---
title: "Understanding email statuses: hard bounce, delivered, pending, and more"
description: "Discover the meanings of email statuses like hard bounce, delivered, and pending to enhance your email deliverability and campaign performance."
url: "https://lettermint.co/knowledge-base/deliverability/understanding-email-statuses-hard-bounce-delivered-pending"
published: "2025-05-29"
last_updated: "2025-11-07"
---

# Understanding email statuses: hard bounce, delivered, pending, and more

> Discover the meanings of email statuses like hard bounce, delivered, and pending to enhance your email deliverability and campaign performance.

Understanding the different email statuses such as **Hard Bounce**,
**Delivered**, **Processed**, or **Pending** is crucial. This helps you
understand why some [transactional e-mails](https://lettermint.co/features/transactional-emails)
don't reach recipients and how to resolve these issues.

## What are email statuses?

Email statuses show what happens to your email after you send it with
Lettermint. They indicate whether an email has been delivered, is still in the
queue, or couldn't be delivered. By tracking these statuses, you can quickly
identify issues and take action to ensure your emails reach their intended
recipients.

At Lettermint, you can easily track the status of your sent emails through our
dashboard. Here, you receive real-time updates and detailed information about
each sent email, keeping you informed about the performance of your
transactional emails.

## Our email statuses explained

Below, you'll find explanations of the different email statuses you may
encounter in our dashboard. This way, you'll know exactly what's happening with
your emails.

### Processed

This means your email has been successfully processed by Lettermint and has been
handed over to our sending infrastructure for delivery to the recipient.

### Delivered

This status indicates that your email has been successfully delivered to the
recipient's mail server, such as Gmail, iCloud, or Outlook. This means the email
was correctly sent by Lettermint and received by the recipient's server.

### Hard bounce

This status indicates that your email couldn't be delivered because the email
address is invalid. This could mean that the **email address doesn't exist**,
the **domain name is incorrect**, or the mail server permanently **rejected**
the email.

<callout>

At Lettermint, we do not resend emails with a hard bounce status, as this is a
permanent error. It's important to avoid sending emails to this address again.

</callout>

### Delayed (Soft bounce)

This status indicates that your email couldn't be delivered temporarily. Unlike
a hard bounce, where the issue is permanent, a soft bounce can be caused by
temporary problems such as a full inbox or an offline server.

Common causes of a soft bounce include:

- The recipient's inbox is full
- The recipient's mailbox is not properly configured
- The recipient's mailbox is inactive
- The recipient's mail server is temporarily offline
- The recipient's mail server has received too many emails in a short period
- The email is too large for the recipient's inbox (e.g., due to attachments)
- [Greylisting](https://lettermint.co/knowledge-base/deliverability/what-is-greylisting-why-email-delayed) by the receiving mail server (temporary spam check)

<callout>

Lettermint will attempt to resend these emails later.

</callout>

### Suppressed

This status means the email was **not sent** because the address is on the
*Suppressed* list (excluded from delivery). This usually happens due to:

- Multiple hard bounces
- A recipient unsubscribed from your emails (e.g. a newsletter)
- A recipient reported your email as spam

You can view and manage this list via Projects → Project → Route → Suppressions
in the dashboard.

### Spam complaint

This status occurs when the recipient's email provider rejects your email during
the delivery attempt due to a spam complaint. This means the email address has
previously reported emails as spam, and Lettermint is blocking further
deliveries to protect the recipient.

### Policy Rejected

This status means Lettermint blocked your email because the spam score was too high. We automatically scan every email before sending it to protect your sender reputation. When the score is too high, we don't send the email.

Want to know why this happens and how to fix it? Read our article: [Policy Rejected](https://lettermint.co/knowledge-base/deliverability/why-is-my-email-blocked-policy-rejected-explained).

## Conclusion

Understanding the different email statuses helps you grasp the performance of
your transactional emails and quickly resolve any issues.

Our dashboard provides detailed information for each sent email, so you can
always check the delivery status and take immediate action if necessary.
