Are there benefits to sending email from regional IPs?
Michael Ko
Co-founder & CEO, Suped
Published 24 Jun 2025
Updated 17 Aug 2025
8 min read
The question of whether sending email from regional IP addresses offers tangible benefits is a recurring one in the email deliverability space. Many businesses, especially those operating internationally, wonder if aligning their sending IP's geographical location with their recipients' location can improve inbox placement. It's a nuanced topic, and the answer isn't a simple yes or no.
While there's a certain intuitive appeal to the idea that a local IP might be viewed more favorably by local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or mailbox providers, the reality of email deliverability is far more complex. It involves a multitude of factors, with IP geolocation being just one, and often not the most dominant one.
My experience suggests that while some implicit behaviors from ISPs might exist regarding regional IPs, the impact is generally less significant than other core deliverability elements. It's rarely the deciding factor in whether your email lands in the inbox or the spam folder.
Ultimately, email deliverability is a soft science, constantly evolving with ISP algorithms and recipient engagement. Understanding the various facets that contribute to successful email delivery is key, rather than focusing solely on IP geography.
The role of IP location in email deliverability
Sender reputation is paramount in email deliverability, and it's largely tied to your IP address and domain. While the location of your IP plays a role, its influence is often secondary to the historical behavior associated with that IP and domain. ISPs prioritize factors like spam complaints, bounce rates, and engagement metrics (opens, clicks) over geographical proximity.
Some ISPs, particularly those in certain regions, might have specific preferences or even unwritten rules that subtly favor traffic originating from IPs within their own country or continent. This isn't usually an explicit block, but more of a rate limiting or slower processing of mail from distant IPs. However, this effect is generally minor for high-volume, reputable senders.
A common concern is whether US email providers throttle email based on sender IP geolocation. While some anecdotal evidence suggests this might happen to a small degree, it's not a widespread or heavily documented policy. The overwhelming consensus is that a strong sender reputation built on consistent, legitimate sending practices outweighs the geographical location of your IP.
Dedicated IP
Offers more control over your sending reputation, as your email volume and practices are the sole determinant of the IP's standing. This is beneficial for high-volume senders who can maintain a consistent sending pattern and positive engagement. A dedicated IP can help ensure emails are not marked as spam. Read more about the benefits of dedicated IPs.
Reputation isolation: Your sending behavior directly impacts your reputation, free from noisy neighbors on a shared IP.
Warm-up period: Requires a dedicated IP warm-up process to build trust with ISPs.
Volume requirements: Best for senders with over 100,000 emails per month.
Regional considerations: US, EU, and APAC
When we look at specific regions, the impact of IP geolocation can vary. For example, a European client sending emails through a North American IP range, or vice-versa, is typically not a major issue for email deliverability. Mailbox providers like Adobe Marketo Engage often indicate that this cross-continent sending does not significantly affect performance for most businesses.
However, this isn't universally true. In some cases, particularly for traffic to Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions, sending from local IPs might show a more noticeable improvement. This can be due to a variety of factors, including regional ISP policies, network infrastructure, and even cultural expectations around digital communication.
It's important to understand that while an IP address can reveal geolocation data like country, region, and city, this information is just one data point. Mailbox providers assess many signals to determine if an email is legitimate. The primary focus for most providers is on combating spam and ensuring a positive user experience, which hinges more on sender reputation and email content than on where the IP is physically located.
Prioritizing other deliverability factors
Given that IP region is often a minor factor, focusing your efforts on other fundamental aspects of email deliverability will yield a far greater return on investment. These include:
Sender reputation: This is the most critical factor. Maintain a positive sending history by only sending to engaged recipients, avoiding spam traps, and keeping bounce rates low. Maintaining a strong IP reputation is key.
Email authentication: Ensure your emails are properly authenticated with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These protocols prove that your emails are legitimate and prevent spoofing. You can check your DMARC record for proper configuration.
Content quality: Avoid spammy language, excessive images, or broken links. Personalize content to increase engagement.
List hygiene: Regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive or invalid addresses, which helps avoid bounces and spam traps. Managing your IP reputation for different clients also contributes here.
While you might think about segmenting your sending IPs by country for deliverability, it's generally more effective to focus on the overall quality of your email program. For instance, rather than geographically segmenting IPs, it's often more beneficial to consider segregating sending IPs by recipient domain if you send vastly different types of email to different audiences (e.g., transactional vs. marketing).
When facing deliverability challenges, it's important to look at the bigger picture before jumping to IP location as the primary culprit. A comprehensive review of your sending practices, authentication, and recipient engagement is almost always the starting point.
Evaluating regional IP advantages
Potential benefits
Some believe that using regional IPs can lead to slightly better routing and reduced latency, potentially improving email delivery speed. It may also align with local data residency requirements in some highly regulated industries, though this is less about deliverability and more about compliance.
Local perception: A minor psychological factor for some recipients, but not a technical deliverability one.
Routing optimization: Could lead to marginally faster delivery due to network paths, though often negligible.
The main driver for using regional IPs often comes from specific client requests or perceived benefits that aren't necessarily backed by strong evidence across all scenarios. For most standard email sending, the physical location of your IP address relative to your recipients is a minor consideration.
Instead, ensure your overall sending infrastructure is robust, including proper DNS records, secure connections, and adherence to industry best practices. Focus on delivering valuable content to engaged recipients, and your emails are far more likely to reach the inbox, regardless of whether your IP is across the street or across an ocean.
The choice between shared and dedicated IPs is typically more impactful than their regional allocation. Shared IPs are suitable for lower volume senders, where the reputation is managed by the provider across many users. Dedicated IPs provide more control and are preferred for high-volume senders, requiring careful IP warming. You can learn more about shared vs dedicated IPs.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Maintain exceptional list hygiene to avoid bounces and spam traps, which are far more detrimental than IP location.
Prioritize a strong sending reputation through consistent volume and high engagement rates.
Implement and monitor DMARC, DKIM, and SPF to ensure proper email authentication.
Segment your audience based on engagement, not just geography, to tailor sending practices.
Focus on content quality and relevance to maximize recipient engagement and minimize complaints.
Common pitfalls
Expecting regional IPs to solve underlying deliverability issues like poor sender reputation or content problems.
Overlooking fundamental email authentication protocols in favor of perceived IP location benefits.
Failing to warm up new dedicated IPs, regardless of their geographical location, leading to initial deliverability problems.
Sending emails to unengaged or old lists, which can quickly damage any IP reputation, regional or otherwise.
Ignoring DMARC reports which provide crucial feedback on email authentication and delivery.
Expert tips
The impact of regional IPs is generally marginal compared to sender reputation and authentication.
For most businesses, EU-US cross-continental sending doesn't significantly affect email delivery.
APAC regions might see slightly more benefit from local IPs due to specific network characteristics.
Focus on the ROI of your deliverability efforts; IP region is usually low on that list.
Email deliverability is a dynamic field, and factors constantly evolve.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that while it's complicated, in some cases, you will get better response from local IPs, but EU-US sending is not the situation where it would be much of an issue.
2020-04-02 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says there is never any guarantee in email delivery, and you should set realistic expectations for clients.
2020-04-02 - Email Geeks
The bottom line on regional IPs
While the idea of sending email from regional IP addresses has some theoretical appeal, the practical benefits for email deliverability are often minimal, especially when comparing major regions like North America and Europe. The real determinants of inbox placement lie in the health of your sender reputation, the robustness of your email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and the quality and relevance of your content.
For most senders, investing time and resources into perfecting these core elements will yield far greater improvements in deliverability than obsessing over the geographical location of their sending IPs. While niche cases or specific regional nuances, such as those sometimes seen in APAC, might benefit from local IPs, these are exceptions rather than the rule for global email sending.
Ultimately, email deliverability is a complex ecosystem. It demands a holistic approach, focusing on building trust with mailbox providers through consistent, legitimate sending practices. Don't seek guarantees in a system that is constantly adapting. Instead, strive for excellence in all areas of your email program, and your messages will find their way to the inbox.
