Glossary Term
Soft Bounce
A temporary email delivery failure that may resolve itself, such as a full mailbox or server issue.
What is Soft Bounce?
A soft bounce is a temporary delivery failure where the email might be delivered if retried later. Common causes include:
- Mailbox full: Recipient's inbox is at capacity
- Server temporarily unavailable: Receiving server is down or overloaded
- Message too large: Email exceeds recipient's size limits
- Connection timeout: Network issues during delivery
- Rate limiting: Receiving server limiting your send rate
Most email systems automatically retry soft bounces several times over 24-72 hours. If retries fail, the soft bounce becomes a failure.
Best practice: Monitor soft bounce patterns. Consistent soft bounces to the same address may indicate the mailbox is abandoned.
Why It Matters
- 1Less damaging than hard bounces
- 2Often resolve automatically with retries
- 3Pattern of soft bounces may indicate problems
- 4High soft bounce rates still warrant investigation
Related Tools
Related Guides
Related Terms
Bounce Rate
The percentage of sent emails that fail to deliver and are returned by the receiving server.
Hard Bounce
A permanent email delivery failure, typically because the email address or domain doesn't exist.
Email Deliverability
The ability of your emails to successfully reach recipients' inboxes rather than being blocked or sent to spam.
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