HighLevel ESP Block: What 'Email Sending Temporarily Restricted' Means and How to Get Out

An ESP block means Gmail, Microsoft, Yahoo or another mailbox provider refused your mail because of reputation, authentication, content or engagement, not because the address doesn't exist. HighLevel warns at a 3% ESP block rate, pauses LC Email sending at 5% (12 hours, then 24), and makes the third block permanent. Open Bounce Classification, find the top categories, fix those in the first 48 hours, then come back slowly with your most engaged contacts.

This is a different lock from the one in our HighLevel bounce suspension post. That one counts bounces from bad addresses. This one counts refusals from providers that don't like what you're sending or how. A sub-account can hit either, or both.

The numbers, from HighLevel's articles

HighLevel's ESP block policy article (modified 20 August 2026, policy effective 12 February 2026):

Step	ESP block rate	What happens
Warning	3%	Warning email
1st block	5%	Sending suspended 12 hours
Critical warning	3% after the 1st block	Warning email
2nd block	5% after the 1st block	Sending suspended 24 hours
Final warning	3% after the 2nd block	Warning email
3rd block	5% after the 2nd block	Permanent suspension

• Reset: blocks reset after 7 days in a row below a 1% ESP block rate.
• Minimums (since 13 August 2026): the send floor moved from a flat 50 to a tiered rule up to 500 sends, and the minimum ESP block count from 15 to 25.
• Permanent block: can't be lifted automatically. The agency owner has to request a manual review.

Where the articles disagree

• The same policy article's "Good to Know" section says each block lasts 24 hours at most and sending won't be permanently disabled. Its table and FAQ say the third block is permanent, and the FAQ adds that three blocks within any 7 days also means permanent suspension.
• HighLevel's ESP block monitoring article (modified 30 June 2026) describes the 12-hour and 24-hour pauses and calls permanent suspension a future phase, with agencies notified before it applies.

We can't tell from the articles which applies to your sub-account today. Plan as if the third block is permanent.

What the banner looks like

The sub-account shows a banner at the top saying email sending is blocked because of a high number of spam blocks from email providers, with the reason and when sending resumes. HighLevel also sends the warning emails described above. The notification article covers the wording.

First 24 hours: find the cause

1. Go to Sub-account Settings > Email Services > Bounce Classification (or Email Analytics) and read the ESP block categories.
2. Write down the top three. HighLevel's article asks for this within 24 hours of a warning.
3. Match each category to a fix:

Category points to	Check	Tool
Authentication / DMARC	SPF, DKIM and DMARC on the sending domain, alignment	DMARC checker, SPF checker
Domain or IP reputation	Blocklists, a sudden jump in volume, a new domain	Blacklist check
Content or spam filtering	Links, shorteners, one template sent to everyone	Bounce message analyzer on a sample of rejections
Engagement	Sends to contacts who haven't opened in months	Your own segments

Paste a few full rejection messages into the bounce message analyzer. The provider's own wording, such as Gmail's 421 4.7.0 or Microsoft's 550 5.7.x codes, usually names the cause more precisely than the category does.

Within 48 hours: fix and test

1. Fix authentication first. It's the quickest change and the one providers check on every message.
2. Cut the audience to engaged contacts. Leave out anyone who hasn't opened or clicked in a long time.
3. Remove dead and risky addresses. Export the sub-account's contacts with the GoHighLevel contacts to email list tool, which sets aside DND contacts, then check the rest at /verify. This lowers bounces and the chance of hitting spam traps, which also hurt reputation. On its own it won't fix authentication or content.
4. Send a small test to accounts at the major providers before you resume.

Coming back

• Restart at a lower volume and ramp up gradually, as HighLevel's articles advise.
• Send to the most engaged segment first.
• Watch the ESP block rate daily until you've had 7 days in a row under 1%, so the count resets.

Our what to do after a high bounce rate post covers the same recovery pattern for other platforms.

Where SimpleVerifier fits

SimpleVerifier doesn't send email and can't lift a HighLevel block. It checks which addresses in a list still exist before you send, which keeps bounces down while you fix the other causes. The first 100 checks are free with a Google sign-in on the verify page. Pro is $39 a month with the first 100,000 checks a month at full speed, then slower, never cut off, and one-time packs of 10,000 checks for $15 never expire. See pricing.