Embedded Files
People often ask "why will Gmail not let me spam everybody". That question usually comes nicely packaged and often with flimsy departmental justification. But the answer will still be "no" - of all the limits documented, Gmail limits are the ones we bump up against most frequently. Let's answer those questions once and for all*.
*until Google changes things. They really like changing things.
Serious warning
Serious warning
This post is for specialists who know what they are doing - sending approved newsletters and organizing big events. It is meant to guide to the correct way of handling big audiences. The info is publicly available on Google's help site.
Do not take these limits lightly - your account may be locked. You may impact your company's infrastructure (a violation of our security policies) and disrupt your recipientsโ infrastructure, causing reputational damage to your company.
See some considerations around Mail Merge here.
Do not risk your reputation or your career for an email.
The rules
The rules
... and what they mean
... and what they mean
Example
Example
Maximum messages sent per day: 2,000 e-mails
You can hit "send" 2,000 times per day.
What to do: Group your emails together (less overall emails), or use a dedicated mass mail solution (see below).
๐ You have a really productive day and fire off 2,000 emails. Your co-workers will thank you.
๐ If you send a single email more (to apologize?), your account will be blocked.
Maximum recipients per message: 2,000 recipients (external: 500)
A single e-mail may not have more than 2,000 recipients.
What to do: Break up your email (you'll run into the 3,000 unique recipient limit soon, see below).
You really should use a group to email more people. A group would count as a single recipient. Please use BCC, so that nobody can cause a "reply-all storm" by accident (and lock their own account by accident).
๐ You say "thank you for answering my Form!" and copy all 2,000 people, hopefully to BCC. Your message will be sent (counts as 1 mail!).
๐ You forgot to CC your boss, and add her name - the 2,001st person. Your message will not be sent.
Total recipients per day: 10,000 (3,000 external)
This is multiplication: 10 newsletters to the same poor 1,000 recipients = 10,000 total recipients.
This rule exists to encourage you to bundle your mass communication into fewer emails.
What to do: Use groups.
๐ You have a newsletter to send to 3,000 people. Cramming them into a single email will not work. Emailing them individually will not work. Dividing the recipients into two emails will work.
๐ No matter what you try, emailing 3,001 people will not work per the next rule.
Unique recipients per day: 3,000 (2,000 external)
Don't try to work your way around the other rules. This rule is meant to give you a little breathing space if you almost got your account suspended.
What to do: Use groups.
๐ You somehow managed to email 2,000 individuals. This rule makes sure you don't do that again today.
๐ Whatever you try (breaking huge numbers of recipients into big parts, sending absurd numbers of smaller emails), this rule will stop you. If by now you have your calculator out - put it away.
The correct way of managing big audiences
The correct way of managing big audiences
is using Google Groups. You must create groups to properly engage meaningful big audiences, as they almost don't count against your limits. You will have probably guessed that Google will not just let you paste your 2,001 contacts into a Group. Talk to your local communications teams about your needs, they will be able to help you. If you think they will not support you in what you are doing - don't.
Your company may have special marketing tools, especially for customized messages and audience tracking. There is nothing Google can do for you (we get this question a lot). Again, reach out to your local communications teams for guidance.
Do not send mass emails. We need to get away from the "push" model and to a place where people pull your content, because they think it is valuable. Not everything needs to go out via email. There are no limits to how many people see your notice featured on the intranet, follow your team on your intranet page or subscribe to your newsletter (hint). (I know that is easier said than done - but we'd all be better off in such a world, so every bit of effort counts!)
If you need to email many people, do it via Gmail's native tool. It has a 1,500/day limit built in to keep you safe.
What did that teach us?
What did that teach us?
Google hates mass mailings (unless it's done properly).
For Google, it is expensive to maintain servers that can deal with big amounts of mass email. Mass mailing is also risky - think fraud and viruses. This is why Google makes it so hard to use Gmail for anything but human-to-human communication.
We are obsessed with email.
Probably no need to elaborate, as I just spent a good hour obsessing about a post about email. Guilty as charged.
Thank you for reading - I hope this post is useful to you and has you rethinking some email practices. Like with every rule, if you think about ways not to break it, you're probably doing it wrong. Let's reduce our mail overload by working smarter.
#gmailPublished 2018-10-30 by Holger Matthies.Modified 2024-01-18 by Holger Matthies.
Page updated
Report abuse