This guide shows you how to set (and scale) safe email sending limits in lemlist for Gmail/Google Workspace and custom SMTP accounts—so you can protect deliverability while still hitting your volume goals.

Learning Objective

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll know how to configure your daily sending limits in lemlist, choose a safe starting quota, and scale volume without harming your domain reputation.

Why This Matters

Sending limits help you control daily volume and reduce the risk of provider restrictions, spam placement, or account issues. A steady, gradual ramp-up typically performs better than sending large volumes too quickly.

You can explore the theoretical provider limits here and here, but our own guidance is considerably more conservative than the provider maximums. Three caps apply, checked in this order:

Domain under one month old? Keep the whole domain under 100 emails/day, every mailbox on it combined, then increase gradually.
Mailbox not through 14 days of stabilization? 0 cold emails. lemwarm only, at target. No campaign starts under a Warmup Score of 90.
Mailbox out of warm-up, campaigns live? Start at 10–15/day through lemlist per mailbox, add 5 per week, and cap at 25–30/day.

Above all of those sits one total ceiling: warm-up plus campaigns stay at or below 50/day per mailbox.

Note that lemlist tracks sending limits on a rolling 24-hour basis rather than by calendar day. For instance, if you send 25 emails between 1 PM on Tuesday and 1 PM on Wednesday, those emails count toward your limit for that period.

Prerequisites

You have at least one sending email address connected to lemlist (Gmail/Google Workspace or SMTP).
You know which address (or team address) you want to apply limits to.
The mailbox has completed warm-up: Warmup Score 90+ and 14 days of stabilization with an inbox rate above 90%.

Core Lesson — Step-by-Step Workflow

Phase 1: Choose a safe daily sending limit

If you use Gmail/Google Workspace: for consistent cold outreach performance, be more conservative than the provider maximums:
- Mailbox just out of warm-up: start at 10–15 emails/day per inbox through lemlist, add 5 per week, and cap at 25–30/day.
- Plus lemwarm at 10/day if you are not running inbox placement tests.
- Total ceiling: warm-up plus campaigns at or below 50/day per mailbox.
If you use a custom SMTP inbox: follow your provider’s recommendation. If you don’t have a clear guideline, start conservatively and scale gradually based on performance and deliverability signals (bounces, replies, spam complaints).

Phase 2: Set (or adjust) sending limits in lemlist

Open your avatar/profile menu, then go to Settings.
In the left sidebar, click Sending limits, choose the sending email address you want to edit, then set your preferred daily email limit.

Important

Changes are saved automatically—so double-check your final number before leaving the page.
Even with correct limits in lemlist, providers (like Google) can still restrict sending based on their own reputation and policy signals.

Phase 3: Scale volume safely

Monitor performance proactively. lemlist can pause sending when it detects you may exceed your quota, but it’s not foolproof—keep an eye on total daily volume and campaign settings. Keep one reputation signal running at all times: inbox placement tests 1–2 per month, or lemwarm at 10/day as the fallback. Never neither.
If you need higher volume, add more mailboxes rather than raising limits. The 50/day ceiling applies per mailbox.
Every new mailbox starts from zero. Each one goes through the full ramp-up and 14-day stabilization before it sends anything cold.

Practical Application / Real-Life Example

Example scaling plan (per inbox):

During warm-up: 0 from lemlist. lemwarm ramps to target at +1/day for about 40 days, then holds at target for 14 days.
First weeks after launch: lemlist starts at 10–15/day and adds 5 per week, plus lemwarm at 10/day.
At the cap: lemlist at 25–30/day + lemwarm at 10/day — about 35–40/day total, at or below the 50/day per mailbox ceiling.
After an incident: restart at about 15/day lemlist + 15/day lemwarm (~30/day) with a ramp increment of 3, keeping both reputation signals on until stable.

Need a lot more volume? Add more warmed mailboxes and plan the ramp — every additional mailbox needs its own 40 days plus 14.

Troubleshooting & Pitfalls

Issue: My emails still get blocked/throttled even with a low limit

Root cause: Provider reputation algorithms can restrict sending based on your inbox/domain history, content, bounces, or engagement.
Fix: Reduce volume further, improve targeting to reduce bounces, and scale more gradually. Run an inbox placement test on the real campaign to tell a content problem from an infrastructure one.

Issue: I’m sending more than expected

Root cause: Multiple campaigns/inboxes or an alias setup can make volume harder to track.
Fix: Audit which inboxes are active, confirm the correct sending address is selected in Sending limits, and verify any alias provider restrictions.

Issue: Sending pauses unexpectedly

Root cause: lemlist may pause sending when it detects you might exceed your quota, or your provider may be enforcing additional restrictions.
Fix: Lower the daily limit and resume with a slower ramp-up.

Issue: My mailbox was paused for a while and I want to resume

Root cause: A mailbox paused for more than 7 days has lost some of its trust and cannot resume at its previous volume.
Fix: Put it back through a short ramp before resuming cold sends. In recovery the ramp increment is 3, not 1 — a mailbox rebuilding trust is not a new mailbox.

Understand sending limits in lemlist