What is the minimum send volume needed for a dedicated IP address?

Key findings

• Volume ranges: Industry recommendations for dedicated IP send volume vary significantly, ranging from a few thousand emails per day to over 250,000 per month. This wide range indicates there is no universally agreed-upon minimum.
• Reputation challenges: Lower sending volumes on a dedicated IP can make it challenging to establish and maintain a consistent sender reputation with Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Insufficient data points can hinder ISPs from accurately assessing your sending behavior.
• Impact of small issues: At lower volumes, even a small number of complaints, bounces, or spam trap hits can disproportionately affect your overall metrics, leading to a rapid negative impact on deliverability.
• ISP sophistication: Modern mailbox providers are increasingly sophisticated, capable of differentiating individual sender reputations even on shared IP addresses. This means that problems on a shared IP might not always be attributed to other senders.

Key considerations

• Assess current issues: Before moving to a dedicated IP, thoroughly evaluate if your current deliverability issues on a shared IP are genuinely caused by other senders, or if they stem from your own sending practices.
• IP warming: A new dedicated IP requires a careful warming process. This involves gradually increasing your sending volume over time to build trust with mailbox providers. Learn more about the best practices for dedicated IP warm-up.
• Domain reputation: Focus on strengthening your domain reputation and ensuring proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) as these factors often have a greater impact on deliverability than IP reputation alone, especially for lower volumes.
• ESP flexibility: If your ESP has stringent dedicated IP requirements, inquire about alternative solutions such as being moved to a different, potentially cleaner, shared IP pool.

Key opinions

• Lower volume feasibility: Many marketers report successfully using dedicated IPs for volumes as low as a few thousand emails per day or approximately 20,000 emails per day, directly contradicting higher ESP thresholds.
• ESP policy variation: Marketers frequently encounter ESPs that impose very high minimum thresholds (e.g., 500k+ emails per day) for dedicated IPs, which they often perceive as excessive or unnecessary.
• Value perception: Despite potentially higher costs, marketers are willing to pay for a dedicated IP to gain more control over their sender reputation, particularly if they are experiencing deliverability issues on shared IPs.
• Shared IP concerns: A primary motivation for seeking dedicated IPs is the concern about negative impacts from the sending behavior of others on shared IP addresses.

Key considerations

• Specific metric monitoring: Marketers should monitor actual deliverability impacts such as decreases in key metrics (open rates, click-through rates) or emails consistently going to spam, rather than relying solely on abstract sender scores.
• Engagement-based sending: Maintaining a clean, engaged email list and practicing conservative sending based on engagement are crucial, regardless of whether you use a shared or dedicated IP.
• Justification for change: Carefully weigh the severity of existing deliverability problems against the potential challenges and responsibilities of managing a dedicated IP at lower volumes.
• Shared pool alternatives: If problems on a shared IP are significant and clearly external, consider asking your ESP to move your sending to a different, potentially cleaner, shared IP pool or neighborhood.

Key opinions

• Volume for reputation: A common expert guideline for maintaining a dedicated IP's reputation is approximately 100,000 emails per week, or between 100,000 and 250,000 emails per month.
• Economy of scale: Negative email metrics, such as complaint rates, do not scale down proportionally with low sending volume. This means a small number of complaints can lead to a disproportionately high complaint rate on a dedicated IP, which exceeds typical ISP thresholds.
• ISP discernment on shared IPs: Major mailbox providers are generally advanced enough to distinguish individual sender reputation on shared IP addresses, even if other senders on the same IP are sending problematic traffic, provided proper authentication is in place.
• ISP-specific behavior: Gmail's filtering mechanisms are often less IP-dependent, focusing more on domain and content, while Hotmail (Outlook.com) may show more IP influence, and Yahoo (now combined with AOL and other Verizon Media Group properties) is typically less influenced by IP reputation.
• High volume threshold for dedicated: Some experts recommend dedicated IPs primarily for very high volumes, sometimes exceeding 1 million emails per day.

Key considerations

• Authentication: Ensure that SPF and DKIM records are correctly configured and customized for your client's domain. This allows mailbox providers to accurately attribute sender reputation to the domain, rather than just the IP. A good starting point is understanding DMARC, SPF, and DKIM.
• Monitor actual impact: Focus on tangible deliverability metrics like blocks or rejections, and overall inbox placement, rather than less critical scores such as Sender Score, which may not directly influence filtering decisions.
• Shared IP pool strategy: If you are experiencing severe issues (e.g., getting on a blocklist or blacklist) on a shared IP, consider asking your ESP to move you to a different shared pool or 'neighborhood' rather than immediately jumping to a dedicated IP. Understand what happens when your IP gets blocklisted.
• IP warming is critical: If transitioning to a dedicated IP, implementing a careful IP warming schedule is essential to gradually build a positive reputation and ensure consistent inbox delivery.

Key findings

• Diverse recommendations: Suggested minimum volumes for dedicated IPs in official documentation range broadly, from as low as 50,000 emails per week to upwards of 150,000-250,000 emails per month.
• Thresholds for plans: Many ESPs tie access to dedicated IPs to higher-tier service plans or specific minimum send volumes, reflecting their internal infrastructure costs and deliverability management strategies.
• Maintaining reputation: The primary rationale behind these volume thresholds is to ensure enough consistent activity to build and maintain a positive or neutral reputation with Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
• Machine learning algorithms: Sufficient volume provides the necessary data for machine learning algorithms used by ISPs to accurately assess sender behavior, identify patterns, and assign a reliable sender score.

Key considerations

• Consistency over peaks: Documentation often implies that maintaining a consistent send volume over time is more crucial for reputation than occasional high-volume peaks. This ensures a steady flow of data to ISPs.
• IP warming necessity: Regardless of the stated minimum volume, nearly all documentation stresses that all new dedicated IPs require a structured warming process to gradually build trust.
• Service provider specific: Always consult the specific requirements and recommendations of your chosen email service provider, as their policies for minimum monthly email send volume for dedicated IPs can differ greatly.
• Benefits analysis: Understand the full spectrum of benefits that a dedicated IP can offer (e.g., more control, less risk from other senders) and weigh them against the challenges of maintaining reputation at lower volumes.