Limits for sending and receiving emails

To help prevent spam and keep accounts safe, Gmail limits the number of emails that you can send or receive a day, and the number of people you can add as recipients.

How to fix the problem

Look at the reasons below to learn how to prevent seeing these messages in future.

Note: If you use your Gmail account via your work, school or other organisation, learn about Gmail sending limits through work or school.

'You have reached the limit for sending emails'

You may see this message if you send an email to a total of more than 500 recipients in a single email and or more than 500 emails sent in a day.

When you see this error, you should be able to send emails again within 1 to 24 hours.

To prevent this from happening in the future, try creating a Google Group of all your email recipients and sending the message to that group's email address.

'Messages that you sent couldn't be delivered'

You might see this error if a large number of emails that you've sent:

  • Can't be delivered because the recipient's email address is invalid
  • Bounce from the recipient's email server

You may be able to send emails again after 24 hours.

To prevent this from happening in future, check your recipients' email addresses before sending to make sure that they're up to date.

A contact is getting too many emails

If someone that you’re sending emails to is getting too many emails too quickly, you might see this message:

'The user that you are trying to contact is receiving emails at a rate that prevents additional messages from being delivered'.

You’ll need to contact the person another way.

Learn about accounts that limit how many emails a person can receive.

Prevent your emails from being blocked by Gmail

If you send a large number of emails at one time or send to large groups, learn how to prevent mail to Gmail users from being blocked.

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