What the receiver is telling you

Gmail is deferring your mail because the rate, or the spam rate, from your sending IP crossed a threshold. On Google Workspace the IP is Google's, so the trigger is your domain: too many messages too fast from a domain with little history, or a spam-report rate above the 0.3% line. It is temporary in the sense that Gmail will accept mail again when the rate drops. It becomes 5.7.28 if you do not let it.

How to handle a soft bounce

Your server or sending tool retries soft failures automatically, usually for one to three days. Most clear on their own. The mistake is leaving an address that soft-bounces on every step in an active sequence: each attempt is logged, and a mailbox that has been full or unreachable for two weeks is not going to read a follow-up. Three consecutive soft failures is the point to remove it. Track soft bounces separately from hard ones; they are a different signal and receivers weight them differently.

What to do

1. Cut sends to Gmail addresses from the affected domain to a fraction — under 20 per inbox per day — for at least a week.
2. Check the domain in Google Postmaster Tools: spam rate and domain reputation.
3. Remove unengaged addresses and anything that has bounced before from the list.
4. If the domain is under a month old, it was sending at full volume too early; extend warmup.

don't Do not spread the same volume across more inboxes on the same domain. Gmail limits per domain, not per inbox.

Decode the whole bounce

Paste the complete failure notice — every code and the receiver's wording — and get each part explained together.

Common questions