Reply.io Sequence Suspended for Bounces: the 8% Rule and How to Fix It

What Reply.io's help center says

From Reply's help center, read 8 November 2026:

• Why is my sequence suspended? "If the sequence reaches an 8% bounce rate per 24 hours (once it has sent at least 200 emails), Reply stops sending the first step of the sequence but continues sending its follow-ups. Reply then resumes sending the first-step emails automatically at its next daily reset ... Once the bounce rate is reached again, the same logic is applied." It also says: "We strongly recommend that you validate your contact lists before launching a sequence."
• Bounce rate threshold handling: with 199 or fewer emails sent, steps aren't stopped even at 8%. The toggle turns orange at 4% and red at 8%. Bounce rate = bounced emails x 100 / total people contacted.
• The same article says you'll be notified when a sequence reaches half or full bounce quota.
• "Account under review" is different: Reply has stopped sending while it checks the account, and only support can resolve it.

Step 1: read the bounces

Not every bounce is a list problem. Reply lets you filter contacts by bounce type; one of its filters is "Bounce: sender's provider block".

Bounce type	Typical text	Fix
Hard bounce (bad address)	550 5.1.1, "user unknown", "does not exist"	Remove; verify the rest of the list
Provider block	"blocked", "policy", "rate limit", "unauthenticated"	Fix SPF, DKIM, DMARC; slow down
Soft bounce	"mailbox full", "try again later"	Retry later; suppress repeat offenders

If most bounces are provider blocks, verification won't help. Check the sending domain with the cold email domain checker. Paste a few bounce messages into the bounce message analyzer if you're not sure.

Step 2: clean the contacts still waiting for step 1

1. Export the sequence's contacts. The Reply.io contacts to email list tool pulls the email column out of the export.
2. Drop anyone already contacted, bounced or replied, and dedupe with remove duplicate emails.
3. Upload the rest to the verify page for a live SMTP mailbox check.
4. Remove invalid rows from the sequence and add them to your blacklist.
5. Move risky catch-all rows into a separate low-volume sequence. SimpleVerifier reports them risky with a grade, never valid (catch-all scoring).

Because the 8% rule is counted per 24 hours, a cleaned list lets the first step run normally after the next reset.

Step 3: keep the next sequence under 4%

• Verify every new list before it goes into Reply, not after the first bounces.
• Re-verify contacts older than about 30 days (reverify leads older than 30 days).
• Keep a single suppression list across tools (suppression lists from Reply, Woodpecker and Saleshandy).
• Use 2% hard bounces per sequence as your own stop line. 8% is where Reply steps in; by then mailbox providers have already seen the bounces.

What it costs to verify before every sequence

• Starter, $9 a month: 2,500 checks.
• Pro, $39 a month: Unlimited email verification.*
• Business, $99 a month: the first 300,000 checks a month at full speed, 5 seats.
• Agency, $249 a month: the first 750,000 checks a month at full speed, 15 seats, client workspaces.

*Pro fair use: the first 100,000 checks a month at full speed, then slower, never cut off. See pricing. Check your list free: the first 100 checks need only a Google sign-in.

More reading: list prep for Reply.io, Woodpecker and Saleshandy, bounce rate thresholds by platform, hard bounce vs soft bounce, and verify your list before cold email.