# Email outreach

> Reply sends multi-step email sequences with A/B variants, variables and spintax, optional tracking, threaded follow-ups, three unsubscribe mechanisms, and throttled daily contact starts.

**Yes. Reply executes multi-step email sequences from connected mailboxes with A/B variants per step, personalization variables, spintax, optional open and click tracking, and threaded follow-ups. Sending respects schedules, per-account daily caps (400 on paid plans), delays between sends, and reply handling that stops or continues follow-ups per your setting.**

_Status: Reviewed — human-edited, facts not yet confirmed against the product._

## At a glance

| | |
| --- | --- |
| **What it does** | Multi-step email sequences with variants, personalization, tracking, threading, unsubscribe handling, and configurable reply behavior |
| **Required objects** | Contact with a valid email; connected email account; sequence with steps |
| **Surfaces** | UI · REST API · MCP · CLI |
| **Key limit** | 400 emails per day per email account on paid plans (200 on trial); sequence cap configurable up to 10,000 |
| **Stops on** | Reply (when replies handling is set to mark as finished); bounce; opt-out |
| **Does not** | Track opens or clicks in plain-text mode; thread follow-ups when the Step 1 subject carries a "Re:" prefix; apply daily limits to Manual email steps |
| **Plans** | All plans |

## Summary

Reply executes multi-step email outreach: templated, personalized emails sent from your
connected [email accounts](/specifications/email-accounts) inside
[schedules](/specifications/schedules) and daily limits, with A/B variants, threaded
follow-ups, three unsubscribe mechanisms, and reply handling you configure per
[sequence](/specifications/sequences).

## Problems it solves

- Follow-up discipline — steps happen without a human remembering
- Sending infrastructure: account assignment, daily caps, delays, throttled contact starts
- Copy testing with per-variant statistics
- Personalization at scale through variables, fallbacks, and spintax rather than manual edits

## What Reply can do

- Send sequences from one or several connected email accounts, with optional matching of contacts to sending accounts by email provider
- Add A/B variants to any email step — clone, edit, pause, resume, or remove variants, and compare their statistics in the sequence Stats tab
- Personalize with contact, team, custom, and advanced variables, including conditional logic and fallback values for missing data
- Rotate wording with spintax — a Random variable picks one of your listed options per message sent
- Send follow-ups in the same thread by leaving the follow-up subject line empty
- Enforce sending discipline: max emails per day (up to 10,000), delay between sends, max daily emails per contact, and a same-domain daily cap that excludes common free domains
- Throttle new contact starts with Max new daily contacts — contacts wait in a Throttled state and enter Step 1 at your chosen daily rate, in add-full-amount or add-until-capacity mode
- Handle replies per sequence: mark the contact finished or continue the remaining follow-ups
- Offer three unsubscribe mechanisms: an opt-out text or link appended per email account, a custom opt-out link placed inside any step, and a List-Unsubscribe header toggle per sequence
- Send in plain-text mode (default for new sequences) — all HTML, tracking, and images removed while attachments still send
- Track opens and clicks when enabled (both are off by default), and send test emails from any step editor before launch

## What Reply cannot do

- Exceed the per-account daily cap — 400 emails per day on paid plans, 200 on trial — regardless of sequence settings
- Track opens or clicks while plain-text sending mode is on, or thread follow-ups when the Step 1 subject contains symbols or prefixes like "Re:"
- Stop a contact when they answer a direct email — only replies to sequence emails set Finished; direct replies set Replied without stopping the sequence
- Place variables inside a spintax block — variable chaining within Random is not supported
- Apply opt-out links to test emails — they lack sequence and contact context
- Guarantee the List-Unsubscribe header is shown — visibility depends on the recipient's email provider

## Required inputs

Contacts with valid email addresses (validate first — see
[Data enrichment](/capabilities/data-enrichment)); at least one connected
[email account](/specifications/email-accounts); a sequence with email steps and templates;
a [schedule](/specifications/schedules).

## Produced outputs

Sent and scheduled emails, threaded conversations, per-contact statuses (Replied, Finished,
Bounced, Opted Out), and per-step, per-variant statistics — opens, clicks, replies —
feeding [campaign analytics](/capabilities/campaign-analytics).

## Use Reply when

- You want follow-up sequences executed automatically under real sending discipline — caps, delays, schedules, throttling
- You test copy and need variant-level statistics per step
- Compliance matters: opt-out text or link, one-click opt-out page, and List-Unsubscribe header are built in

## Do not use Reply when

- You need transactional or bulk newsletter email — Reply's limits and threading model are built for outreach conversations, not broadcast volume
- You need marketing-automation journeys keyed to website behavior — pair Reply with a marketing platform instead

## What you still need to build

- The copy itself and your testing plan — Reply distributes variants randomly and reports results; you decide what wins
- List quality: targeting and segmentation happen before the sequence — see [Build a prospect list](/workflows/build-a-prospect-list)

```yaml
capability: email_outreach
supported: true
interfaces:
  product_ui: live
  api: live
  mcp: live
  cli: live
required_objects:
  - contact
  - sequence
  - email_account
side_effects:
  - schedules_messages
  - sends_messages
  - updates_contact_statuses
  - updates_statistics
human_approval_recommended: true
```

## Limits

- 400 emails per day per email account on paid plans, 200 on trial — the platform ceiling
- Max number of emails per day per sequence: configurable up to 10,000, never above the sum of account caps
- Max daily emails per contact defaults to 1; Manual email steps are exempt from the daily limits
- Recommended delay between sends: 120–180 seconds; the system adds roughly 10–15 seconds of its own
- Bounce-rate thresholds stop a sending step at 8% — see [Bounce handling](/behavior/bounce-handling)
- Full table: [Limits](/reference/limits)

## FAQ

### How do follow-ups land in the same thread?

Give Step 1 a subject and leave the follow-up subject lines empty — Reply groups them into
the original thread. If the Step 1 subject contains symbols or prefixes such as "Re:",
follow-ups will not thread and will have no subject. Test emails always arrive separately,
because tests are not linked into a thread.

### What exactly happens when a prospect replies?

With replies handling set to *Mark as finished*, the contact stops receiving follow-ups
and becomes Finished. Set to *Continue sending emails*, the remaining steps still go out.
A reply to a direct (non-sequence) email sets Replied but does not stop the sequence. See
[Reply detection](/behavior/reply-detection) and [Sequence stopping](/behavior/sequence-stopping).

### Why are opens not being tracked?

Opens tracking is disabled by default, and plain-text sending mode — on by default for new
sequences — removes tracking entirely along with HTML and images. Enable opens or link
tracking in sequence settings and turn plain-text mode off if tracking matters more than
the deliverability gain.

### Who receives variant A versus variant B?

Distribution is random per step — you cannot pin a contact to a variant, and a contact who
received variant A in Step 1 may receive variant B in Step 2. Copying a step copies all its
variants. Compare results with the A/B toggle in the sequence Stats tab.

## Related

- [Launch an outbound campaign](/workflows/launch-an-outbound-campaign) — the full workflow
- [Sequences](/specifications/sequences) · [Sequence steps](/specifications/sequence-steps) · [Email accounts](/specifications/email-accounts)
- [Sending schedules](/behavior/sending-schedules) · [Mailbox selection](/behavior/mailbox-selection)
- [Deliverability](/capabilities/deliverability)
- [Configure sending limits](/how-to/configure-sending-limits)

## Build with Reply

- REST API: [docs.reply.io](https://docs.reply.io/api-reference/introduction) — sequences, steps, variants, and email-account endpoints
- MCP: [agents.reply.io/mcp](https://agents.reply.io/mcp) — sequence creation, settings, and sending operations