WARMUP Email warmup

Email and IP warmup, done before the first live send.

Provider-aware schedules, genuine reply patterns and deliberate timing variance, with volume rising against measured inbox placement rather than a calendar. Four to six weeks to full volume, and we would rather tell you that now than after your domain is burnt.

Talk to a deliverability expert See pricing

What it covers

Provider-aware schedules
Reply patterns
Domain and IP together
On every plan

Why it exists

A new IP that opens at full volume is a new IP that gets blocked.

Receiving domains have no history for a brand new IP or sending domain. The only thing they can judge is behavior, and a cold start that jumps straight to a hundred thousand a day reads as exactly what it looks like.

Daily volume over the first six weeks

Same total volume, two very different outcomes

Cold start, full volumePlacement collapses inside two weeks. The domain is now the problem, and the fix takes longer than the warmup would have.

Warmed and rampedVolume climbs against measured placement. Slower to week six, and still sending in month six.

What it actually does

Warmup is not just sending slowly.

Volume is one variable of four. Getting the other three wrong is why plenty of carefully throttled programs still fail.

Provider-aware schedules

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo do not judge a new sender the same way or on the same timescale. The schedule is built per provider rather than one curve applied to everyone.

Reply patterns

Engagement is the signal that matters most, and silence looks wrong. Warmup traffic generates genuine opens and replies so the early history shows a sender people answer.

Timing variance

Real mail does not leave at perfectly even intervals. Sends are spread with deliberate variance, because a machine-regular pattern is itself a signal worth avoiding.

Domain and IP together

Reputation attaches to both, and warming one without the other leaves a gap. Sending domains are aged alongside the IPs that will carry them.

How long

Four to six weeks, and we will not pretend otherwise.

This is the least popular sentence on the site and the most important one. A rushed launch is the single most common reason a high-volume program fails, and it is the mistake we most often get called in to repair.

Domains registered and aged

Sending domains are set up with SPF, DKIM and DMARC and left to age. A domain registered yesterday carries no weight no matter how carefully you send from it.

Warmup traffic begins

Low volume with genuine engagement across providers, building the first history the receiving domains will ever see for you.

Placement measured, then volume rises

Each step up is earned against measured inbox placement rather than a calendar. If placement dips, the ramp holds instead of pushing through it.

Full volume, warmup continues

Warmup does not stop when the campaign starts. It keeps running underneath so a quiet week does not undo the reputation you spent six weeks building.

If someone promises you full volume next week, they are selling you a problem. The ramp is not a queue we can jump for a bigger customer, because the constraint is at the receiving end and belongs to Google and Microsoft rather than to us.

What you get

Warmup is on every plan, not an add-on.

Plans include a warmup allowance that scales with volume, because more sending domains and more IPs means more infrastructure to age.

	Included warmups	Dedicated IPs to warm
$249 · 100,000 a month	Email and IP warmup	2 IPs, 2 domains
$349 · 250,000 a month	2 warmups	6 IPs, 4 domains
$499 · 400,000 a month	3 warmups	10 IPs, 6 domains
$999 · 1 million a month	5 warmups	20 IPs, 10 domains

Warmup runs on our own infrastructure and through our integration with Mailivery. Full plan detail is on the pricing page.

Questions

Email warmup, answered.

What is email warmup?

Email warmup is the process of building a sending reputation on a new domain or IP before running real volume through it. Traffic starts low, generates genuine opens and replies, and rises gradually against measured inbox placement. Receiving domains have no history for new infrastructure, so warmup is how you give them one that reads as a legitimate sender rather than a cold start.

How long does warmup take?

Roughly four to six weeks from a standing start to full volume, and the exact length depends on your target volume and how the placement measurements come back. Domains need to age before the first live send, then each increase is earned rather than scheduled. If placement dips at any step, the ramp holds there instead of pushing through.

Can I skip warmup if my domain is already old?

An aged domain helps, but it is not the same thing. Reputation attaches to the combination of domain and sending IP, so an established domain moving onto new IPs still has no history at that pair. The warmup is usually shorter in that case, not unnecessary.

Does warmup keep running after launch?

Yes. Warmup traffic continues underneath live campaigns, which matters because reputation decays when sending is irregular. A quiet fortnight followed by a large send looks like a dormant domain waking up, and that is a pattern receiving domains treat with suspicion.

What happens if I ignore the ramp and send anyway?

Placement usually collapses inside two weeks, and the repair takes considerably longer than the warmup would have. Recovery normally means stopping outbound on the affected domain, running placement and blocklist testing, increasing warmup activity, waiting out a genuine recovery window, and moving new sending to separate infrastructure meanwhile.

Is warmup included, or does it cost extra?

Included on every plan, with an allowance that scales with volume: email and IP warmup on the $249 plan, then 2, 3 and 5 warmups as plans grow. It is a platform feature rather than a third-party service you bolt on, though which of them your account gets depends on your plan.

Get started

Tell us what you are warming.

New domains, existing infrastructure, or a program that has already started slipping. We will tell you how long a realistic ramp takes and what it needs.

An honest timeline, including when it is longer than you hoped
If your domain is already damaged, what recovery actually involves
Free either way, and useful whether or not you become a customer

Prefer to talk? 1-800-604-5058

Slow to week six. Still sending in month six.

Warmup is the least exciting thing we do and the one that decides whether the rest of it works. Tell us your target volume and we will map the ramp with you.

Talk to a deliverability expert See pricing