Mailbox provider
Outlook.com sending limits
Outlook.com / Hotmail (free)
| Account / daily limit | ~300 recipients per day (Microsoft does not publish an exact figure for free accounts). Brand-new accounts are throttled even lower until they build credibility. |
|---|---|
| Send rate | ~20 messages per minute on free accounts; enforced on a rolling 24h window. |
| Recipients per email | 100 recipients per message. |
The account cap is not a cold-email volume
Like free Gmail, a free Outlook.com/Hotmail address can't send from an authenticated custom domain, so it is not viable for cold outreach regardless of the ~300/day number. Effective inbox-safe cold volume is near zero; if used personally at all, keep it under ~20-30/day.
Good to know
- Free-account limits are deliberately undisclosed and vary by account age/reputation.
- New accounts get a low temporary quota that rises only as the account proves legitimate.
- Rolling-window enforcement: hitting the cap at 2pm unlocks at 2pm next day, not midnight.
Scale safely past one inbox.
Real cold-email scale comes from many inboxes each sending a safe volume, not one inbox maxing its cap. Scheduler Zero spreads sending across warmed inboxes and paces it for you.