iFastHostingHow many emails can I send per hour?
Why sending limits exist on shared hosting mailboxes, and what to do if legitimate mail is being held back by one.
Shared hosting accounts have a limit on how many emails a mailbox can send within a given period, commonly measured per hour. The exact figure depends on your specific plan, and is shown in the email or account limits section of your control panel rather than being a single fixed number across every hosting product.
Why the limit exists
A shared server hosts many customers' mailboxes on the same underlying infrastructure and, in many cases, the same sending IP address. If one account could send unlimited volume, it could affect the sending reputation of that shared IP for every other customer on it — a spam complaint or blacklisting caused by one account's sudden high-volume sending would then affect mail deliverability for everyone else sharing that server. The limit exists to keep that risk contained to the account actually causing it.
Sending limits on shared hosting are standard across the industry for exactly the reason above. A limit being in place is not a sign of a restrictive host — it is one of the reasons shared hosting sending reputation stays usable for everyone on it.
What happens when you hit the limit
Additional messages beyond the limit are typically held or rejected until the counting period resets, rather than being sent anyway. Depending on how your mail client handles this, you may see a specific error mentioning a rate or sending limit, or simply notice that some messages in a large batch did not go out.
If you regularly need to send more than the limit allows
- Check whether a higher-tier plan raises the limit. Different hosting plans often carry different sending allowances.
- Use a dedicated transactional email service for high-volume automated mail such as order confirmations or password resets, rather than routing it through a standard hosting mailbox.
- Spread sending out over time where the use case allows it, rather than sending a large batch all at once.
- Consider whether the mail genuinely needs to come from your hosting mailbox — marketing newsletters, in particular, are usually better sent through a purpose-built newsletter platform designed for volume sending and list management, which also keeps that reputation separate from your day-to-day mailbox.
If you were not expecting to be anywhere near the limit and hit it unexpectedly, check whether the mailbox has been compromised and is sending mail you did not authorise. See changing an email account password if you suspect this, and what to do if your domain is blacklisted if deliverability has also been affected as a result.
Checking your current limit and usage
The exact figure and how close you currently are to it is shown in your control panel, usually in the same area as mailbox management. If you are not sure where to find it for your plan, contact support and it can be confirmed for your specific account.
If mail is failing to send and you are not sure whether a limit is the cause, fixing email that will not send covers this alongside the other common reasons, including server settings and mailbox quota.
Related reading
How to check whether your domain has been blacklisted, what typically causes it, and how to get it removed.
How to fix email that will not sendThe most common reasons an email client refuses to send, checked in the order most likely to find the fault.
Host-provided email or Microsoft 365?What host-provided email and Microsoft 365 each do well, so you can pick based on what your team actually needs.
Why your emails go to spam, and how to stop itEvery common reason outgoing mail is filtered as spam, ordered from the fixes that matter most to the ones that matter least.