Connecting Your Email to unionkit: Platforms and Limits
Unionkit does not charge you to send emails because unionkit does not sell email delivery.
Instead of forcing your campaign into an expensive monthly email platform, unionkit connects directly to an email account your campaign already controls. Unionkit acts as the mission control center: you build the email, select your audience, review your campaign limits, and unionkit asks your own email provider to send the message from your account.
Because the emails originate from your actual inbox or domain, your sending limits depend entirely on the provider you connect. Unionkit helps you stay within those limits by sending in controlled batches, tracking what has already been sent, and pausing before unsafe thresholds are reached.
Note: It is always best practice to avoid sending too many blanket mass-emails to your mailing list or bargaining unit. Smaller, more targeted communications will generally result in higher deliverability rates and higher engagement.
Paid vs. Free Accounts
The Golden Rule: if you are sending mass communications, use a professional email account connected to a domain your campaign controls.
Free accounts like standard @gmail.com or @outlook.com addresses are designed for personal correspondence, not campaign-scale outreach. If you try to send a large blast from a free personal account, your provider may temporarily block sending, freeze your outbox, or flag the account for suspicious activity.
| Account Type | Best For | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Professional Account | Organizing, mass emails, newsletters | Highly Recommended |
| Free Personal Account | 1-on-1 emails, small test sends, emails with fewer than 500 recipients | Possible, But Less Reliable |
Professional Platform Limits
Daily sending limits are controlled by your email provider. In many cases, these limits operate on a rolling 24-hour window, not a midnight-to-midnight calendar day. If you send a large batch at 2:00 PM on Tuesday, that capacity may not fully return until 2:00 PM on Wednesday.
Google Workspace
- Daily Sending Limit: 2,000 messages (up to 10,000 total recipients) per user per rolling 24-hour period.
- Max Recipients per Message: 2,000 unique recipients (To, Cc, and Bcc combined).
- The Reality Check: Even if your provider allows a high daily limit, new domains should ramp up gradually. Sending a large campaign from a brand-new domain can harm deliverability or trigger spam protections.
- Note: Trial, new, or low-reputation accounts may have stricter limits than established paid accounts.
- Source: https://www.mailreach.co/blog/google-workspace-email-sending-limits#:~:text=Total%20and%20Unique%20Recipient%20Limits,to%2010%2C000%20recipient%2Dcounts%2Fday
Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online
- Daily Recipient Limit: 10,000 recipients per day.
- Max Recipients per Message: 500 recipients per message.
- The Reality Check: Microsoft and other providers may apply stricter limits to new tenants, new domains, or accounts with limited sending history. Build reputation gradually before sending large campaigns.
- Source: https://prospeo.io/s/outlook-email-limits
Free Account Limitations
If you must use a free account while your campaign is getting started, use it only for small tests and direct communication. Unionkit does not recommend sending large campaign blasts from free personal inboxes.
Free Gmail / Free Outlook
- Daily Limit: Free Gmail allows up to 500 emails/recipients per day.
- Free Outlook.com accounts generally allow up to 300 recipients per day.
- The Risk: Free inboxes are heavily monitored for spam-like behavior. Sending to many people who have not recently interacted with the account can cause messages to fail or trigger account restrictions.
- Source: https://www.trulyinbox.com/blog/gmail-sending-limit-per-day/#:~:text=need%20to%20know%3A-,Gmail%20Sending%20Limit%20For%20Standard%20Gmail%20Accounts,Emails%20per%20day%20%E2%80%93%20500
How unionkit Protects Your Campaign
To help you manage provider limits safely, unionkit includes built-in safeguards:
- Controlled Sending: unionkit sends one personalized message per recipient so tracking, links, and follow-up history can be tied to the correct person. These messages are processed in controlled batches, and unionkit can pause sending when your configured daily or rate limits are approached.
- Tracked Opens: unionkit adds a tiny transparent tracking image to each outgoing email. When a recipient’s email client loads that image, unionkit records a tracked open for that recipient and campaign. Open tracking is useful, but it is not perfect: some email clients block images, while others may preload images for privacy or security reasons.
- Tracked Clicks: unionkit rewrites email links through secure unionkit tracking links. When a recipient clicks, unionkit records the click and then redirects them to the intended destination. This allows campaigns to measure engagement without relying on a third-party marketing email platform.
- Verified Actions: The most reliable engagement metric is what members actually do after clicking. When a recipient signs a petition, updates their information, RSVPs, fills out a form, or completes another unionkit action, unionkit records that as a verified action.
- List Hygiene: Failed sends, invalid addresses, and detected bounces can be flagged in your unionkit database so future campaigns do not waste sending capacity on bad addresses.
What unionkit Tracks
Unionkit can report:
- Messages queued
- Messages sent
- Failed sends
- Tracked opens
- Unique tracked opens
- Tracked clicks
- Unique tracked clicks
- Verified actions
- Click/open ratio
- Action/click ratio
- Bounce or invalid-address flags, where available
A Note About Open Rates
No email system can guarantee a perfectly accurate open rate. Opens are based on whether an email client loads a tracking image, and modern inboxes handle images in different ways. Unionkit treats opens as a directional engagement signal, not a verified action.
Clicks and completed actions are stronger signals. Verified actions are the most reliable measure of whether an email moved someone to participate.