Overview
Sending limits are the maximum number of emails you can send from your mailbox. Sending limits are important for email deliverability because they act as guardrails, preventing you from sending too many emails too quickly and getting flagged as spam.
There are two kinds of sending limits:
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Mailbox provider sending limits |
Each mailbox provider has its own thresholds and anti-spam policies to ensure you're sending legitimate messages, not spam. These limits are set by your mailbox provider, like Gmail or Yahoo, and limit the number of emails you can send per day and hour. There are additional unpublished limits beyond time, including:
Check out some common mailbox provider send limits. To maintain a healthy email deliverability rate and keep your domain reputation safe, you should aim to keep your email activity as close to average as possible. The average person doesn't send more than 50 emails a day — even when they're incredibly active via email. |
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Apollo sending limits |
These sending limits apply only to emails sent within Apollo. You can configure email sending limits on Apollo to follow best practices, stay within your mailbox provider's thresholds, and help maintain strong email deliverability. Apollo sending limits are subordinate to your mailbox provider's limit — meaning, if your mailbox provider limits you to 50 emails per day, and you set your Apollo limit to 60, you are exceeding your overall limit by 10. To keep your email account safe, Apollo advises staying within the recommended limits. |
Apollo doesn't send emails on your behalf. When you use Apollo for engagement, emails are sent via your connected mailbox. Because sending limits are per mailbox, you can connect multiple mailboxes from providers like Gmail or Microsoft to manage volume safely. Got questions about email sending limits? Apollo has answers. Check out frequently asked questions.
Review the following sections to learn more about email sending limits and to configure email sending limits on Apollo.
Configure Sending Limits on Apollo
Start with 50 emails per day for each mailbox and monitor your results. If you notice deliverability issues, lower your sending limits immediately. Once you consistently achieve at least a 5% reply rate and maintain a strong domain reputation, increase your daily volume gradually. Higher sending limits can negatively affect deliverability.
To scale more safely, link additional mailboxes instead of raising the limit for one mailbox. The number of mailboxes you can connect depends on your Apollo plan. If you reach your plan's mailbox limit, your existing mailboxes continue to send normally, but you must remove a connected mailbox or upgrade your plan before adding another.
To configure your sending limits:
- Launch Apollo and click Settings > Email setup and health.
- Apollo displays the daily and hourly limits for each connected mailbox.
Tip: If you can't see the number of emails sent vs your limit, zoom out on your browser or try scrolling horizontally in the table.
The Sent vs Limit counter shows the emails sent through Apollo from that mailbox during the previous 24 hours. This includes sequence emails, manual sequence emails, one-off emails sent through Apollo or the Chrome extension, follow-ups, and other Apollo deliveries associated with the mailbox.
Email warmup traffic and emails sent directly from your inbox outside Apollo don't count toward the counter. If you also use your mailbox outside Apollo, lower your Apollo sending limit to help protect your deliverability.
- To change the limits, click the mailbox you want to edit.
- Manually edit the sending limits for daily and hourly, and set the minimum delay between emails. Listed are Apollo's recommended sending limits:
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Emails sent per day:
50-100emails -
Emails sent per hour:
10-20emails -
Delay between emails in seconds:
60-300seconds (1-5 minutes)
- When finished, click Save changes.
Daily Apollo sending limits use a rolling 24-hour window. Each time Apollo tries to send an email, it checks how many qualifying emails the mailbox sent through Apollo during the previous 24 hours.
The limit doesn't reset at midnight in UTC or your local time. Sending capacity returns gradually as each earlier send becomes more than 24 hours old. If the mailbox reaches its effective limit, Apollo keeps the remaining emails scheduled and retries them automatically when capacity becomes available.
Apollo applies sending limits per mailbox. Your team's Apollo plan or active email warmup may lower the effective limit for a mailbox. Your mailbox provider also applies separate sending limits.
- (Recommended) If you haven't already, configure an unsubscribe link to accompany your email signature. If you give recipients an option to unsubscribe, they're less likely to flag your email as spam.
You have now set email sending limits on Apollo. When a mailbox reaches an hourly or daily limit, Apollo keeps the remaining emails scheduled and retries them automatically when sending capacity becomes available.
If Apollo isn't sending as many emails as expected, your mailbox provider may be the culprit. While you can set sending limits within Apollo, your provider (like Gmail or Outlook) enforces its own limits behind the scenes. If you configure a higher limit in Apollo than your provider allows, email volume will still be capped by the provider — not Apollo.
FAQs
| Frequently asked questions | ||
|---|---|---|
| What happens when I reach a sending limit, and when does it reset? | What are the sending limits for Gmail vs. Outlook (or other providers)? | Why is my email provider delaying my emails? |
| What happens if my mailbox provider limits or suspends my account? | Why does Apollo recommend only 50 emails/day? Can I increase that? | Will Apollo stop sending if my email account gets suspended by my provider? |
| Can I disable an email domain to temporarily stop emails from being sent? | ||
What happens when I reach a sending limit, and when does it reset?
When a mailbox reaches an hourly or daily Apollo sending limit, Apollo keeps the remaining emails scheduled and retries them automatically when sending capacity becomes available.
Daily limits use a rolling 24-hour window that Apollo evaluates each time it tries to send an email. The limit doesn't reset at midnight in UTC or your local time. Instead, capacity returns gradually as each earlier send becomes more than 24 hours old.
To check the status of your emails:
- Launch Apollo and click Emails.
- Apollo displays the status beside each email.
If the status is Scheduled - Delayed, you may have reached an Apollo sending limit. Apollo automatically retries the email when the mailbox has available sending capacity.
If you see the Scheduled - Delayed status and haven't hit your sending limit, it's likely due to your sequence schedule. Check out Configure a Sequence Sending Schedule to learn more.
What are the sending limits for Gmail vs. Outlook (or other providers)?
Each mailbox provider has its own daily and hourly sending limits. These limits can change without notice and are in addition to any undocumented limits like spam complaints or sending volume history. Refer to your mailbox provider for exact details.
- Gmail (Google Workspace): Up to 2,000 emails/day
- Gmail (Free accounts): Up to 500 emails/day
- Microsoft Outlook (Office 365): Up to 5,000 emails/day
These limits may vary based on your account type, age, reputation, and sending behavior. Additionally, providers often apply hidden limits and throttling based on spam complaints, message content, or engagement patterns.
What happens if my mailbox provider limits or suspends my account?
If your mailbox provider suspends or rate limits your email account, it means you've sent too much underperforming content or too many emails per day or hour. You should immediately lower your sending limits on Apollo, check your sequence statistics, edit the email content of any messages that received a high bounce or spam-blocked rate, and follow any further instructions from your email provider to resolve the issue.
Check out Apollo's Guide to Avoid Spam Filters, Email Deliverability Checklist, and Mastering Email Deliverability Webinar to learn more.
If your email service provider limits your account and you continue to hit their rate limits, they will suspend your account. Check out Google Support for more information on recovering a suspended Gmail account or reach out to Google support directly.
Why does Apollo recommend only 50 emails/day? Can I increase that?
Apollo recommends a starting limit of 50 emails per day to protect your sender reputation and ensure strong deliverability. This aligns with typical human sending behavior and avoids triggering spam filters.
You can increase your limits gradually, but only if you're seeing good engagement, like a 5%+ reply rate, and have no deliverability issues. Otherwise, sending too many emails too soon may result in throttling or suspension by your mailbox provider.
Will Apollo stop sending if my email account gets suspended by my provider?
Yes. If your mailbox provider, like Gmail or Outlook, suspends or blocks your account due to overuse or spam detection, Apollo can't send emails through your mailbox. Scheduled emails will fail to send, and the sequence may stall.
If this happens, reduce your sending limits, improve email content quality, and work with your provider to reinstate the account. Apollo will resume sending once the mailbox is reactivated and connected again.
Why is my email provider delaying my emails?
Your email provider may delay email delivery due to rate limits that restrict how many emails you can send at a given time. If Apollo marks an email as Scheduled - Delayed and you haven't exceeded your Apollo sending limits, the delay is likely being enforced by your mailbox provider (like Gmail or Outlook).
To check if this is the case:
- Go to Emails in Apollo.
- Filter by Status > Scheduled.
- Hover over the status tooltip to view delay details.
If you see a message indicating your email account is rate limited, contact your email provider for more details. Gmail users can visit Google Support to learn more about lifting sending limits.
Can I disable an email domain to temporarily stop emails from being sent?
While Apollo doesn't offer a one-click way to disable an email domain or stop all emails from that domain at once, you can manage sending only at the mailbox level in Apollo.
As a best practice, start by reducing or pausing mailbox-level sending in Apollo. If you need to block sending across the entire domain, work with your IT or email team to update your provider settings outside Apollo.
| In Apollo | Unlink or deactivate any mailboxes on that domain. You can set sending limits to zero and pause any active sequences or workflows using those mailboxes. |
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| Outside Apollo | Your email or DNS provider manages domain-level settings such as authentication, blocking, and routing. To suspend sending across the entire domain, ask your IT or email team to update your provider settings. For example, they can suspend the sending domain or update SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records to prevent emails from being sent. |
Next Steps
Now that you've set sending limits to keep your mailbox safe, check out these next steps to keep up the momentum!
| Manage Mailboxes and Domains | Manage mailboxes and domains to spot mailbox issues across your team. Fix bottlenecks, implement recommendations, and keep your org's emails hitting inboxes instead of spam. |
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| Email Deliverability Best Practices | Follow Apollo's guide to email deliverability so your emails land in prospect inboxes instead of spam folders. This guide covers how to properly set up your domain and email settings to build trust with email providers, and gives tips on writing outreach emails that sound personal and authentic. |
| Link a Mailbox to Apollo | Rather than increase your sending limits on individual mailboxes, link additional mailboxes to Apollo so you can scale email volume safely. Depending on your plan, you can add up to 15 mailboxes per user. |
| Use Email Warmup | Use email warmup to help build a positive sender reputation and signal to mailbox providers that your emails are safe and trustworthy. |
| Configure an Unsubscribe Link | Add an unsubscribe link to each mailbox to reduce spam complaints and keep your domain safe. Unsubscribe links are essential to combatting the spam folder. |
| Use Sample Outbound Emails | Staring at a blank page? Get inspired with Apollo's sample outbound templates for common prospecting scenarios. |