Bulk sender
At Gmail, any sender that sends close to 5,000 messages or more to personal Gmail accounts within 24 hours, a status Google says is permanent once reached.
What it means
Google defines a bulk sender as any email sender that sends close to 5,000 messages or more to personal Gmail accounts within a 24-hour period. Messages sent from the same primary domain count together, so subdomains add up. Google's FAQ adds that senders who meet the criteria once are permanently considered bulk senders: the status has no expiry date and changing sending practices does not remove it.
Bulk senders must meet extra requirements: SPF and DKIM, a DMARC policy (at least p=none), From domain alignment and one-click unsubscribe for marketing mail. The FAQ also withholds delivery support from bulk senders that do not honour unsubscribes within 48 hours.
Yahoo describes a bulk sender as one sending a significant volume of mail and declines to set a threshold. Microsoft's Outlook.com rules apply to domains sending over 5,000 messages a day.
Related terms
On this site
Sources
What this definition rests on. The wording is ours; the facts are theirs.
- Google: Email sender guidelines FAQsupport.google.com
- Google: Email sender guidelinessupport.google.com
- Yahoo Sender Hub: FAQssenders.yahooinc.com
- Microsoft Tech Community: Outlook's requirements for high-volume senderstechcommunity.microsoft.com
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