5.7.236 Microsoft bounce: onmicrosoft daily limit
What 5.7.236 means
Mail from an onmicrosoft.com test domain is limited to 100 external recipients in a rolling 24-hour window, and that limit was reached.
Message text
Your message can't be sent because your tenant has exceeded its daily limit for sending email to external recipients from your tenant's onmicrosoft.com domains
Common causes of 5.7.236
- More than 100 external recipients in 24 hours from a tenant onmicrosoft.com (MOERA) domain
- Recipient list expansion counts toward the limit
How to fix 5.7.236
- Wait for the rolling 24-hour window to clear before sending to more external recipients.
- Buy and migrate to a custom domain for regular sending, as the page advises. Inbound mail is not affected.
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How to read 5.7.236
The second part, 5.7.236, 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 5.7.236 mean?
Mail from an onmicrosoft.com test domain is limited to 100 external recipients in a rolling 24-hour window, and that limit was reached. This is a permanent failure.
How do I fix 5.7.236?
Wait for the rolling 24-hour window to clear before sending to more external recipients. Buy and migrate to a custom domain for regular sending, as the page advises. Inbound mail is not affected.
Is 5.7.236 permanent, and should I retry?
5.7.236 is a permanent failure, so retrying the same message will fail again. Fix the cause first, then send a new message.