What does 'rate limit exceeded' mean in email sending and should I worry?

Email marketer from EmailOctopus Blog explains that rate limits are safeguards ESPs put in place to protect IP reputation. If you hit rate limits, you'll want to consider warming your IP address, consider sending less emails, or request a higher sending limit if the need arises.

Marketer from Email Geeks shares that a single domain can see multiple different delivery errors in GPT and errors being reported as 0.0% are probably just being rounded down. It's likely that an error rate < 0.05% will get reported as 0.0. States rate limit exceeded might be due to individual recipients being overwhelmed with email. SES will have reasonable limits in place preventing sending unreasonable amounts of mail.

Email marketer from DigitalOcean Community responds that it usually means you're exceeding the number of emails or connections allowed per unit of time. Worry if it disrupts your mail flow; otherwise, consider adjusting your sending practices.

Email marketer from Reddit shares that 'rate limit exceeded' typically means you're sending too many emails in a short period. Whether you should worry depends on if it's a recurring issue and impacts your sending reputation.

Email marketer from Elastic Email explains that understanding and managing email sending limits is crucial for deliverability and preventing service disruptions. They also explain that adjusting sending speeds or the number of connections can mitigate these issues.

Email marketer from Quora responds that it indicates you've hit a threshold set by the email provider to prevent spam. Worry if you see this frequently, as it could indicate deliverability issues.

Email marketer from Mailjet responds that rate limiting prevents overloading servers and helps maintain service quality, so receiving the error means you need to slow your sending or optimize your strategy.

Email marketer from SendPulse shares that exceeding the rate limit is a common error with email marketing. You can usually fix this issue by slowing your sends, ensuring you are warmed up, or optimizing your emails.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that Google may have blocked the sender for sending too much email too quickly and for suspected spam.

Email marketer from Stack Overflow explains that the error message often occurs when your application or server attempts to send too many emails through an SMTP server within a short period. You should implement queuing or throttling to manage sending rates to prevent overwhelming the mail server.

Expert from Email Geeks states that while a one-off mistake like this won’t likely affect deliverability too much, it will affect reputation which is measured over time. Suggests checking SES configuration, rDNS, EHLO/HELO values, sending speed, and number of connections.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests to monitor the next send after SES IPs are shared. If throttling happens again, then look into it.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that exceeding a delivery rate throttle may mean the mailstream isn't as clean as the recipient ISP wants it to be. It could also simply be that the recipient MX server rejected a large volume of emails sent too quickly.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that 'rate limit exceeded' often indicates that the sending IP or domain has exceeded the permitted sending volume within a given timeframe, as defined by the receiving mail server or ESP. Whether to worry depends on the frequency and severity; occasional occurrences might be due to temporary spikes, but frequent issues suggest problems with sending infrastructure, reputation, or list hygiene that could negatively impact deliverability.

Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help indicates exceeding sending limits (which can lead to rate limiting) should be addressed by reviewing the sending limits. Admins should understand these limits to avoid service disruption and potential account restrictions.

Documentation from Twilio SendGrid explains that rate limiting is a method used to prevent abuse and guarantee the quality of service. Exceeding rate limits can lead to temporary or permanent suspension of sending privileges.

Documentation from Microsoft explains that Exchange Online has sending limits to prevent spam and maintain system health. Encountering 'rate limit exceeded' should prompt a review of sending patterns and potential adjustments.

Documentation from Amazon AWS explains that 'Rate limit exceeded' means you've exceeded the maximum sending rate or maximum number of emails you can send per second. Worrying depends on the context. If you're consistently hitting the limit, you may need to request an increase or adjust your sending strategy.