Dedicated IP - Direct Mail - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

What is a dedicated IP?

By default, Direct Mail uses a shared IP channel to send emails.

To provide an enhanced sending service for customers with professional needs, Direct Mail offers a dedicated IP value-added service. A dedicated IP protects your sending domain and IP reputation from being affected by other users, which can improve your email deliverability rate.

How to purchase a dedicated IP

Go to the Direct Mail console homepage to access the purchase page.

Select the region where you want to use the dedicated IP. Select the quantity and submit the order.

Note: To avoid service interruptions, select Auto-renewal when you make the purchase.

Note

If the inventory is insufficient or the requested quantity exceeds the limit, you can submit a ticket to request additional resources.

After you complete the purchase, go to the Direct Mail console to configure the dedicated IP. The resource takes approximately 1 to 5 minutes to become available.

How to use a dedicated IP

IP warming

Email delivery is complex. Email Service Providers (ESPs) often set daily sending limits based on the reputation of the sending domain and IP address. Therefore, for new domains or IPs that have not yet established a sending reputation, do not send large volumes of email initially.

To ensure a high delivery rate, gradually increase the sending volume each day until you reach your target. This process of gradually increasing the daily sending volume to build reputation is called warming up.

Direct Mail provides the following warming modes:

Manual warming

When you purchase a new dedicated IP, the default warming mode is manual warming. In this mode, you control the daily sending volume and gradually increase it to your target.

Automatic warming

When a dedicated IP has not yet met the warming standard, the system automatically allocates a portion of the sending traffic to the dedicated IP channel for warming. This currently covers major ESPs such as Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and iCloud. The entire process is automatic and requires no manual intervention.

If your sending volume exceeds the daily warming threshold, the excess volume is automatically sent through the public IP channel. You can view the real-time warming progress of the IP in the console.

Comparison of warming modes:

Warming mode	Trigger method	Source of sending traffic	Can users immediately use the dedicated IP?	Is the process automated?	Is progress tracking supported?	Typical scenarios
Manual warming	User controls the sending volume.	User's own sending traffic.	Yes. The user controls the sending volume.	No. The user must manually adjust the daily sending volume.	The user must monitor sending performance.	For users who want flexible control over the warming pace and have email sending experience.
Automatic warming	The system automatically executes based on the daily warming threshold.	User's own sending traffic, which the system automatically allocates to the dedicated IP.	Yes. Emails that exceed the warming threshold are automatically sent through the public IP channel.	Yes. The system automatically allocates and increases traffic.	Yes. You can view the progress in the console.	For users who want to avoid complex configurations and want the system to automatically optimize the warming process.

Create IP pools

If you purchase multiple dedicated IP addresses, you can group them into an IP pool. Then, you can specify an IP pool when you send emails.

In the upper-right corner of the console, click Create IP Pool.

Enter a name for the IP pool and associate the required IPs to create the pool. Note: IP pool names must be unique. Each dedicated IP can be added to only one IP pool. The number of IP pools that you can create cannot exceed the number of dedicated IPs that you purchased.

A common use for IP pools is to create one pool for marketing emails and another for transactional (notification) emails.

This configuration separates the reputation of the two types of emails so that they do not affect each other. This way, the deliverability of your transactional emails is not affected even if a marketing campaign receives a high number of complaints.

Use a dedicated IP to send emails

There are two ways to do this.

Method 1

In the console, attach a configuration set to a sender address. After the configuration set is attached, all emails sent from that address automatically use the dedicated IP. You do not need to specify the IP pool ID parameter when you send emails. For more information, see Sending configuration (configuration set).

Method 2

When you send emails from the console or using the API or SMTP, specify the IP pool parameter.

Use a dedicated IP in the console

Create a new sending task and select an IP pool. The system then uses the IPs in the selected pool to send the emails.

Use a dedicated IP with the API or SMTP

Obtain the IP pool ID. This is not the instance ID or the IP address.

API examples:

SMTP examples:

Use message header configuration items to control features over SMTP

Data statistics

1. View data (IP pool): Displays data only for the specified IP pool. An IP pool can contain multiple dedicated IPs.

2. View data (dedicated IP): Displays data only for the specified dedicated IP.

3. View (warming): Displays data only for service providers that support automatic warming, such as Outlook, iCloud, Gmail, and Yahoo.

FAQ

What is the price of a dedicated IP?

The unit price is $128 per IP per month. This is a subscription service. The service becomes effective immediately after purchase.

How many dedicated IPs do I need to purchase?

Estimate the number of sending IPs based on your sending volume. A single sending IP can typically support a maximum of approximately 100,000 emails per batch.

For business continuity and disaster recovery, we recommend purchasing at least two sending IPs. For example, if the machine that is attached to a sending IP experiences a breakdown or hardware failure, the system can automatically switch over to a hot standby IP. This ensures your service is not interrupted.

When you purchase dedicated IPs, the system allocates the new IPs across different zones based on your existing IP resources to ensure resource balance and high availability.

Suggestions for selecting region-matched dedicated IPs

If your email recipients are in a different region from where you activated the Direct Mail service, purchase dedicated IPs in the same region as your recipients. For example, if you activated the service in China (Hangzhou) but your primary recipients are in the United States or Europe, purchase IPs located in the US or Europe. Email service providers consider the sender's region when they evaluate IP reputation. Sending emails from a local IP address helps you build a better IP reputation and avoid cross-region delivery restrictions.

To confirm your region-matching plan or purchase a dedicated IP for a specific region, submit a ticket.

Will sending emails fail after the purchased IP expires?

It automatically switches to a shared IP to avoid errors.

What is the automatic warming logic for a dedicated IP?

A dedicated IP must be warmed up to establish a good reputation with the recipient's email service provider. When you send a batch of emails, the automatic warming feature first attempts to deliver them using a dedicated IP. If the dedicated IP exceeds its rate limit, the system automatically switches to other warmed-up dedicated IPs or shared IP channels. This process prevents delivery failures caused by IP throttling and eliminates the need for manual warming.

Can I cancel my dedicated IP subscription?

No, you cannot. After a dedicated IP is used, its reputation is established. For this reason, cancellations and refunds are not supported.

For more information, see Dedicated IP related questions.