What bounce rate pauses an Instantly campaign?

By default, Instantly pauses a campaign when its bounce rate exceeds 5%, once it has sent at least 200 emails. You can change the threshold in preferences.

Should I verify leads in Instantly or before upload?

Before, or through the RocketVerifier integration before the campaign starts. Instantly's own guidance is to verify leads before upload. RocketVerifier adds catch-all verdicts and a reason for every removed lead.

How do I handle catch-all leads in cold email?

Send to catch-all leads scored send_safe, test send_with_caution leads in small batches, and drop avoid. Every catch-all address gets a 0 to 100 score at no extra cost.

How do I recover a paused campaign?

Verify the remaining leads, remove the bad ones, then resume. Instantly will not auto-pause the resumed campaign for high bounces again for 7 days, so clean first.

How to Clean an Instantly Lead List

How to clean an Instantly lead list

Quick answer

To clean an Instantly lead list, connect Instantly to RocketVerifier, pick a campaign and verify every lead, then block undeliverable addresses across your workspace. Instantly pauses campaigns automatically when bounces exceed 5% after 200 emails, and its own guidance is to verify leads before upload. Send to deliverable and catch-all send_safe leads only, and keep everything else out of the sequence.

Instantly bounce and complaint limits

From Instantly's own help center and policies, checked November 1, 2026.

Instantly published sending limits
Metric	Limit	What happens
Bounce rate	Above 5% (default)	High Bounce Auto-Pause stops the campaign. The check runs once a campaign has sent at least 200 emails. A resumed campaign is not auto-paused again for 7 days. Source
Known high-risk recipients	Skipped	BounceShield skips recipients that real-time bounce data marks as high risk. Source

How Instantly handles bounces and imports

High Bounce Auto-Pause is on by default; the threshold can be changed or switched off in preferences.
Paused campaigns show a Bounces error, and the Analytics Bounces tab lists hard, soft and unknown bounces with reasons.
Instantly's troubleshooting guide says to verify leads before resuming a paused campaign.

Clean your Instantly list with the integration

No exports. Results are written straight back to Instantly.

1
In RocketVerifier, open Dashboard, Integrations, Instantly, paste your Instantly API key and click Connect.
2
Choose the campaign whose leads you want to verify.
3
Turn on write-back: results go into lead fields, and undeliverable addresses are blocked across your workspace.
4
Preview the breakdown, then sync now, before the campaign starts.

Instantly integration details

Or clean it by file

1
Verify your lead CSV in RocketVerifier as a bulk job before it goes anywhere near Instantly.
2
Keep deliverable and catch-all send_safe leads. Remove undeliverable, disposable, role_based and catch-all avoid leads.
3
Upload the cleaned CSV to Instantly with duplicate checking across campaigns left on.

Bulk email verification

What to keep and what to remove

What to do with each RocketVerifier result
Status	Sub-status	Action
deliverable	none, alias	Send.
risky	catch_all, send_safe	Send.
risky	catch_all, send_with_caution	Test in a small batch first.
risky	catch_all, avoid	Remove.
risky	role_based, possible_trap, toxic	Remove from cold sequences.
undeliverable	any	Remove and block.
unknown	greylisted, blocked, smtp_timeout	Hold and re-verify later. Never charged.

Tips for Instantly

A 5% bounce rate is the auto-pause line, not a target. Cold campaigns that stay near zero keep their sending domains healthy for longer.
Catch-all leads are where cold lists bounce most. Use the catch-all verdict instead of sending to every accepted address.
Re-verify any list older than a few weeks; B2B addresses go bad as people change jobs.

Sources

Last reviewed November 1, 2026