Why It Matters
On a shared IP, your deliverability is partly at the mercy of other senders. If a fellow tenant sends spam, the IP's reputation drops, and your emails suffer. A dedicated IP eliminates that risk — your reputation is 100% your own. That said, it also means you have to maintain that reputation yourself. There's no crowd to hide in.
How It Works
Your email provider assigns you one or more IP addresses that no other customer uses. All email you send goes through those IPs. ISPs track the sending history of each IP individually, building a reputation profile based on bounce rates, complaint rates, spam trap hits, and engagement patterns.
New dedicated IPs start with a neutral (not positive) reputation. You need to warm them up gradually — start with small volumes to your most engaged subscribers, then slowly ramp up over 2-4 weeks. Skip the warmup, and ISPs will treat your sudden burst of email from an unknown IP as suspicious.
Quick Tips
- You generally need to send at least 100,000 emails per month to justify a dedicated IP. Below that volume, you don't generate enough data for ISPs to build a stable reputation, and a shared IP with a reputable provider is actually better.
- Warm up new IPs methodically. Start with 1,000-2,000 emails per day, increasing by 30-50% every few days, sending first to your most engaged subscribers.
- If you use multiple IPs, segment by email type (transactional on one, marketing on another) to protect transactional deliverability from marketing fluctuations.