SMTP integration: Break Gmail’s limits with GMass (even if you’re not highly technical)
Gmail has sending limits. Break those limits using a SMTP server with GMass (no high-level email technical knowledge required)
When you’re using GMass to send high volumes of emails, you risk bumping into Gmail sending limits (up to 500 emails per day for standard @gmail.com accounts and up to 2,000 emails per day for @companyname.com Google Workspace accounts).
GMass has several limit-breaking strategies to make sure those caps don’t get in the way of your results.
If you really want to sprint past those daily limits to send virtually unlimited emails with Gmail, you’ll need to use GMass’s SMTP integration.
And never fear: Using a third-party SMTP server is completely within Google’s terms of service.
Never fear number two: You don’t need high-level technical knowledge to use an SMTP server with GMass.
You don’t even need to know what a SMTP server is (although our guide to SMTP is a great primer if you want to learn). Just know that, in this particular situation, it’s a way to send tons of emails without waiting for Gmail to reset your daily limit.
Read on to learn about how GMass’s SMTP integration can help you get all of your emails out on time. What’s a limit? Never heard of it.
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SMTP pros and cons |
The 4 advantages and 1.5 disadvantages of using an SMTP server with Gmail
Before we dive into how to use a SMTP integration with GMass, we’re going to add important context galore with a quick explanation of how sending through an external SMTP server differs from sending directly through Gmail.
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of using an SMTP server to send high-volume campaigns in Gmail.
Advantage 1: No more sending limits
As we’ve already mentioned in, well, pretty much every sentence of this page, breaking Gmail’s sending limits is the key advantage of using a third-party SMTP server for large campaigns.
While GMass can automatically break up your large campaigns over several days to keep you within your limits, sometimes you’ll have a time-sensitive campaign that needs to go out now.
A third-party SMTP server integration with GMass is how you pull that off.
Advantage 2: Gmail emails sent through a third-party SMTP server with GMass still operate like normal emails
GMass is all about turning your Gmail account into your email marketing and outreach platform because, among many other reasons, it’s incredibly useful to keep everything email-related inside Gmail.
You draft an email in the comfortable Gmail compose window. Your emails come “from” you. Sent emails are in your sent folder (and searchable).
And none of that changes when you use a third-party SMTP server with GMass to send your emails in Gmail. We make sure your emails will still work just like any other email you send in Gmail.
We relay your emails through the SMTP server then sync the data back to your account. They’ll still be “from” you, still wind up in your sent folder, still be searchable — and still look like normal emails to your contacts.
Advantage 3: The combo of GMass and a third-party SMTP server is ideal for every campaign feature
Some SMTP service providers (like SendGrid) also offer a platform for sending marketing emails. So… do you really need GMass too?
We say yes (which, I’m sure, is shocking for you to read here on the GMass website) — but for really good reasons.
One, GMass operates within Gmail, not an external platform. That gives you the ease and familiarity of Gmail — not to mention the searchability, the value of keeping all of your emails in one place and the overall efficiency. (GMass ensures the data from third-party SMTP sends is synced properly with Gmail.)
And two, when you use a third-party SMTP server and GMass, you can take advantage of all of GMass’s great features like automated follow-ups, Google Sheets integration, deep personalization and a whole lot more.
GMass’s deep integration with your Gmail inbox makes all that possible; it would be close to impossible with the email marketing features offered by the SMTP providers.
Advantage 4: Using a third-party SMTP server is totally compliant with Google’s terms of service
We know phrases like “break Gmail’s limits” sound like you might be doing something black hat (or, at best, gray hat) which could get you in trouble with Google.
Fortunately, that’s just not the case. Google allows for sending emails through an external SMTP server and doing so is completely within its terms of service.
Disadvantage 1: Sending giant campaigns through SMTP servers can mean extra costs
When you send large-scale email campaigns through SMTP servers, it’s unavoidable: You’ll take on some extra costs.
SMTP service providers charge you for sending emails; for example, 100,000 emails in a month costs approximately $10 with Amazon SES or $30 with SendGrid.
In addition, because large-scale campaigns with third-party SMTP servers use significant resources, there’s a small extra cost at GMass as well. (As of November 2021, the first 10,000 monthly third-party SMTP emails are free, followed by a cost of 40 cents per 1,000 emails.)
While (hopefully) none of these costs are jaw dropping, they are extra costs to consider.
Disadvantage 0.5: A slight deliverability hit (maybe)
Perhaps the most common concern we hear about the use of a third-party SMTP server is: Will it affect my deliverability? The standard Gmail servers have some of the best, if not the best, deliverability in the world.
So when you use another server, will your emails wind up in fewer inboxes?
We’ve studied results from hundreds of GMass users who use SMTP servers and we have not observed any appreciable decrease in deliverability on emails sent through an SMTP server.
That being said, there might be a very slight drop. If you want to gauge the potential deliverability difference for yourself before diving in, take a look at our latest Gmail vs. third-party SMTP server statistics with our email deliverability wizard tool.
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Third-party SMTP |
Use your own SMTP server account to send virtually unlimited emails with GMass
If you’re ever going to send a large quantity of emails in a day (500+ for a standard Gmail account or 2,000+ for a Google Workspace account), you should set up a third-party SMTP server with GMass to handle the job.
Step one is to sign up with an SMTP service provider like SendGrid, JangoSMTP, Mailgun, Amazon SES or Mailjet.
We have step-by-step instructions for configuring your SendGrid SMTP account for GMass, which is really useful in getting started.
We’ve also found SendGrid is the fastest way to get rolling because it doesn’t require extra steps to authenticate your domain like some of the other SMTP providers. You can dig deeper into the differences between the services by reading our in-depth, hands-on review of SMTP services.
Step two is to head to settings in your GMass dashboard and connect your SMTP server.
GMass will send an email to test the connection and, assuming everything works right, you will now have the option to choose to send every email campaign through Gmail or your SMTP server.
(You can also use our SMTP test tool to test your connection and spot any potential issues.)
And when you choose your SMTP server on a large campaign, you’ll be able to bust through the Gmail sending limits.
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GMass SMTP routing |
Use GMass’s own SendGrid SMTP server to break Gmail limits on a case-by-case basis
If you send a large email campaign through Gmail’s servers (not through your third-party SMTP server) and emails start to bounce as you hit Gmail’s limits, you’ll receive an automated email from GMass letting you know.
And we just might be able to help on the spot.
If your account has a strong reputation with us (your deliverability is generally good, your email quality is generally high), our algorithm can say, “Hey, hook this person up.”
And GMass can automatically send your over-the-limit emails through our own SendGrid SMTP server to get all of your emails out in one day.
If our algorithm doesn’t automatically reroute your campaign through our SMTP server, you can click a link in the “over the limit” alert email we sent to ask us to manually push the campaign through. (Our support team will review your case; usually non-commercial sends are more likely to get the thumbs up).
Plus, you can apply to use our internal SMTP account as well so we’ll keep an eye out for your large campaigns in the future.
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GMass transactional SMTP |
Send transactional emails through Gmail via GMass’s own SMTP service
GMass offers its own SMTP service for transactional emails.
(This is different than what we just discussed above with GMass’s STMP rerouting through our SendGrid server in an over-the-limit situation. That’s for sending campaigns. This is for transactional emails, which are business-focused automatic emails that go to users after they take an action on your website or app.)
If you’re using a third-party SMTP service for transactional emails like password resets, sales confirmations, and other similar emails, you may find lots of advantages in switching to GMass’s SMTP service instead.
The main reason: With GMass’s SMTP service, your transactional emails will be sent through your Gmail account.
That means those emails will now be in your Sent Mail folder so you can search them — and use GMass’s tool to build email lists from a Gmail search to generate new marketing email lists.
For instance, you could search your transactional emails for everyone who got a sales confirmation in January, then build a quick list to re-engage those customers with an exclusive discount.
GMass’s SMTP use of your Gmail account can also improve deliverability and make the setup process simpler (especially if you don’t want to dive into the world of DKIM, SPF, DNS records, and other technical email processes).
Check out our blog post on the GMass SMTP service to determine if it’s right for you.
Note: GMass’s SMTP service is not meant for breaking Gmail’s limits. GMass’s SMTP sends your website or app’s transactional emails through your Gmail account, so it abides by Gmail’s caps. This is a service for you if you send a lower volume amount of transactional emails and want to unify them with your other emails (like your GMass campaigns and/or personal emails) in your Gmail account.
Ready to use GMass’s powerful third-party SMTP integration to stop letting Gmail’s send limits slow down your campaigns?
Gmail send limits can be a major point of frustration when you’re relying on Gmail to send your crucial, high-volume email campaigns.
That’s why we’ve built a robust SMTP integration into GMass — but one that’s still simple to hook up regardless of your technical know-how.
With GMass’s SMTP integration, you can break Gmail’s daily sending limits while staying in compliance with Google and keeping deliverability high.
(Want to learn more about GMass’s features? Next up: All about GMass’s reply management.)