How warmup works (and the recommended ramp)
What the warmup scheduler does day to day, the default ramp numbers, and when campaign sending unlocks.
Warmup builds sending reputation for a new or dormant mailbox by generating small, growing volumes of genuinely engaged email before real campaigns run through it. Toggle it per mailbox from the Mailboxes list; a progress bar shows where each mailbox sits on its ramp.
What actually happens
While warmup is on, the scheduler sends a controlled number of messages each day from your mailbox to a peer network of other warming mailboxes. Each peer's own mailbox is checked for the message and it is genuinely marked read, and a portion of confirmed reads get a real reply — the strongest positive signals a sender can accumulate. This only happens between peers whose reply access we've verified; a message that never shows up in the peer's inbox (for instance, landing in spam) is not counted as opened. Volume follows a ramp from 5 a day up to the mailbox's warmup target (40 a day by default), stepping up about 15% each day, and sends are spaced through business hours rather than fired in bursts.
The default ramp
| Days | Daily warmup volume (target 40/day) | Campaign sending |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | 5 → 10 | Not yet |
| 4–6 | 13 → 20 | Not yet |
| 7–9 | 24 → 35 | Not yet |
| 10 | 40 | Mailbox is warmed; campaigns can send |
Campaign sends are gated by warmup status: the send governor only picks a mailbox once it is marked warmed, even if it's in a launched campaign's pool. A warmed mailbox keeps exchanging warmup mail with the peer network, and you can restart its warmup from the mailbox's warmup menu after a break or a bad campaign.
Controls and status
- Start / stop warmup from the mailbox row or detail page. Stopping mid-ramp pauses progress; a stop longer than about two weeks restarts the ramp partway back, because reputation decays.
- Status shows the stage (Seed, Build, Blend, Working, Maintain), today's warmup send count, and engagement rate from the peer network.
- Target volume is editable per mailbox. Raising it extends the ramp; the scheduler never jumps.
For the reasoning behind the numbers, see the blog post Mailbox warmup: the ramp schedule that actually works.
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