How to test your email deliverability across major email providers?

Inbox Placement Tests help you measure how your emails land across major mailbox providers (Inbox, Spam, Missing, Blacklist). With InboxKit, you can run one-time or recurring tests to continuously monitor your mailboxes’ deliverability performance.

This guide walks you through:

• What Inbox Placement tests are

• How to start a new test (4-step flow)

• How billing works

• How to view and interpret the results

1. What Are Inbox Placement Tests?

Inbox Placement Tests simulate real outbound sending by delivering your email to a global seed network of mailbox providers.
This allows you to understand:

• Inbox Rate: % of emails delivered to Inbox

• Spam Rate: % of emails flagged as Spam

• Missing Rate: Providers that didn’t receive the message

• Authentication Status: SPF / DKIM / DMARC

• Provider-wise placement performance

• Overall deliverability score

These insights help you take corrective actions before starting or scaling campaigns.

You can test against:

• Personal Gmail

• Personal Outlook

• Business Google Workspace

• Business Microsoft 365

Each test is pay-as-you-go and runs with safe sending patterns for accuracy.

2. How to Start a New Inbox Placement Test

Navigate to:

Addons → Inbox Placement → Start New Test

InboxKit will guide you through a 4-step test creation flow.

Step 1: Select Mailboxes & Name the Test

Here’s what you do in Step 1:

Add a Test Name

This appears in your test history for easy identification.

Select Mailboxes

Choose the mailboxes you want to test (up to 500 mailboxes in one run).

You can:

• Select individual mailboxes

• Filter by provider or status

• Select all active mailboxes at once

Failed or inactive mailboxes cannot be selected.

Once done, click Continue.

Step 2: Choose Frequency

InboxKit lets you choose:

A. Mailbox Types to Test Against

You can test your deliverability against:

• Personal Gmail

• Outlook.com

• Google Workspace

• Microsoft 365

(You can pick 1–4 provider groups.)

B. Choose Test Frequency

You can run tests:

• One-time (most common)

• Weekly

• Biweekly

• Monthly

• Or set a specific weekday

Pricing:
Every test costs $0.05 per mailbox.

Click Continue to proceed.

Step 3: Message Settings

This step lets you customize how your test email is sent.

A. Sending Interval

You can set the delay between each test email to simulate realistic sending patterns.

Options range from 1 min to 30 min.

InboxKit automatically shows:

• Recommended “safe interval”

• Estimated completion time based on mailbox count

B. Email Subject

Optional — leave empty to use default.

C. Email Body

Optional — you can paste your own message or keep the default test content.

Click Continue.

Step 4: Review & Confirm

This is the final review page showing:

Billing Method

• Wallet Credits (default)

• IP Tokens (if enabled)

Order Summary

• Frequency

• Selected mailbox providers

• Number of mailboxes

• Total cost

Billing Details

• You’ll be charged once the test starts

• Estimated time for test completion

Click Start Test to begin.

3. Test Execution & Status

After submission, you are redirected back to the Inbox Placement dashboard.

Under Test History, your test will show:

• Status: Processing

• Test Name

• Inbox/Spam/Missing counts

• Date

No action needed — InboxKit runs the test automatically.

Once completed:

• Status updates to Completed or Failed

• A View Results button appears

4. Viewing and Understanding Test Results

Click View Results to see full performance metrics.

Results include:

Overall Score (0–10)

A higher score indicates stronger deliverability.

Category Scores

• B2B

• B2C

• Authentication (SPF / DKIM / DMARC)

Inbox / Spam / Missing Breakdown

• Total Inbox

• Total Spam

• Missing (Not Found)

• Blacklisted (if any)

Placement Distribution

Graph showing how emails landed across 27+ global providers.

Sender-wise Performance

Each sender's score and placement breakdown.

You can filter, export, or expand detailed provider-level results.

5. Pricing & Billing

Inbox Placement tests follow a simple usage-based model:

• $0.05 per mailbox per test

• Frequency-based tests bill automatically on schedule

• Wallet credits are used for payment

Ensure you maintain sufficient credits to avoid test failures.

6. Best Practices for Accurate Results

To get the most accurate deliverability insights:

• Use realistic sending intervals

• Keep your subject/body close to real campaign content

• Always test newly warmed or freshly created mailboxes

• Re-test weekly to maintain deliverability hygiene

• Review Missing results — they often indicate reputation or infrastructure issues

7. Common Reasons for Failed or Poor Results

• Low warm-up levels

• Poor sending patterns

• Spam-triggering content

• Missing/outdated SPF, DKIM, DMARC

• Recently purchased or inactive domains

• Mailboxes hitting provider limits

Fix issues and retest to confirm improvements.

Final Summary

Inbox Placement Tests are essential for ensuring your campaigns land in the inbox consistently. InboxKit provides a simple, automated, 4-step setup flow:

1. Select Mailboxes & Name

2. Choose Frequency

3. Message Settings

4. Review & Confirm

After running the test, analyze deliverability performance, identify issues, and apply corrective actions — ensuring optimal inbox placement for your outreach.