Email Limitations That Every Lawyer Should Know

As a lawyer, you probably spend a considerable amount of time sending and receiving emails, but did you know that each email service provider actually has their own rules and limitations when it comes to sending emails, attachment file sizes, and more? Knowing your email provider’s rules is a great way to make sure your firm’s incoming and outgoing email correspondence isn’t being blocked, and it ensures that your firm’s email domain does not get blacklisted. Many firms believe that there are no limits when it comes to sending out emails, but as a lot of firms find out, exceeding your daily limit can actually result in a temporary ban from emailing altogether. We’ve put together a short overview of each major email provider’s limitations down below; we hope this can assist your law firm in keeping your day-to-day email correspondence operating smoothly.

Gmail
Gmail generally allows you to email up to 500 recipients per message, or up to 500 individual emails per day. Going beyond these limits will result in a temporary ban from sending emails for 1-24 hours. Furthermore, the limit for receiving emails stands at 86,400 per day, with Google limiting you to receiving 60 emails per minute and 3600 per hour. In addition, you are allowed to send up to 25MB of data in attachments. And if you’re uploading more than one attachment, your files can’t add up to more than 25MB. Any file that’s over this limit is automatically converted by Google into a Google Drive link rather than an attachment. As one can see, Gmail’s daily sending limit is on the low side, making it a poor choice for firms looking to send out mass emails for outreach, marketing, or other purposes. We recommend services like Robly or Mailchimp for that.

Office 365
For Microsoft’s Office 365 platform, you are allowed to send mail to up to 10,000 recipients per day (30 messages per minute) while being limited in receiving a maximum of 3,600 messages per hour. According to Microsoft, 365’s receiving limit refreshes one hour after it has been reached. In terms of file attachment limits, 365 users can attach a maximum of 150MB of data to their messages while using Outlook for Windows & Mac, and 33MB of data while using Outlook for Android and iOS. Overall, Office 365 remains a decent platform for firms that need a more robust emailing service, but again, firms should be using a dedicated email marketing platform if sending out mass emails.