> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.eat-now.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quota & deliverability

> Your monthly sending limit, the automatic safety rails that protect your reputation, and how unsubscribes work.

Sending to a list is easy. Sending to a list *for years* without ending up in spam folders is the real skill. EatNow builds several protections in — some you control, most you don't have to think about.

## Your monthly quota

Every restaurant has a **monthly marketing quota**: the number of marketing messages (email + WhatsApp combined) you can send in a calendar month, counted in your restaurant's timezone.

The quota card sits at the top of every campaign form and report:

| Field         | Meaning                         |
| ------------- | ------------------------------- |
| **Quota**     | Your monthly allowance          |
| **Used**      | Messages sent so far this month |
| **Remaining** | What's left                     |

The counter resets on the 1st of each month.

<Warning>
  **If you hit the quota mid-campaign, the campaign pauses itself.** Nothing is lost: the recipients already sent to are done, the rest stay pending. It resumes when your quota resets, or as soon as your limit is raised.
</Warning>

If you reach your limit, the card turns amber and the **Launch now** / **Schedule** buttons are disabled. Contact us to raise your quota — a marketing add-on is available and the card tells you which plan you're on.

## Automatic safety rails

These run on every campaign without any configuration. They exist to protect your sender reputation — a domain that keeps sending to dead addresses gets throttled or blocklisted by mail providers, and getting off a blocklist is far harder than staying off one.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Frequency cap — 3 messages per 7 days" icon="clock">
    A customer who has already received 3 marketing messages from you in the last 7 days is **skipped** for this campaign. They stay in the audience and appear in the report, but they aren't sent to.

    This is what stops an over-enthusiastic month from burning your best customers.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Auto-pause on complaints" icon="flag">
    If the share of spam complaints crosses a very low threshold (0.1%), the campaign **pauses itself** immediately. Complaints are the fastest way to wreck a sending domain.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Auto-pause on hard bounces" icon="mail-x">
    Same reflex if hard bounces (invalid or non-existent addresses) exceed 3% of the send. A high bounce rate is a symptom of an old, unverified list.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Progressive sending" icon="gauge">
    Messages leave in controlled batches rather than all at once, starting with a small canary batch. It gives the guards above time to catch a problem before it reaches your whole list.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<Note>
  When a campaign auto-pauses, fix the cause first — clean the list, rewrite the message, narrow the segment — then **Resume**. Resuming without changing anything usually reproduces the problem.
</Note>

## Unsubscribes and suppressions

Every marketing email carries an unsubscribe link, added automatically. When a customer clicks it:

1. their newsletter consent is turned off;
2. a **suppression** is recorded for that channel;
3. a confirmation page is shown, in their own language.

From that moment on, that customer is excluded from every marketing campaign on that channel — automatically, forever, until you remove the suppression.

### What creates a suppression

| Reason               | Trigger                                               |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| **Unsubscribe**      | The customer clicked the unsubscribe link             |
| **Hard bounce**      | The address doesn't exist or refuses mail permanently |
| **Complaint**        | The customer marked your email as spam                |
| **WhatsApp blocked** | The customer blocked your WhatsApp number             |
| **Manual**           | Added by your team                                    |

Suppressed contacts appear in your campaign preview under **Suppressed**, and in the recipients table with the status **Excluded**.

<Warning>
  A suppression can never be bypassed — not by a retry, not by a new campaign, not by rebuilding the segment. This is deliberate and legally required.
</Warning>

## The three exclusion reasons, side by side

They're easy to confuse, and they mean different things:

| In the preview    | Meaning                                                                  | What you can do                                 |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------- |
| **Suppressed**    | Unsubscribed, bounced, complained or blocked                             | Nothing — and you shouldn't want to             |
| **Unreachable**   | No email address (email campaign) or no phone number (WhatsApp campaign) | Collect the missing detail on the customer file |
| **Non-consented** | Excluded on a consent rule                                               | Depends on your consent setup                   |

## Good habits

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Send less, send better" icon="target">
    A precise segment of 200 people beats a blast to 2 000. Fewer complaints, more conversions, and you stay well inside your quota.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Always send a test" icon="flask">
    A broken link or a wrong subject costs you a whole campaign. The test takes ten seconds.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Watch the bounce rate" icon="mail-x">
    Above a few percent, your list needs cleaning. Segment on `Email — Is filled` and check the failures in your reports.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Give people a reason" icon="gift">
    A real offer, a new menu, an event. "Just checking in" earns unsubscribes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Respect the rhythm" icon="calendar">
    The 7-day cap is a floor, not a target. For most restaurants, one or two campaigns a month is plenty.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Read the report" icon="chart-line">
    Clicks and conversions tell you what your customers actually want. Let the next campaign learn from the last one.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Next step

<Card title="FAQ" icon="help-circle" href="/marketing/faq">
  Quick answers to the usual questions.
</Card>