Email Attachment and Sending Limits for Google, Yahoo, AOL and a Lot More Providers

I use AOL a lot so I don’t run into file size limits very often as they allow up to 16 MB attachments.  However, I noticed that when I try to send files to some of my friends and family, they have difficulty receiving the larger files. I decided to do some research to see what other providers offer in terms of maximum file sending size.  Check out this article by altrue.com.  They do an excellent job of explaining the limits established by some of the top providers.

Major Internet Service Providers – Email sending limits

This article contains information about the email send limits (rate limit) of most important Internet Service Providers, as we collected it from our Easy Mail Merge customers, web resources or directly from the support desk of ISPs.  The information is intended as a guide only.  Your ISP can change its outbound email policy at any time without any prior notification.  It is always a good idea to contact your email account provider and ask about the email send rate, before proceeding with a mass email campaign.

This article was last updated in November 2007 and it displays the SMTP email send limit (or rate limit) for the following Internet providers: Verizon, Comcast, EarthLink, Cablevision/Optimum, Road Runner, Cox, AT&T Yahoo!, Charter, BellSouth.

Verizon Email Send & SMTP Limits
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a verizon.net email account:

• Verizon email send limit – no more than 100 recipients per email message AND max 500 emails (recipients) per hour
• Verizon other SMTP limits – max 2mb per message
• Verizon email-outbound policy – http://www2.verizon.net/policies/email.asp
• Verizon SMTP restriction expiry method – the restriction is automatically lifted 24 hours after the email send limit was reached.

Comcast Email Send & SMTP Limits
Below you can find the Comcast email send or rate limit for Comcast high speed internet customers. Please note that Comcast can also block port 25 for your connection (triggering the error message: “Error #1: Port25.Secure(SSL); no Socket Error: 10053. Error Number 0x800CC0F”), in order to prevent you (or viruses on your computer) from sending emails using your own SMTP agent:

• Comcast email send limit – no more than 1000 recipients per day
• Comcast other SMTP limits – max 10mb per message
• Comcast email-outbound policy – http://www.comcast.net/help/faq/index.jsp?faq=SecuritySpam17867
• Comcast SMTP restriction expiry method – the restriction is automatically lifted 24 hours after the email send limit was reached.

EarthLink Email Send & SMTP Limits (“SMTP Rate Limiting”)
When you reached your EarthLink email send limit, you will receive the following error message from the EarthLink SMTP server: “error 554: www.earthlink.net/go/bulk – Outbound message limit exceeded”. The following restrictions apply when sending emails from an EarthLink internet connection:

• EarthLink email send limit – max 1000 recipients per day
• EarthLink other SMTP limits – N/A
• EarthLink email-outbound policy – http://kb.earthlink.net/case.asp?article=85283
• EarthLink SMTP restriction expiry method – A member of EarthLink ‘s Abuse team will investigate the circumstances that led to your SMTP privileges being suspended. If it is deemed that your use was legitimate, then your SMTP privileges will be reactivated within 24 hours.

Cablevision Email Send & SMTP Limits (Optimum – OOL)
Cablevision / Optimum does NOT allow customers to send emails using an email client program or SMTP mail server, unless the customer subscribed to “Optimum Online Boost” or “Optimum Online for Business”.

• Cablevision/Optimum (OOL) email send limit – maximum 50 recipients at one time
• Cablevision other SMTP limits – max 20mb per outgoing message
• Cablevision/Optimum email-outbound policy – http://www.optimum.net/Article/Terms
• Cablevision SMTP restriction expiry method – N/A.

Road Runner Email Send & SMTP Limits
If your account has reached the email send limit, you will receive the following error message: “ERROR:5.7.1:550 Outbound Mail Refused – YOUR_IP_ADDRESS”. The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Road Runner internet connection:

• Road Runner email send limit – max 1,000 recipients per day per IP
• Road Runner other SMTP limits – max 5mb per message
• Road Runner email-outbound policy – http://help.rr.com/HMSFaqs/e_outbound_email_policy.aspx
• Road Runner SMTP restriction expiry method – the suspension is automatically lifted after 24 hours

Cox Email Send & SMTP Limits
Cox did not publish the official email send limit for Cox High Speed Internet subscribers. According to the Cox web site: “Specific email sending limits are not published because they vary from time to time depending on a variety of factors“. We strongly advise you to contact the Cox support department before sending out large amounts of emails.

• Cox other SMTP limits – max 10mb per message
• Cox email-outbound policy – http://www.cox.com/policy/limitations.asp

AT&T Yahoo! Email Send & SMTP Limits
Please note that, according to the AT&T Yahoo! Membership Agreement, AT&T Yahoo! can assess a charge of $50.00 per day for unintentional violations or $500.00 per day for deliberate violations of their unsolicited email policy. The following restrictions apply when sending emails from an AT&T Yahoo! Internet/email connection:

• AT&T Yahoo! email send limit – no more than 100 recipients per email message
• AT&T Yahoo! other SMTP limits – max 20mb per message, max 50 file attachments
• AT&T Yaho0! email-outbound policy – http://edit.client.yahoo.com/cspcommon/static?page=tos
• AT&T Yahoo! SMTP restriction expiry method – penalty charges may apply

Charter Email Rate Limits
If you are a Charter Internet access residential customer and you receive the following error message when trying to send emails: “421 Connection Refused – Customer has exceeded the maximum number of messages allowed per hour”, it means your account SMTP access was temporarily blocked. The following restrictions apply when emailing from a Charter connection:

• Charter email send limit – maximum 50 recipients / emails per hour
• Charter other SMTP limits – max 10mb per message
• Charter email-outbound policy – http://www.charter.com/Visitors/Policies.aspx?Policy=6
• Charter SMTP restriction expiry method – wait an hour to send additional emails or brake up the recipients number into smaller groups.

BellSouth Email Send & Rate Limits
BellSouth does not publish a clear email send limit: “Sending mass, unsolicited e-mail by Service users is prohibited. BellSouth Internet Services reserves the right, in BellSouth’s sole discretion, to determine whether such email constitutes unsolicited messages or transmission. Sending large volumes of unsolicited e-mail to a single user, or group of users, commercial or otherwise, by Service users is prohibited.”.

• BellSouth email send limit – BellSouth’s sole discretion
• BellSouth other SMTP limits – max 10mb per message
• BellSouth email-outbound policy – Acceptable Use Policies
• BellSouth SMTP restriction expiry method – BellSouth Internet Services may immediately terminate any account which it determines, in its sole discretion, is transmitting or is otherwise connected with any ‘spam’ or other unsolicited bulk email. In addition, because damages are often difficult to quantify, if actual damages cannot be reasonably calculated then BellSouth Internet Services may seek liquidated damages of five dollars (US$5.00) for each piece of ‘spam’ or unsolicited bulk email transmitted from or otherwise connected with your account.

 

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Web Email Account Providers – Email sending limits

Important note: This information is intended as a guide only.  Your email account provider can change its email policy at any time without any prior notification.  It is always a good idea to contact your email account provider and ask about the email send rate, before proceeding with a mass email campaign.
 

Google Gmail Email Send Rate Limit & Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Google Gmail account:

• Gmail email send limit – no more than 500 recipients per message for the Gmail web interface, or max 100 recipients if you are using an email client software.
• Gmail other SMTP limits – outgoing messages sent via Google Gmail can not exceed 10Mb per email (including attachments)
• Google Mail Policy – http://www.google.com/mail/help/program_policies.html
• Google Mail SMTP restriction expiry method – the restriction is automatically removed within 24 hours after the limit was reached.

MSN Hotmail Email Send Rate Limit & Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Hotmail account:

• Hotmail email send limit – no more than 100 recipients per day.
• Hotmail other SMTP limits – outgoing messages sent via Hotmail can not exceed 10Mb per email (including attachments)

Yahoo Mail – Email Send Rate Limits & Other Email Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Yahoo Mail account:

• Yahoo Mail email send limit – no more than 100 emails or recipients per hour
• Yahoo Mail other SMTP limits – max 10Mb per message for the free Yahoo Mail Service, or 20Mb per message for Yahoo! Mail Plus
• Yahoo! Anti-Spam Policy – http://docs.yahoo.com/info/guidelines/spam.html
• Yahoo Mail SMTP restriction expiry method – N/A

Lycos Mail – Email Send Limits & Restrictions
The following restrictions apply when sending emails from a Lycos Mail account:

• Lycos Mail email send limit – max 25 recipients per message and max 250 emails per day
• Lycos Mail other SMTP limits – Lycos Mail does not have a limit to the attachment file size at this time.
• Lycos Email Policy – http://info.lycos.com/legal/mail_terms.html

AOL Email Send (Rate) Limits
AOL imposes a rate limit on an AOL member when a member exceeds the acceptable number of email messages sent in a given time period. The following restrictions apply when sending emails from an AOL connection:

• AOL email send limit – no more than 100 recipients per message or 500 recipients per connection
• AOL other SMTP limits – max 16mb per message
• AOL email-outbound policy – http://postmaster-us.info.aol.com/ipt/
• AOL SMTP restriction expiry method – N/A