Sending-domain warm-up
A new sending domain starts with small daily limits that grow as inbox providers learn to trust it. The warm-up stages, their limits and how to warm up well.
Last updated: 2026-10-19
Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo judge a sending domain by its history. A brand-new domain that suddenly sends 50,000 emails looks like a spammer, even when it's authenticated. Warm-up means starting small and growing volume as the domain earns a good name: few bounces, few complaints and people who open and click.
In SmartyTap each sending domain has a warm-up stage, and each stage has a sending limit. Chargezen moves the domain up as it shows healthy results.
Warm-up stages
Marketing-email limits for one sending domain:
- Draft: the domain is set up but not sending marketing yet.
- Sandbox: up to 500 a day (50 an hour), for your first sends.
- Pilot: up to 1,500 a day (150 an hour).
- Warming: up to 4,000 a day (400 an hour).
- Active: up to 10,000 a day (1,000 an hour).
- Paused or Disabled: marketing sends stop until the problem is fixed.
You see each domain's stage in the Warmup column of SmartyTap > Analytics > Email Analytics, and on each mailbox on the Email Mailboxes page.
Automatic protection
SmartyTap watches every domain's last 24 hours. If more than 0.3% of recipients mark your email as spam, or more than 5% of emails bounce, it pauses the domain's marketing sends before the damage spreads. It also handles the signals that come back on their own:
- Bounces: an address that hard-bounces is suppressed and won't be emailed again.
- Spam complaints: complaint reports from inbox providers (feedback loops) suppress that person from marketing.
- Unsubscribes: one-click unsubscribes are suppressed right away. See Opt-in and opt-out.
How to warm up well
- Authenticate the domain first (SPF, DKIM and DMARC all passing).
- Send your first campaigns to your most engaged subscribers: recent buyers and people who opened in the last 30 to 60 days.
- Add less active subscribers a little at a time, over a few weeks.
- Keep a steady rhythm. Several moderate sends a week beat one huge blast.
- Leave Smart Sending on so nobody gets back-to-back campaigns.
- Don't send to old lists that haven't heard from you in a year; they bounce and complain the most.
Warm a new domain up weeks before Black Friday or a launch, not the week of it. See the Black Friday email and SMS checklist.
FAQ
How long does warm-up take?
It depends on your list size and how people respond. A domain with engaged subscribers and low complaints moves up fastest.
My domain was paused
Look at the campaign that went out just before: an old list, a missing unsubscribe expectation or a misleading subject line are the usual causes. Clean the list, then contact Chargezen support to resume.
Does warm-up limit order emails?
The limits above are for marketing email. Transactional messages, like order updates, are counted separately.
Can I get a dedicated IP?
Not today. SmartyTap sends from Chargezen's shared mail servers, and your reputation is built on your own authenticated domain.
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