Send Email Limit for SMTP Mail Servers

The goal of this article is to show you the email send limits, reasons & workarounds for most popular Internet, email or web hosting providers, like Verizon, Comcast, AOL, Gmail, Yahoo, GoDaddy, Earthlink or many others.

How do you know when your provider is blocking your outgoing emails?

Usually, when you reached the email send limit of your provider, you will get one of the following errors:

·  Your provider will not let you login to the outgoing SMTP server (your SMTP username & password are rejected);

·  When trying to send an email, you will receive an error message saying that you reached your daily SMTP limit, for example:

• "Requested action aborted; number of recipients or message quota reached";
• "Error with sending recipients - rejected due to spam";
• "SMTP relay limit reached";
• "Please try to increase the timeout setting for this account".

·  When trying to send an email, the outgoing mail server will respond with an error saying that your IP address is blocked for outgoing emails, for example:

• "Too frequent connects from [YOUR IP ADDRESS], please try again later";
• "SMTP access is restricted for [YOUR IP ADDRESS]";
• "Message has not been sent server reply -- http:cbl.abuseat.org/lookup.cgi?IP=[YOUR IP ADDRESS]".

Why would you care about your SMTP send email limit?

When you are about to send several emails at a time (for a business or personal event, as a newsletter or else), you MUST know your SMTP mail server restrictions, so your email account does not get temporarily or permanently blocked by your own email or Internet provider. Then, you can use an email marketing software, like Easy Mail Merge, to schedule your outgoing emails in order to match the send email limits of your provider.

What solutions do I have to avoid SMTP limitations?

The easiest and less expensive solution is to know your provider's SMTP limit for sending emails. This way, you can schedule your messages so you don't reach your send email limit.

If you need to send out more emails than your provider's SMTP limit, then you can:

- Install a SMTP agent on your own computer and send the emails from "localhost" (your own computer). However, please note that many Internet providers block port 25 (the one used for SMTP communications), so you might not be able to use such a solution. Also, even if you are allowed to send emails using your own SMTP agent, you will find out that many emails will be rejected by the mail servers of your recipients, because your local SMTP agent does not match the server records of the domain name from where you send the emails;

- If you plan to send the emails from your own domain name/web site, then you can purchase a dedicated web server, where you can host your site. Some dedicated web server providers (like LunarPages) do not have any limitations on sending emails from hosted dedicated servers;

- You can use a mass-emailing service, provided by an email marketing company. Such services can be VERY expensive, as all email sending risks (for example, to be labelled as a spammer) are taken by the mass email service provider.

Why ISPs or web hosting providers have email-send limits?

Email spamming can be very annoying to email users, but it is also expensive to Internet providers. Spam emails are consumming mail server resources and bandwidth - as a result, one solution for most Internet, email or web hosting providers is to fight spam by preventing their own customers for sending spam-like emails.

A simple method to prevent customers from sending bulk emails is by enforcing limits to send emails (for example, you are not allowed to send more than 500 emails per day). However, this popular method has its downside, as it prevents trustworthy customers from sending many legitimate emails at a time (not spam).

If I get passed my provider's SMTP limitations, does it automatically mean I am not spamming?

If your outgoing emails get passed the send-email SMTP limits of your provider, it means only one thing: your emails are going to be delivered to the mail server of each of your recipients. Those mail servers and the intended recipients will decide if you are spamming or not. Even if your emails are not marked as spam, it still does not mean they are legitimate emails.

Bottom line, no matter if your emails pass your provider's "send email limit" and they are not marked as spam by the mail servers of the intended recipients, make sure ALL your emails are compliant with your country law against spam - like CAN-SPAM Act (for USA) or the EC Directives (for the European Union). Some countries do not have specific laws against spam.

------------------E-mail ISP------------

·  Google Gmail Email Send Rate Limit & Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Google Gmail account:

Gmail email send limit - no more than 500 recipients per message for the Gmail web interface, or max 100 recipients if you are using an email client software.

Gmail other SMTP limits - outgoing messages sent via Google Gmail can not exceed 10Mb per email (including attachments)

Google Mail Policy - http://www.google.com/mail/help/program_policies.html

Google Mail SMTP restriction expiry method - the restriction is automatically removed within 24 hours after the limit was reached.

·  MSN Hotmail Email Send Rate Limit & Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Hotmail account:

Hotmail email send limit - no more than 100 recipients per day.

Hotmail other SMTP limits - outgoing messages sent via Hotmail can not exceed 10Mb per email (including attachments)

·  Yahoo Mail - Email Send Rate Limits & Other Email Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Yahoo Mail account:

Yahoo Mail email send limit - no more than 100 emails or recipients per hour

Yahoo Mail other SMTP limits - max 10Mb per message for the free Yahoo Mail Service, or 20Mb per message for Yahoo! Mail Plus

Yahoo! Anti-Spam Policy - http://docs.yahoo.com/info/guidelines/spam.html

Yahoo Mail SMTP restriction expiry method - N/A

·  Lycos Mail - Email Send Limits & Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Lycos Mail account:

Lycos Mail email send limit - max 25 recipients per message and max 250 emails per day

Lycos Mail other SMTP limits - Lycos Mail does not have a limit to the attachment file size at this time.

Lycos Email Policy - http://info.lycos.com/legal/mail_terms.html

·  AOL Email Send (Rate) Limits
AOL imposes a rate limit on an AOL member when a member exceeds the acceptable number of email messages sent in a given time period. The following restrictions apply when sending emails from an AOL connection:

AOL email send limit - no more than 100 recipients per message or 500 recipients per connection

AOL other SMTP limits - max 16mb per message

AOL email-outbound policy - http://postmaster-us.info.aol.com/ipt/

AOL SMTP restriction expiry method - N/A

------------------Web Hosting ISP------------

GoDaddy Email Send Rate Limit & SMTP Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a web site / domain hosted by GoDaddy:

GoDaddy email send limit for shared web hosting - no more than 250 relays (recipients) per day. You can purchase additional relays, in packs of 50

GoDaddy email send limit for dedicated servers or dedicated virtual servers - no more than 1000 relays (recipients) per day.

GoDaddy other SMTP limits - outgoing messages sent via GoDaddy can not exceed 30Mb per email (including attachments)

GoDaddy email FAQ - http://help.godaddy.com/article_list.php?topic_id=168

GoDaddy SMTP restriction expiry method - the restriction is automatically lifted 24 hours after the email send limit was reached.

APlus Email Send Rate Limit & SMTP Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a web site / domain hosted by APlus.net:

APlus email send limit for shared web hosting - no more than 1000 recipients per mailing list AND no more than 500 emails per 30 minutes.

APlus other SMTP limits - max 7Mb for web email or max 20Mb for local email client messages

APlus email FAQ - http://www.apluskb.com/scripts/category_1pp100020.html

APlus SMTP restriction expiry method - N/A

RackSpace Email Send Rate Limit & SMTP Restrictions
RackSpace.com apparently has no email rate limit, however all outgoing messages must be compliant with the RackSpace Acceptable Use Policy. Rackspace may test and otherwise monitor your compliance with its requirements, and may block the transmission of e-mail that violates these provisions.

HostWay Email Send Rate Limit & SMTP Restrictions
HostWay allows customers to send emails to mailing lists, using the MailMan service. The number of mailing list subscribers depend on your hosting plan. Using a MailMan mailing list for spamming can lead to the termination of your web hosting account.

Homestead Email Send Rate Limit & SMTP Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a web site / domain hosted by Homestead:

Homestead email send limit for web hosting - no more than 10 messages per second. All mass emails must be compliant with the Homestead Mass Mailing Policy.

IPowerWeb Email Send Rate Limit
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a web site / domain hosted by IPowerWeb:

IPowerWeb email send limit - no more than 200 emails per hour and 600 emails per day (for newly created account) OR no more than 500 emails per hour and 5000 emails per day.

IPowerWeb other SMTP limits - outgoing messages sent via IPowerWeb can not exceed 25Mb per email, including attachments. Mailing lists should not exceed 200 recipients.

IPowerWeb Email Policy - http://www.ipowerweb.com/company/legal/legal_spamming.html

Bluehost Email Send Rate Limit & SMTP Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a web site / domain hosted by Bluehost:

Bluehost email send rate limit - the default limit is set to 50 emails per hour. The limit may be raised by contacting the Bluehost support team and explaining why you need the send email limit to be lifted

Bluehost other SMTP limits - outgoing messages sent via Bluehost can not exceed 10Mb per email (including attachments)

Bluehost email FAQ - http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/kb/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&root=27

* The HostMonster email policy is identical with the one of Bluehost.

LunarPages Email Send Rate Li  ate limit for shared hosting plans - max 20 emails per minute, 600 emails per hour and 14400 emails per day

LunarPages email send rate limit for dedicated server plans - no limit (according to the LunarPages support forum)

LunarPages Email Policy - http://www.lunarpages.com/aup.php

1and1 (1&1) Email Send Rate Limit & SMTP Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a web site / domain hosted by 1and1:

1and1 email send rate limit - max 99 emails at once

1and1 Other SMTP restrictions - each outgoing message must have less than 50Mb (including attachments)

 Nguồn: http://www.emailaddressmanager.com/tips/server-smtp-limit.html