GoLeadX
Sign in with Google
Deliverability

Bounce rate

Bounce rate is the share of sent messages the receiving server refused. Under 2% is healthy for cold outreach; above 5% and mailbox providers start treating you as a sender who did not collect their own list.

Bounces are the clearest evidence to a mailbox provider that you are sending to addresses you never confirmed. Nobody with a self-collected list bounces at 8%, so a rate that high is read as a purchased or unverified list and filtered accordingly.

The rate is also the honest scoreboard for whatever verification you paid for. Send to a cleaned list, measure what comes back, and you have a direct measurement of how much the cleaning was worth.

Under 2%
Normal. Nothing to fix.
2–5%
The list needs re-verifying before the next send.
Over 5%
Stop sending. Reputation damage is already accumulating.

Goes deeper: Email Verification, Explained Properly

Related terms

Hard bounce
A hard bounce is a permanent rejection — the mailbox does not exist, or the domain cannot receive mail. The address should be removed immediately and never retried.
Soft bounce
A soft bounce is a temporary rejection — a full mailbox, a server that is down, or a rate limit. The address may work later, so it is retried rather than removed.
Email verification
Email verification is checking whether an address can actually receive mail before you send to it. A full check tests the syntax, then the domain's mail records, then asks the receiving server about the specific mailbox.
Sender reputation
Sender reputation is the score mailbox providers keep on your domain and sending IP, based on how recipients react to your mail. It decides whether your next message reaches the inbox.