Reputation Score
How the 0–100 per-mailbox reputation score is calculated, what moves each component, and what happens when it drops.
Every mailbox gets a reputation score from 0 to 100, recalculated continuously and shown on its mailbox card with a trend sparkline. It's a weighted composite of the signals that actually predict deliverability — not a vanity number.
The formula
| Component | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Inbox placement rate | 25% | Share of your mail landing in the inbox (from placement tests and warmup engagement) |
| DNS health | 20% | Your DNS audit score: SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MX, BIMI, reverse DNS |
| Spam rate (inverted) | 15% | Lower spam-folder rate → higher score |
| Bounce rate (inverted) | 15% | Lower bounce rate → higher score |
| Reply rate | 10% | Replies to your warmup and outbound mail |
| Complaint rate (inverted) | 10% | Fewer spam complaints → higher score |
| Volume consistency | 5% | Steady, predictable sending beats erratic bursts |
Weights sum to 100%. A mailbox with perfect placement but broken DNS caps out well below 100 — the score is designed so you can't ignore any pillar.
What moves each component
- Inbox placement improves as warmup engagement accumulates and recipients rescue mail from spam. It's the heaviest weight because it's the outcome everything else exists to produce. See how warmup works.
- DNS health is entirely under your control. Fix SPF, DKIM, and DMARC once and this component stays maxed. Run the free checker if you haven't.
- Spam, bounce, and complaint rates are damage signals. Bounces usually mean stale lists or typos; complaints mean recipients didn't want your mail. Both compound at the provider level, so the score penalizes them early.
- Reply rate is the strongest positive engagement signal providers see. Warmup replies keep it healthy even before you have real conversations.
- Volume consistency rewards the gradual ramp warmup enforces. Sudden spikes after quiet periods look like a compromised account to providers.
Reading the trend
The sparkline on each mailbox card shows recent direction; the mailbox detail page charts the full history. What to look for:
- Slow climb during warmup — normal. Expect steady gains over the first 30 days.
- Flat and high — the mailbox is healthy. Keep warmup running at a maintenance level.
- Sudden drop — investigate the components. A DNS record change, a bounce spike, or a new blacklist listing will each show up in its own metric.
What a drop triggers automatically
You don't have to watch the chart yourself:
- A significant drop fires a
reputation.droppednotification, and a webhook event if you've configured one in Settings → Webhooks. - If bounce rate exceeds 3%, warmup volume is automatically cut to 25% of its normal level until the bounce rate recovers. This protects the mailbox from digging a deeper hole while you fix the underlying cause.
When the score drops, check components in order of weight: run a placement test first, then a DNS audit, then look at bounce and complaint rates. The heaviest-weighted broken component is almost always the culprit.
The score is per mailbox, not per domain. Two mailboxes on the same domain can score differently if one has a bounce problem or a weaker sending history.