5.7.233 Microsoft bounce: tenant daily external cap
What 5.7.233 means
Your tenant sent to more external recipients in 24 hours than Exchange Online allows, so sending to outside recipients is paused.
Message text
Your message can't be sent because your tenant exceeded its daily limit for sending email to external recipients (tenant external recipient rate limit)
Common causes of 5.7.233
- External recipient count over a 24-hour rolling window exceeded the tenant limit
How to fix 5.7.233
- Wait until the 24-hour window drops below the limit before sending to external recipients.
- If you did not send these messages, treat the account as compromised and reset its credentials.
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How to read 5.7.233
The second part, 5.7.233, is an enhanced status code (RFC 3463 §2) written class.subject.detail. Class 5 is a Permanent failure (5xx): the command was rejected and the sender should not repeat it unchanged (RFC 5321 §4.2.1; RFC 3463 §2).. Subject 7 is security or policy: authentication, authorization or policy refused the message. The detail number refines the subject, and providers may define details of their own, which is why one code can read differently at Gmail, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Do not keep resending the same message: a permanent failure repeats until the cause is fixed. Correct the cause, then send a new message.
Official source: learn.microsoft.com. Last verified 2026-10-20.
Related guides
- How to create an SPF record (syntax and examples)
- How DKIM works and how to publish a DKIM record
- How to set up a DMARC record, from p=none to p=reject
Related codes
- 5.7.0 SMTP: security status
- 5.7.1 SMTP: delivery not authorized
- 5.7.23 SMTP: SPF validation failed
- 5.7.25 SMTP: reverse DNS failed
- 5.7.26 SMTP: authentication failed
- 5.7.27 SMTP: sender has null MX
FAQ
What does 5.7.233 mean?
Your tenant sent to more external recipients in 24 hours than Exchange Online allows, so sending to outside recipients is paused. This is a permanent failure.
How do I fix 5.7.233?
Wait until the 24-hour window drops below the limit before sending to external recipients. If you did not send these messages, treat the account as compromised and reset its credentials.
Is 5.7.233 permanent, and should I retry?
5.7.233 is a permanent failure, so retrying the same message will fail again. Fix the cause first, then send a new message.