Free Email Warm-Up for 10 Mailboxes: How BobWork Counts Accounts

BobWork Email Warm-up gives new accounts 10 active mailboxes free per person or company domain, with no card and no time limit. Accounts created before 27 October 2026 (early users) keep 20 free under the same rules. If you ignore the shared-domain rule, extra company logins will not create extra free allowance. This guide explains how the limit works, what 10 mailboxes covers, when a mailbox is ready, and what you pay above 10.

Connect your first mailboxes in the free email warm-up tool, let them ramp before outbound, and scale by adding prepared mailboxes instead of forcing one inbox higher. That matters when you run cold outreach from several domains, client accounts, or provider types.

How does the free allowance work?

The free allowance is up to 10 active mailboxes per person or per company domain.

That wording matters. If your company uses example.com, every BobWork login under that company domain shares one free pool of 10 active mailboxes. It is not 10 free mailboxes for each employee login.

Personal providers work differently. A Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, or similar consumer address counts per account. If you sign in with a personal provider, the allowance belongs to that account rather than a company domain.

An active mailbox is a mailbox currently warming. If an extra mailbox above the free limit is paused, it does not bill. Extras are billed through Stripe, prorated, and can be cancelled any time.

The rule keeps billing predictable. A founder warming 8 mailboxes pays nothing. A small team warming 10 company mailboxes pays nothing. An agency warming more than 10 active mailboxes pays only for the active extras.

What can 10 mailboxes cover?

Free email warm up for 10 mailboxes is enough for a small cold email setup when you use sensible daily sending caps.

A common pattern is to spread mailboxes across several domains. That avoids putting all sending pressure on one domain. It also gives you room to pause a weak mailbox without stopping every campaign.

For cold outreach, keep real sending around 30-50 emails per day per mailbox. Keep warm-up running at 10-15 per day during campaigns. If you need more volume, add mailboxes instead of pushing one mailbox harder.

Domain reputation still matters. If 10 mailboxes sit on one new domain and all start sending aggressively, the domain can struggle. For new domains, use a slower plan like the one in our new-domain warm-up guide.

If you manage many inboxes, the risk is usually operational. Pause a mailbox for a few days when its spam rate rises above 5%. BobWork measures spam landings directly in receiving mailboxes, not through third-party seed lists.

What happens above 10 mailboxes?

The first 10 active mailboxes are free. Mailbox 11 and above are paid only while active.

Each mailbox above 10 costs $5 per month at first. From 10 extra active mailboxes, extras are $3 each. From 50 extra active mailboxes, extras are $2 each.

Stay under the free allowance until you need more active mailboxes. If you scale past 20 or 60 total active mailboxes, the extra-mailbox price drops.

There is no sales call. You connect mailboxes yourself, choose the provider route, and manage billing in the dashboard if you go above 10.

For larger teams, compare total mailbox cost instead of headline plan price. The cheapest warm-up per mailbox table helps when you compare 10, 20, or 50 inboxes across tools.

How does the ramp work?

Warm-up starts at 3 emails per day per mailbox. It adds 2 per day and caps at 30 per day by default. You can edit the cap per mailbox, up to 100.

Weekends run at 30% of the normal pace. Sends are spread between 09:00 and 18:00 in the mailbox’s own time zone. The engine decides every 15 minutes with randomness, so sends do not fire at fixed times.

A pair of mailboxes never writes to each other twice within 3 hours. Peers on a different domain or provider are picked twice as often.

BobWork marks a mailbox ready for outbound only when three conditions are met: at least 7 days warming, a 7-day spam rate of 10% or lower, and at least 30 warm-up emails received.

That gate is stricter than counting days. A mailbox can be 7 days old and still fail if too many warm-up messages land in spam. It can also need more time if it has not received enough warm-up messages.

For an existing domain, warm for at least 7 days before outbound. For a new domain, use 2-3 weeks. If you want a day-by-day plan, use the email warm-up schedule guide or the free schedule generator.

How does the pool work?

BobWork uses a shared warm-up network by default. Every active mailbox on the service exchanges warm-up emails with other active mailboxes across accounts. One mailbox is enough to start because it can warm with the wider network.

You can switch to a private pool in the dashboard under Mailbox pool -> Pool mode. In private mode, only your own mailboxes write to each other. Nobody outside your account receives your addresses. A private pool needs at least two mailboxes.

The free shared network does this step automatically: it generates short, plain-text office notes, sends them between mailboxes, replies to about 40% of received warm-up mail, and ends threads after 3 messages. Messages have no links, no images, and use first-name greetings.

Users do not write warm-up content. That prevents someone from pushing spam, links, or promotions through the network. Every warm-up email is generated by the engine.

Spam rescue is narrow by design. If warm-up mail lands in Spam, BobWork moves it to Inbox, marks it read, labels it Warm-up, and archives it after 24 hours. Only mail carrying the engine’s hidden header is touched. For Zoho API senders, a known subject is used. Real mail is never read, moved, or answered.

The dashboard also checks SPF, DKIM, and DMARC daily via DNS. It looks for common DKIM selectors including google, zmail, default, selector1, selector2, k1, s1, mail, dkim, lark, feishu, and zoho.

For the full behavior, including timing, replies, weekends, rescue, and scoring, read the exact warm-up engine strategy.

Which setup steps matter first?

Start with DNS before volume. Warm-up can help mailbox behavior, but it cannot fix missing authentication.

At minimum, your sending domain should have SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Google recommends keeping spam complaints below 0.1% and avoiding 0.3% or higher. Yahoo requires spam rates under 0.3%, SPF and DKIM, DMARC at least p=none, alignment, one-click unsubscribe for bulk, and honoring unsubscribes within 2 days.

Use primary provider documentation for hard rules:

• Google email sender guidelines
• Yahoo sender best practices
• Microsoft sender requirements for Outlook.com

Microsoft’s Outlook.com requirements apply to domains sending more than 5,000 emails per day. They require SPF pass, DKIM pass, and DMARC with alignment. Microsoft does not state a numeric complaint threshold in that requirement.

For Gmail and Google Workspace, the recommended route is IMAP with an app password. One-click Google sign-in also exists, but Google caps unverified apps at 100 users. BobWork has not done the CASA audit, so spots are limited and Google shows an unverified-app notice. A Workspace admin can mark the app as trusted in the Admin console.

If you are warming Gmail, read the Gmail warm-up guide. If you use Zoho, the Zoho Mail warm-up guide explains the free API route.

What should you check before launch?

Do not connect 10 mailboxes and start campaigns the same day. Warm-up should run before outbound, and it should keep running while campaigns send.

Use this checklist before you press Start on any campaign.

Separate warm-up health from list quality. A bad list can still create bounces and complaints. A confusing subject line can still get ignored. A missing unsubscribe link can still create compliance problems.

BobWork’s optional Outbound feature only sends from mailboxes that passed the ready gate. It caps cold email at 30 per day per mailbox in the first week after ready, then 50 per day after. Warm-up keeps running on the same mailboxes while they send.

You do not need Outbound to use warm-up. The warm-up product stays free for up to 10 active mailboxes either way.

When is 10 enough?

Ten mailboxes is enough when your goal is controlled outreach, not sudden bulk volume.

At 30-50 real cold emails per day per mailbox, 10 mailboxes can cover a meaningful outbound setup. The safe volume depends on domain age, list quality, offer, copy, bounce rate, complaint rate, and provider limits. Check your provider’s current limits before you scale.

Use 10 mailboxes when:

• You are warming several domains before a campaign.
• You are testing new copy and lists.
• You want backup mailboxes if one pauses.
• You run a small sales, recruiting, founder-led, or agency workflow.
• You prefer self-serve setup over a sales call.

Use fewer than 10 when your domain is new, your list quality is uncertain, or authentication is not ready. New domains should earn volume slowly. More inboxes do not protect a domain from poor targeting or high complaints.

Use more than 10 when your sending plan needs more active mailboxes. At that point, the pricing table above gives you the extra monthly cost before you connect them.

If you are deciding whether warm-up is worth doing, read does email warm-up work. Warm-up helps create controlled sending behavior and detect spam placement. It is not a substitute for permission, relevance, clean data, authentication, or low complaint rates.

To start, connect one mailbox or your first batch of mailboxes in BobWork Email Warm-up. Let them warm for at least 7 days, check the ready gate, then launch campaigns only from mailboxes that pass. The setup is self-serve, the first 10 active mailboxes are free, and you do not need a credit card.

What else should you know?

Is the 10-mailbox free limit per login?

No. It is per person or per company domain. Several logins using the same company domain share one free 10-mailbox allowance. Personal providers such as gmail.com and yahoo.com count per account.

What happens if my company has two logins?

If both logins use the same company domain, they share the same free 10 active mailboxes. Extra company logins do not multiply the allowance.

Can I warm one mailbox by itself?

Yes, in the shared warm-up network one mailbox is enough to start. If you switch to a private pool, you need at least two mailboxes because only your own mailboxes write to each other.

How much does mailbox 11 cost?

Each active mailbox above the free 10 costs $5 per month at first. From 10 extra mailboxes, extras are $3 each. From 50 extra mailboxes, extras are $2 each. Billing is prorated through Stripe.

Does BobWork support Outlook or Microsoft 365?

Not yet. Microsoft requires OAuth for this connection, so Outlook and Microsoft 365 are not currently supported. Gmail, Workspace, Zoho, Lark, Yahoo, iCloud, SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, and IMAP plus SMTP mailboxes are supported.

How long before a mailbox can send campaigns?

BobWork marks a mailbox ready after at least 7 days warming, a 7-day spam rate of 10% or lower, and at least 30 warm-up emails received. New domains typically need 2-3 weeks.

Does warm-up guarantee inbox placement?

No. Warm-up helps build normal sending signals and detect spam placement, but it cannot guarantee inbox placement. DNS, domain history, list quality, content, complaints, and unsubscribe handling still matter.

Frequently asked questions