good" email sending speed means prioritizing consistent, high-quality sending over raw volume. A dedicated IP is a powerful tool for deliverability, but only when matched with sufficient and regular email volume. Understanding the varying minimum volume recommendations and committing to proper IP warming and ongoing deliverability best practices are essential for success.
Twilio SendGrid
Postmark
Adobe Marketo Engage
Brevo
MailerSend
