How to warm up a new email sending IP address
IP warm-up is the IP-level version of domain warm-up. If you are on a dedicated sending IP (most ESPs offer these at higher tiers), the IP itself accumulates reputation independently of your sending domain. A fresh dedicated IP starts from zero, just like a fresh domain.
When you need to warm an IP
- Provisioned a new dedicated IP on your ESP.
- Moved to a new ESP that assigned you a fresh IP.
- Reactivated a sending IP that has been dormant for 60+ days.
- Switched from shared to dedicated IPs.
If you are on a shared ESP IP (most lower-tier plans), the IP is already warmed by other senders on the same pool. You skip IP warm-up entirely and only need to worry about domain warm-up.
The IP warm-up curve
Even more conservative than domain warm-up because IP-level demotion is harder to recover from:
| Week | Daily volume | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50–100 | Engaged subscribers only |
| 2 | 200–500 | Active in last 30 days |
| 3 | 1,000–2,500 | Active in last 60 days |
| 4 | 5,000–10,000 | Active in last 90 days |
| 5 | 20,000–50,000 | Full active list |
| 6+ | Normal volume | If metrics stayed healthy |
Pitfalls
- Pausing during warm-up. A dedicated IP that goes silent for 3+ days starts looking suspicious again. Send something every day during warm-up, even small volumes.
- Sending only transactional mail. Transactional has lower complaint rates but also lower engagement than marketing. Pure-transactional warm-up moves slower.
- Day-of-week irregularity. Most consumer mail has weekend lulls and weekday peaks. ESPs watch this pattern. Smooth out your sends across days during warm-up if you can.
After warm-up
Once warm-up is complete, maintain consistent volume. A dedicated IP that goes from 50,000/day to 200,000/day overnight will still get throttled. Reputation is built on consistency, not just absolute volume.
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