Frequency Capping
Prevent over-sending to individual contacts
Frequency Capping
Frequency capping lets you limit the number of emails a single contact can receive within a given time period. This prevents subscriber fatigue, reduces unsubscribes, and protects your sender reputation by ensuring no one is bombarded with too many messages.
How frequency capping works
When frequency capping is enabled, Mailnaptic checks how many emails each contact has received within your configured window before including them in a campaign send. If a contact has already reached the cap, they are automatically skipped for that send and will not receive the email.
Frequency capping applies to both campaigns and automation emails. Transactional emails (such as password resets) are not subject to frequency caps.
Configuring frequency caps
- Navigate to Organization Settings from the sidebar.
- Locate the Sending or Deliverability section.
- Set your desired frequency cap parameters:
- Maximum emails — The maximum number of emails a contact can receive (e.g., 5).
- Time window — The period over which the cap is enforced (e.g., 7 days).
- Save your settings.
The setting applies organization-wide. All campaigns and automations in your organization will respect the cap.
How the cap is tracked
Mailnaptic records each email sent to a contact in the frequency_cap_send table. When a campaign is about to send, the system queries this table to count how many emails the contact has received within the configured window. Contacts who have reached the limit are excluded from the current send.
The frequency cap data is also cached in Redis for performance, so cap checks add minimal overhead even at high sending volumes.
Recommended settings
| Sending volume | Recommended cap | Window |
|---|---|---|
| Low (1-2 campaigns/week) | 4 emails | 7 days |
| Medium (3-5 campaigns/week) | 6 emails | 7 days |
| High (daily campaigns + automations) | 10 emails | 7 days |
These are starting points. Monitor your unsubscribe and complaint rates to find the right balance for your audience.
Viewing skipped contacts
When a contact is skipped due to frequency capping, the campaign activity log records the skip reason. You can see how many contacts were excluded from a campaign by viewing the campaign's detailed statistics.
Interaction with automations
Automation email steps also respect frequency caps. If a contact reaches their cap while partway through an automation, the email step will be skipped, and the automation will continue to the next step (such as a delay or condition). This means automations will not stall because of frequency caps — only the email action is skipped.
Best practices
- Start with a conservative cap and loosen it gradually based on engagement data.
- Review your frequency cap settings whenever you add new automations, as these add to your total sending volume per contact.
- Use segments based on engagement level to send more emails to highly engaged contacts and fewer to passive subscribers.
- Combine frequency capping with send-time optimization for the best results.
Frequency capping is one of the simplest and most effective tools for maintaining subscriber satisfaction and protecting deliverability.