> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.instantcampaign.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Sending policy

> The bounce, complaint and list-quality limits every workspace must stay within, how we measure them, what happens when a workspace crosses them, and how a review ends.

InstantCampaign delivers mail for every workspace through shared infrastructure. One sender with a bad list raises bounce and complaint rates for everyone, and mailbox providers and our own upstream provider judge the platform as a whole. This policy is what keeps that from happening, and it is applied the same way to every workspace.

## The limits

Measured over the last **7 days**, once a workspace has sent at least **200 emails** in that window:

| Signal | Watch | At risk |
| - | - | - |
| Bounce rate (hard bounces ÷ emails sent) | 3% | **5%** |
| Spam complaint rate (complaints ÷ emails delivered) | 0.05% | **0.1%** |
| Unsubscribe rate | 2% | — |

Two things count regardless of volume:

* **One send that bounces 10% or more of its recipients** (once it has reached 100 people). A single import of a stale or bought list looks exactly like this.
* **A sending domain listed on a public blocklist** (Spamhaus, SURBL, Barracuda).

The at-risk lines are the ones Amazon SES, Mailgun and Postmark apply to their own customers, and Gmail and Yahoo require bulk senders to stay under a 0.3% spam rate with a target of 0.1%. Staying inside them is what keeps your mail in the inbox.

## What is not allowed

* Purchased, rented, scraped, appended or otherwise third-party lists.
* Sending to people who did not ask to hear from you, or who unsubscribed.
* Hiding who you are or why the person is receiving the email.
* Removing or hiding the unsubscribe link.

## What happens when a workspace crosses a limit

The evaluation runs once a day.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Watch">
    A workspace at the watch lines is noted for our team. Nobody is emailed and nothing changes for you; it is the point to look at [Bounce management](/guides/sending-and-workspace/deliverability) before it matters.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Warning">
    A workspace at an at-risk line gets an email to its owner with the exact numbers, this policy, and a **72-hour deadline**. Every owner and administrator also sees a banner in the app with the same numbers until the review ends.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review">
    If the numbers are still above the at-risk lines after the deadline, our team reviews the workspace and may suspend sending. A suspended workspace cannot send campaigns or automations, its API keys stop working, and members see a suspension notice. Suspension is always a decision by a person, never automatic.
  </Step>

  <Step title="All clear">
    Once the numbers stay inside the limits for **7 consecutive days**, the review closes on its own. If a workspace is flagged again within 90 days, the earlier case counts against it.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What to do if you are warned

1. Open **Analytics → Bounce management** and suppress every address that bounced. They will not be mailed again.
2. Remove any list you did not collect yourself, and anything older than a year that has not been mailed since.
3. Turn on double opt-in for your forms and lists ([Double opt-in](/guides/audience-and-campaigns/double-opt-in)).
4. Send your next campaign to a segment of people who opened or clicked in the last 90 days, then widen from there.
5. Reply to the warning email if you think the numbers are wrong. A person reads every reply.

## Where to see your own numbers

**Analytics → Overview** shows your bounce, complaint and unsubscribe rates for any period. **Deliverability** shows each sending domain's reputation, blocklist state and warm-up. The banner during a review shows exactly what the evaluation measured.