Outlook.com, Hotmail and Live addresses all run on the same system, so they share the same limits. Like Gmail, Microsoft counts recipients, not emails: one message to 50 people uses 50 of your daily allowance.
The limits
| Account | Recipients per day | Per message |
|---|---|---|
| Free Outlook.com / Hotmail (established) | about 300 | about 100 |
| Brand-new free account | much lower, often under 100 | lower |
| Outlook.com with a Microsoft 365 subscription | 5,000 (max 1,000 people you've never emailed) | 500 |
| Microsoft 365 business (Exchange Online) | 10,000 | 500 |
Microsoft only publishes the numbers for paying subscribers. The free-account figures come from what senders see in practice, and they move with your account's reputation.
What happens when you go over
You get a message that the account is over its limit, and sending stops for up to 24 hours. Go over repeatedly, or get marked as spam a lot, and Microsoft may ask you to verify the account with a phone number or block it.
How to stay under it
- Treat new accounts gently. Microsoft says new accounts start with a low quota that goes up once the account "establishes credibility". Start with a few dozen emails a day.
- Use several accounts instead of one. Five accounts sending 150 a day each is far safer than one account at 300.
- Pause between emails. Dozens of messages in the same minute look like a script. A random gap of 20 to 90 seconds looks like a person.
- Set up your domain properly if you send from your own domain through Microsoft 365. Since May 2025 Outlook expects SPF, DKIM and DMARC from bulk senders. You can check your domain here.
Doing it with ZeroPhantom
Outlook Sender lets you add many Outlook and Hotmail accounts, set a daily cap per account and space emails out, so each account stays well inside its limit. Try it free for 3 days before you buy.