How your warmup daily volume is decided

WS
WarmySender Team
Updated Sep 6, 2026

Your warmup target is what you are aiming at; today’s volume is what the mailbox has actually earned. A brand-new sending domain starts at one warmup email a day and climbs on a gradual curve to 40 a day around the sixth week of sending. A mailbox that is at least 14 days old, has at least 7 days of real sending behind it, keeps spam placement under 2% and bounces under 1%, and has moved to maintenance warmup earns its full configured target — up to 120 a day, which is the highest warmup volume we run for a single mailbox. Whenever today’s number is lower than your target, WarmySender names the exact reason on the mailbox, and this page explains every reason it can give.

Nothing here is a bug and nothing is being held back arbitrarily. Every ceiling below exists to keep a mailbox out of the spam folder, and each one lifts on its own as the mailbox proves itself.

What is the difference between a target and a daily volume?

The target is the number you set in warmup settings: the volume you want this mailbox to reach eventually. The daily volume is the number warmup will actually send today.

They are different on purpose. If a mailbox with no sending history started at your target on day one, mailbox providers would read that as exactly what it looks like — a brand-new address suddenly sending mail — and filter it. So the target is a destination, and the daily volume walks towards it.

The target is also a ceiling, not just a goal: if you set a target of 10, warmup will never send more than 10, however long it runs. Lowering your target lowers today’s volume immediately; raising it does not raise today’s volume, because the curve still has to get there.

How fast does the volume climb?

The curve below is the default profile: a new sending domain, normal ramp speed, target 40. “Week” means a week of sending days, not a week on the calendar — the ramp only advances on days the mailbox actually sends, so a mailbox that could not sign in for four days is four days behind where the calendar says it is.

Warmup volume week by week for a new sending domain at normal ramp speed with a target of 40 a day.
Sending week Warmup emails per day What is happening
Week 1 (sending days 1–7) 1 rising to 7 The domain is introducing itself. Volume this low is the point, not a fault.
Week 2 (days 8–14) 9 rising to 15 The curve steps up every two sending days.
Week 3 (days 15–21) 15 rising to 21 Enough history now for placement to be measured properly.
Weeks 4–5 (days 22–35) 23 rising to 35 The mailbox can start earning its full target from day 14 onward.
Week 6 onward (day 36+) 40 — full speed for a new domain Higher than 40 requires the earned uplift described below.

Your own curve can be steeper or gentler than this one, because two settings change it: the warmup mode the mailbox is in, and the ramp speed you chose.

Starting volume and ceiling by warmup mode

Where each warmup mode starts, where it tops out, and roughly how long the climb takes at normal ramp speed.
Warmup mode Use it when Starts at Tops out at Reaches the ceiling around
New Domain The sending domain itself is new and has no history at all. 1 a day 40 a day Sending day 40 (about week 6)
New Mailbox The domain already sends mail; this address on it is the new part. 3 a day 60 a day Sending day 58 (about week 9)
Dormant An established address that has not sent for a long stretch. 3 a day 40 a day Sending day 38 (about week 6)
Maintenance Warmup is established and you are keeping reputation topped up. 15 a day 30 a day, or your full target once earned Sending day 16 (about week 3)
Recovery Placement slipped and the mailbox is rebuilding. 5 a day 30 a day Sending day 26 (about week 4)

Ramp speed changes how big each step is, not where the mailbox ends up. On conservative the volume rises by at least one email every two sending days, on normal by at least two, on aggressive by at least three. Aggressive does not raise the ceiling — it only arrives sooner, and on a young domain arriving sooner is the risk you are trying to avoid.

Why is today’s number lower than my target?

Because something else is currently the lower ceiling. WarmySender works out every ceiling that applies, sends the lowest one, and tells you which one bound. Here is the whole vocabulary of reasons the product can show, in the order it prefers them — the top of the table is the most restrictive.

Every reason WarmySender can give for today’s warmup volume, what it means, and what changes it.
What you see What it means What lifts it
Domain is not signing its email yet Mail from this domain cannot be verified by the receiver, so it builds no reputation. Warmup is held at a starter volume rather than wasting the sends. Add the signing record shown in your mailbox settings. The full ramp unlocks as soon as it is in place.
Too much warmup mail is landing in spam A large share of this mailbox’s warmup emails are being filtered, so volume is held very low to protect what reputation it has. Nothing to do — volume rises on its own once placement improves.
Placement is under review Some recent warmup mail was filtered, but there is not enough of it yet to know whether that is a pattern. A small number goes out each day to find out. It resolves itself within a few sending days, in one direction or the other.
Restoring volume after a pause Warmup stopped for a while and is stepping back up rather than jumping straight to where it left off. Each day of sending raises tomorrow’s allowance; full volume returns in about a week.
Waiting to earn a higher volume Your target is above the mode’s standard ceiling and the mailbox has not yet met the health conditions that unlock it. 14 days of warmup plus a week of clean placement — see the next section.
Current warmup mode caps volume The mode this mailbox is in has a lower ceiling than your target. Move to New Mailbox once the domain has sending history, or to Maintenance once warmup is established.
Still ramping up The ordinary case. The mailbox is partway along the curve. Nothing — it grows every two sending days by itself.
Sharing the domain with other mailboxes Several mailboxes on the same domain are warming at once, so today’s volume is split between them rather than multiplied. Warm fewer mailboxes per domain at a time, or let the others finish.
Spread across the day Several of your mailboxes sit on the same mail service, so their warmup is paced out instead of sent in bursts. The daily total is unchanged. Nothing — this is pacing, not a reduction.
At the highest volume we run The mailbox has reached 120 a day, the most warmup we will send from a single address. Nothing raises it. More mailboxes, not more volume per mailbox, is the safe way to send more.
Target reached The mailbox is sending exactly the volume you asked for. There is no lower ceiling in play. Raise the target in warmup settings if you want more.

How does a mailbox earn its full target?

Standard warmup modes have a conservative ceiling because most mailboxes running them are new or recovering. A mailbox that has proved itself is allowed past that ceiling to your configured target. It qualifies when all of the following are true at once:

Once all five hold, the ceiling becomes your target — up to an absolute maximum of 120 warmup emails a day. That last figure is a hard stop: no mailbox sends more warmup than that, whatever the target says, because past that point extra volume from a single address stops helping reputation and starts hurting it.

Why did my warmup volume go down?

Volume falls for one of four reasons, all of them deliberate:

What does not lower it: reaching your target, a quiet day, or a weekend. Warmup runs every day of the week.

Why do warmup emails trickle out through the day?

Because a day’s allowance sent in one burst looks like automation, and a day’s allowance spread out looks like a person. Warmup deliberately paces the day’s emails across your sending hours, which is why the count is low in the morning and only reaches the daily figure late on. The daily total is not reduced by this — it is the same number, arriving gradually.

Checking the count at 9am and concluding that warmup is broken is the single most common false alarm. Compare full days, not part-days.

Does pausing warmup reset my progress?

No. Progress is measured in sending days, not calendar days. A mailbox that has completed 12 sending days and then pauses for a fortnight comes back on sending day 12, not day 26 and not day 1. Nothing is lost, and nothing is gained by waiting either.

There is one moderating step: after a long gap, volume steps back up over about a week rather than resuming at the old number, because a silent mailbox that suddenly sends 40 emails is exactly the pattern filters look for.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my warmup daily limit lower than the target I set?

Because a lower ceiling is currently binding, and the mailbox tells you which one. The most common by far is simply that the mailbox is still ramping — the curve grows every two sending days on its own. The next most common are the warmup mode’s own ceiling, the domain’s volume being shared between several mailboxes warming at once, and the domain not yet signing its mail. Every one of them lifts without you doing anything, except the signing record, which you add once.

Can I set warmup to 100 emails a day?

You can set the target there, and a mailbox that has earned its uplift can reach it — the hard ceiling is 120 a day. But it will not start there. The mailbox still walks the curve from its mode’s starting volume, and it still has to satisfy the health conditions (14 days old, 7 sending days, spam under 2%, bounces under 1%, maintenance mode) before it is allowed past the standard ceiling. Setting a high target does not skip any of that.

How long does warmup take to reach full speed?

About six weeks of sending days for a new domain, arriving at 40 a day. A new mailbox on an established domain starts higher and settles at 60, taking about nine weeks. Maintenance warmup gets to its ceiling in about three weeks. In every case it is sending days that count, so a mailbox that spends a week disconnected is a week behind the calendar.

Why is warmup sending only a handful of emails this morning?

Because the day’s allowance is spread across your sending hours rather than sent in one go. This is intentional pacing and it does not reduce the daily total. Judge the number at the end of a full day, not partway through one.

Several mailboxes on one domain are all warming slowly. Why?

They are sharing one domain’s volume rather than each getting their own. A domain with four mailboxes warming at once gives each a quarter of what a single mailbox would get, because it is the domain’s reputation that the receiving side is judging, not each address separately. Warming them in smaller groups, or letting the earlier ones finish first, gets every mailbox to full speed sooner than starting all four together.

Does warmup volume come out of my campaign sending allowance?

Yes — warmup and cold campaign emails share one per-mailbox daily budget, so a mailbox running 40 warmup emails has 40 fewer available for campaigns that day. That is worth planning around when you size your mailboxes, and it is another reason the answer to “I need more volume” is almost always another mailbox rather than a higher number on this one.

Still not sure why your number is what it is? Email [email protected] with the mailbox address and we will tell you exactly which ceiling is binding and when it lifts.