An email bounce occurs when your message can’t be delivered. Learn the difference between hard bounces and soft bounces and what to do about each.
An email bounce happens when a message is rejected or cannot be delivered to the recipient. Bounces are typically reported back to the sender with an error reason that indicates whether the issue is permanent or temporary.
Hard bounces usually mean a permanent problem such as a non-existent address or a blocked domain. Soft bounces are temporary issues such as a full mailbox, a short-term server failure, or a throttling response from the recipient’s provider.
High bounce rates can harm your sending reputation. Remove hard-bouncing addresses quickly, investigate sudden spikes, and improve list hygiene and verification to reduce bounces over time.