Hotmail Sending Limits

Error when you try to send an e-mail: Our junk filters identified something suspicious in your message. Please edit it and try again.

2009-08-24T10:55:00Z

This solution article will give information to users who are experiencing an error message indicating their message is blocked as our junk filters found something suspicious.

Symptoms:

Users will experience the following message when sending a mail:

"Our junk filters identified something suspicious in your message. Please edit it and try again. Learn more".

What do these messages mean?
We use systems to help detect spammers on Windows Live Hotmail. These systems place a variety of restrictions on accounts, one of which is blocking the sending of suspicious messages. Messages get blocked when the content of the message looks spam-like. The message you are sending has been flagged as spam by our anti-spam systems.

What should you do?
Occasionally, legitimate mails can get marked as spam. To be able to continue sending this message, do one of the following:

* Change contents of message to make it look less suspicious and try again

* Upgrade to a paid account, click here to know more.

* Contact Customer Support - Please create a post here and provide your account name and the error message received and one of our moderators will help you.

You can also learn more about good mailing habits at http://postmaster.live.com.

You're prompted to remove recipients before you can send a message

2009-03-11T10:17:00Z

This solution article provides information to users who are prompted to reduce the number of recipients while trying to send an email.

Symptoms:

When you try to send an e-mail message to multiple recipients, you may receive an error message that states that you must remove some recipients before you can send your message.

What does this mean?

To help reduce the amount of junk e-mail (Unwanted, unsolicited, or illicit e-mail or other electronic messages, including spam.) sent from Windows Live Hotmail accounts, we limit the number of recipients that you can send a message to at one time.

What should you do?

As a workaround so you are able to send your mail, reduce the number of recipients to the number that is indicated in the error message, and then try to send your message again.

The limit depends on your reputation within Hotmail. The system needs a few days to build your reputation. So, there are stricter limitations on new accounts or accounts that have engaged in activity representative of abusers sending spam. As you develop a reputation for not sending junk e-mail, we increase the number of recipients that you can send messages to.

If you are a new free user, you might be limited to as low as 10 max recipients limit which is a temporary restriction and is upgraded to the 100 (previously it was 50 - changed in Sep '09 update) max recipients limit as soon as the user establishes credibility in the system.

If you are a paid user, you can add up to 100 recipients to an outgoing email.

Error when you try to send an e-mail: This account is currently blocked from sending messages

2009-01-28T11:00:00Z

This solution article will give information to users who are experiencing an error message indicating their account/computer is blocked from sending messages for apparent Terms of Use violation.

Symptoms:

Users will experience one of the following messages when sending a mail:

This account is currently blocked from sending messages. If you don't think you've violated the Windows Live Terms of Use, please click here.

This computer is currently blocked from sending messages. If you don't think you've violated the Windows Live Terms of Use, please click here.

What do these messages mean?
We use systems to help detect spammers on Windows Live Hotmail. These systems place a variety of restrictions on accounts, one of them is blocking users from sending emails. Occasionally, suspicious activity causes our technology to apply restrictions on legitimate accounts.

What should you do?
Our Hotmail moderators need to take a look at this account and validate if the account has been genuinely blocked or if it’s a false alert. Please create a post here and provide your account name and the error message received and one of our moderators will help you.

You can also learn more about good mailing habits at http://postmaster.live.com.

You have sent the maximum number of messages in a 24-hour period

2008-12-23T07:20:00Z

This solution article will provide information to users who are experiencing an error indicating that they have exceeded the maximum number of messages that could be sent in a 24 hours period and are unable to send any more emails.

Symptoms:

Users will encounter the below message when trying to send an mail in Windows Live Hotmail:

"You have sent the maximum number of messages in a 24-hour period"

Why does Hotmail limit how much mail I can send in a day?

The limits are used as a deterrent to spammers and are part of helping to reduce the amount of spam you receive in your Inbox.

What's the send mail limit?

The send mail limit depends on your reputation within Hotmail. The system needs a few days to build your reputation. So, there are more stricter limitations on new accounts or accounts that have engaged in activity that is representative of abusers sending spam.

If you are a new user, a low sending quota is a temporary restriction and is upgraded to the 300 limit (previously it was 250 - changed in Sep '09 update) as soon as the user establishes credibility in the system.

If you are an established user, recent account activity may have sent us a false alert. Create a post here to contact an agent and have the sending limits corrected.

Note: Recipients is different from emails - 1 email with 5 recipients counts as 5 emails, not 1.

What do I do when I hit the limit?

First, you should save your current message as a draft. Your next step will depend on your limit. If you hit the limit of 300 recipients/day and want to be able to send more mail, you should upgrade to a paid account. Our Hotmail Plus and MSN Premium users, both of which are paid accounts, are eligible for a higher sending limit.

To upgrade your account to Windows Live Hotmail Plus, you can go to http://www.gowindowslive.com/hotmailplus/en-us/default.aspx

To upgrade your account to MSN Premium, you can go to http://get.msn.com/?prod=premium&tb=FeaturesTab

Once you have signed up for either of these services, please create a post here and a moderator can confirm that your sending limits have been upgraded.

If you hit a limit lower than 300 recipients/day, you should just continue using Hotmail regularly. Legitimate usage of your account will lead to your limit increasing to 300 recipients/day in a few days.

I don't want to wait for a few days for the system to realize I'm a legitimate user. What can I do to prove that now?

Hotmail is continuously working on improving our systems to distinguish between legitimate users and spammers as fast as possible. Unfortunately, the current version of the system takes a few days to make the determination. In the future, we will provide steps that you can take immediately to establish your legitimacy.