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Email deliverability

Email deliverability is a sender's ability to get emails into recipients' inboxes rather than spam folders once the receiving mail server has accepted them.

How it works

An email is first delivered: the recipient’s mail server accepts it instead of bouncing it. Deliverability is what comes next: inbox, tabs such as Promotions included, or spam. Mailbox providers judge the sender’s reputation: who is on the email list, how often recipients mark emails as spam, how much is sent, how the domain is set up.

Since February 2024 Gmail has set requirements for mail to personal Gmail accounts, stricter for bulk senders: about 5,000 messages or more in 24 hours from one primary domain. Bulk senders need:

  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC (a policy of “none” is enough);
  • one-click unsubscribe with a visible link;
  • a spam rate below 0.3% in Postmaster Tools; Google advises below 0.1%.

Yahoo asks bulk senders for the same and to honour unsubscribes within 2 days. Since November 2025 Gmail has tightened enforcement, up to rejecting messages. How email works alongside Google Ads is covered in email and SMS for online stores.

Where you see it

  • Gmail Postmaster Tools, for mail to personal Gmail accounts: spam reports, authentication, domain and IP reputation, delivery problems.
  • Email service reports: bounces and spam complaints for each campaign or flow.

Example

Example store, not client data.

On a sale day the tableware shop emails Gmail addresses: 3,000 newsletter emails from a news subdomain and 2,500 order and shipping emails from its main domain. Gmail adds them up: 5,500 messages from one primary domain, so the shop is a bulk sender from that day on.

Not to be confused with

  • Email open rate — opened emails divided by delivered emails. “Delivered” includes emails that landed in spam, so the open rate does not show how many reached the inbox.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “The report says 99% delivered, so the newsletter reached customers.” Right: delivered means the server accepted the email; it can still sit in spam.
  • Wrong: “We now send fewer than 5,000 a day, so the bulk rules no longer apply.” Right: once a sender has crossed the line, Gmail treats it as bulk permanently.

Sources