Email warm-up schedule for a new IP or domain
Plan how to warm up an IP or a new sending domain: the volume for each day and mailbox provider, the limits that pause the ramp, and a calendar to follow. It all runs in your browser.
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How the warm-up planner builds a schedule
The warm-up planner turns a target daily volume into a dated schedule for a new dedicated IP, a new sending domain, or both: how many emails to send each day, split by mailbox provider, and when to slow down or stop. Gmail, Microsoft and Yahoo publish rules and limits but no warm-up curve, so the planner follows the curves that sending services publish, and says which one it used.
How the schedule is built
Day 1 is the first sending day on or after the start date and sends 100 emails, as Mailgun’s plan does. Each later sending day sends a fixed percentage more than the one before, rounded to three significant figures, until the target is reached; the last day sends the target itself. There are three paces: careful (+15% a day, Brevo’s manual plan), standard (+20%, Mailgun’s) and fast (+40%, the growth of SendGrid’s automated warm-up limits). None of them doubles the volume from one day to the next, which Google warns can cause rate limiting or reputation drops.
On automatic, the planner uses the standard pace and drops to careful when both the domain and the IP are new (Microsoft notes that a new IP inherits some of a good domain’s reputation, so with both new there is nothing to inherit), when the list wasn’t just validated, when engagement is mixed or unknown, or when you send on fewer than five days a week, since Google says daily senders can ramp faster than weekly ones. Days you don’t send are skipped, not counted as steps. Each day’s total is split by your audience mix exactly, so the numbers per provider always add up to the total. The plan also marks the first day it sends more than 5,000 to Gmail or to Microsoft, when their bulk-sender authentication rules start to apply.
What slows or stops the ramp
- Spam reports. Above 0.1% the volume holds; at 0.3% the ramp stops and goes back to the last clean volume (Google, Yahoo).
- Bounces. Over 2%, stop and clean the list (Amazon SES reviews accounts at 5% and may pause them at 10%).
- Deferrals. Gmail’s 4.7.28 and Outlook.com’s 421 RP codes mean you hit a rate limit: back off, then raise the volume slowly again.
- Blocklists. A listing pauses that IP or domain until the cause is fixed.
- Gaps. After 30 days or more without sending, SendGrid and Brevo say to warm up again.
Where the sources disagree
Mailgun starts at 100 emails a day, Brevo at around 3,000. Microsoft expects a new IP to be ramped within a couple of weeks; Amazon SES says two to six weeks, and the automatic warm-ups of SendGrid, Bird, Mandrill and Amazon SES take 30 to 45 days. Google and Yahoo put the spam-report limit at 0.3%, Google’s target is under 0.1%, and Microsoft gives no number. The results list every disagreement with links to the sources.
Sharing and exports
The inputs live in the page address, so a plan link shows the same plan to anyone who opens it; it carries numbers and choices only. Copy the plan as text, download a CSV with exact numbers, or an .ics file with one all-day event per sending day that calendar apps can import. The files are made in your browser. When your sending service runs its own automatic warm-up, the planner says so, and the plan still tells you whom to mail first and when to stop.
Updated · Maintained by Liviu Tanase
Questions
How do I warm up an IP address?
Start small and mail only people who opened or clicked recently: Mailgun’s plan sends 100 emails on day one and adds 20% a day. Raise the volume on each sending day without ever doubling it, which Google warns can bring rate limits, and hold or stop when spam reports, bounces or deferrals rise. Before day one, make sure SPF, DKIM and DMARC pass with the sender rules check and the deliverability score, and that the IP is on no blocklist.
How long does an IP warm-up take?
It depends on the volume you want and the pace. From 100 to 50,000 a day takes 36 sending days at +20% a day and 46 at +15%. Microsoft says a new IP can be fully ramped within a couple of weeks or sooner; Amazon SES says two to six weeks depending on the mailbox provider, and its automatic warm-up takes 45 days. SendGrid’s automated warm-up runs 41 days.
Do I need to warm up a new domain on a shared IP?
Ramp the volume anyway. A shared IP already has a reputation (SendGrid’s shared pools need no IP warm-up), but Gmail tracks volume, feedback and limits per domain as well as per IP, and SPF and DKIM quotas belong to your domain. Pick “A new domain” and “Shared IP”, and send the first weeks to recipients who engage.
What spam complaint rate should stop a warm-up?
Google asks you to keep the spam rate in Postmaster Tools under 0.1% and never reach 0.3%; Yahoo’s limit is 0.3%. The plan holds the volume above 0.1% and stops the ramp at 0.3%. Microsoft publishes no number, but names junk complaints as one of the principal factors in a sender’s reputation. Bounces over 2%, Amazon SES’s line, stop it too.
What should I check before day one?
That SPF, DKIM and DMARC pass and align with the From domain, which Google and Microsoft require once you send them more than 5,000 a day (sender rules, deliverability score); forward and reverse DNS for the sending IP (FCrDNS check); one-click unsubscribe for marketing mail; no blocklist listing; and a real message through the email test to see how receivers read it.
Can I share or export the plan?
Yes. The plan link holds only the numbers and choices you entered, never an address, so anyone who opens it sees the same plan. Copy it as text, or download a CSV with exact numbers per day and mailbox provider, or an .ics calendar with one all-day event per sending day. The plan is worked out in your browser and isn’t sent to tanase.ai, unless it is in a link you open, which appears in the request logs described on the privacy page.