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Free Inbox Placement Test, No Signup

See exactly where your email lands, the inbox, the Promotions tab, or spam, across 11 seed mailboxes at 8 major providers before you send to your list. One free test, no signup, results in under 5 minutes.

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Paste this anywhere in your email (subject or body) so we can recognize the inbound message.

Send the email to every address above. We’ll report back as each provider receives (or filters) the message.

What an inbox placement report looks like

Every test goes to all 11 seed mailboxes we run: 7 consumer accounts and 4 business tenants across 8 providers. Below is one real run, where the same campaign reached the inbox at 5 mailboxes, a tab at 2, and spam at 4.

# Provider Sender IP Delivered to Blacklists
1 Amazon WorkMail Business mailbox 192.0.2.41 Inbox Clean
2 AOL Consumer mailbox 192.0.2.41 Spam Clean
3 GMX Consumer mailbox 192.0.2.41 Spam Clean
4 Gmail Consumer mailbox 192.0.2.41 Updates Clean
5 Google Workspace Business mailbox 192.0.2.41 Updates Clean
6 Outlook Consumer mailbox 192.0.2.41 Spam Clean
7 Microsoft 365 Business mailbox 198.51.100.7 Inbox Clean
8 ProtonMail Consumer mailbox 192.0.2.41 Inbox Clean
9 Yahoo Consumer mailbox 192.0.2.41 Spam Clean
10 Zoho Consumer mailbox 192.0.2.41 Inbox Clean
11 Zoho Business Business mailbox 198.51.100.7 Inbox Clean
A sample report from a real run. Sending IPs here are documentation placeholders; your own report shows the real sending IP and the seed address for every mailbox.

What each result means

Inbox
Reached the primary inbox, the result you want.
Tabs
Filed into Promotions, Updates or Social instead of Primary.
Spam
Delivered to the spam folder, where almost nobody looks.
Missing
Accepted, then never shown anywhere. The worst of the four.
Clean
The sending IP was on none of the blocklists we check.
Listed
Found on a blocklist, which drags placement down everywhere.

What is a good inbox placement rate?

There is no single figure that fits every sender, so start from what we actually measure. Across the mail tested through Unspam, 61% reaches the primary inbox, 5% lands in a secondary tab, and 33% is filtered to spam. An inbox rate above that is doing better than the average send we see.

  • 61% Primary inbox
  • 5% Secondary tab
  • 33% Spam

Each figure is rounded on its own, so the three do not total exactly 100.

How to calculate your inbox placement rate

Divide the seed mailboxes that filed your message in the inbox by the number that received it at all, then multiply by 100. Anything a provider never accepted is a delivery failure rather than a placement result, so it belongs outside the denominator, not counted as spam.

The one decision that changes the answer is whether a secondary tab counts as the inbox. On the same measurement, counting only the primary inbox gives 61%, and counting tabs as delivered gives 66%. Neither is wrong, but a rate quoted without saying which one it used cannot be compared with anyone else's.

Placement by mailbox provider

One overall number hides the one that matters. The same measurement runs from 33% at AOL to 99% at Amazon WorkMail, so a send that looks healthy on average can still be filtered almost entirely at a single provider.

Provider Inbox or tabs Spam Checks
Amazon WorkMail 99% 1% 1,267
ProtonMail 97% 3% 1,259
Zoho 93% 7% 1,783
GMX 80% 20% 1,259
Gmail 66% 34% 3,396
Outlook 57% 43% 1,925
AOL 33% 67% 1,792
Yahoo 33% 67% 1,936
Measured across 8 mailbox providers and 14,617 placement checks, from July 28, 2025 to July 28, 2026. Provider figures combine the primary inbox and secondary tabs, which is how the benchmark reports them. Source: Unspam email deliverability benchmark

How to improve your inbox placement

Placement is decided by the receiving filter, not by the tool you send with, so the work is removing the reasons a filter has to doubt you. These are the checks senders fail most often in our own data, in the order worth fixing them.

  1. 01

    Authenticate the domain

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC are the first thing a filter reads. 42% of the domains we check still publish no DMARC policy at all, which makes it the widest of the three gaps.

  2. 02

    Add one-click unsubscribe

    Gmail and Yahoo both require a working List-Unsubscribe header from bulk senders. Only 14% of the senders we check pass it, so it is the most commonly failed requirement here.

  3. 03

    Fix the HTML

    Filters read markup the way an old email client would. 30% of the emails we check pass the HTML best-practice tests, so this is where most senders lose ground without noticing.

  4. 04

    Rewrite the subject line

    Capitals, emoji and excessive length all cost you. 56% of the emails we check pass the subject-line tests.

  5. 05

    Check whether you are listed

    A blocklist listing can undo everything above. 3% of the sending IPs we check turn up on one, and the check takes seconds to run whenever you need it.

  6. 06

    Test again after every change

    Placement is per provider, so a fix that rescues Gmail can leave Outlook exactly where it was. Run the test again after each change and compare the same message across the seed mailboxes instead of guessing which edit worked.

Cold email and B2B inbox placement

Cold outreach almost always arrives at a work address, and a work address sits behind its own gateway. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and Zoho Business each apply policies the free consumer service does not, so a result from a personal mailbox tells you little about what a company inbox will do with the same message.

That is why the seed list runs 4 business tenants alongside 7 consumer mailboxes, 11 in all. One test covers both sides rather than the consumer half on its own.

The run above shows why the distinction earns its place: Outlook returned Spam, while Microsoft 365 returned Inbox. Two mailboxes carrying one brand, two verdicts.

So test the tenants you actually sell to. If your list is mostly Microsoft 365, a Gmail result is not the number to act on.

How to track inbox placement over time

One test is a snapshot. Reputation, list quality and the filters themselves all drift, so the number that matters is not last month's rate but the direction it is moving, and the only way to see direction is the same message measured the same way, repeatedly.

Compare per-provider verdicts between runs, not the overall rate. The average can hold steady while one provider slides, and a single flip, Gmail moving you from the inbox to a tab, or Outlook from inbox to spam, is the early warning that arrives before open rates fall.

Keep the test itself constant: the same message, the same seed list. Change one thing at a time between runs, because when the message and the mailboxes are identical, a changed verdict can only mean the filter changed its mind about you.

You can re-run the test by hand before each send, or let automatic tests do it: capture your email once and Unspam re-sends it from your own sending identity on the cadence you choose, grading every provider run after run.

Where your email actually landed: inbox, Promotions, spam or missing

Send your message to a seed list and Unspam reports where it lands at each provider, so you can forecast a campaign's inbox placement before it goes out.

01

Gmail: Primary, Promotions and Updates tabs

Reaching the Gmail inbox is not the end of the story, because the inbox itself is split into tabs. Promotions is not spam, but it usually means far lower opens, so a test that only reports inbox or spam cannot tell you what went wrong.

Unspam reports the tab, not just the folder: you see whether Gmail filed the message under Primary, Promotions or Updates before you send it to your list.

CHECKING · Gmail + Microsoft · tabs 1/4 PRIMARY
Gmail Updates
Google Workspace Updates
Outlook Spam
Microsoft 365 Inbox
campaign delivered today, 09:42
02

Placement and rendering in one test

The seed-list test reports where your message arrived at each provider: the main inbox, a tab, spam, or missing entirely. Every report also carries an inbox score, an attention heatmap, and previews in 50+ real email clients in light and dark mode.

So one run answers both questions a campaign needs answered: did it land, and does it look right when it did.

EVERY REPORT · one run 5 SECTIONS
Placement per mailbox included
Inbox score included
Attention heatmap included
Client previews included
Blacklist check included
report ready under 5 min

Inbox placement for key email providers

  1. 01

    Gmail and Google Workspace

    Gmail weighs engagement history heavily and then sorts what it accepts into tabs, so the same campaign can reach Primary for one sender and Promotions for another. Across the email in our benchmark, 67% reaches the Gmail inbox, and of that, 82% lands in Primary. Workspace tenants add their own admin-level filtering on top.

  2. 02

    Outlook.com and Microsoft 365

    Microsoft filters the hardest of the mainstream consumer providers: 52% of the email we measure reaches the Outlook inbox. It leans on domain and IP reputation rather than content, so an Outlook spam verdict usually points at authentication or sending history, not at your copy. Microsoft 365 tenants are tested separately from Outlook.com.

  3. 03

    Yahoo and AOL

    Yahoo and AOL run the strictest filters we measure, inboxing 38% and 39% of tested email respectively. They are unforgiving about complaint rates and unauthenticated mail, so if a meaningful share of your list is on either, a strong Gmail result will not save the campaign.

  4. 04

    ProtonMail, GMX, Zoho and Amazon WorkMail

    The privacy-focused and business providers are the most lenient in our data: Amazon WorkMail inboxes 100% of tested email, ProtonMail 98%, Zoho 94% and GMX 81%. They matter because B2B lists concentrate here, and because a clean result at these providers alongside a spam verdict at Yahoo tells you the problem is reputation rather than content.

Inbox placement testing: common questions

Common questions about inbox placement testing, seed lists, and per-provider results.

What is an inbox placement test?

A seed-list test: we send a copy of your campaign to 11 seed mailboxes we run across 8 major providers, then report where each copy landed, inbox, Promotions/Updates tab, Spam, or Missing. Every test uses all 11, so one run covers consumer and business filtering at once.

How is this different from a spam-score check?

A spam score predicts how filters might react. A placement test actually delivers mail and measures what happens. The two complement each other, score finds problems before sending; placement confirms reality.

Which providers are covered?

We test across both consumer and business mailbox providers:

  • Consumer: Gmail, Outlook (Outlook.com / Hotmail), Yahoo Mail, AOL, ProtonMail, GMX, Zoho Mail
  • Business: Google Workspace, Outlook (Microsoft 365), Zoho Mail (Business), Amazon WorkMail
How long does a test take?

Usually under 5 minutes from when our seed list receives your message. Real-world placement settles within minutes of delivery, so the report reflects what a real recipient at each provider would experience.

Do placement results show how my email renders?

Yes. Every placement report includes a Client Previews section with pixel-accurate email client previews: your message rendered in 50+ real clients and devices (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, iPhone, Android and more), each in light and dark mode, so you check where it lands and how it looks in one pass.

How often should I run a placement test?

Before every major campaign at minimum. For high-volume senders, run a baseline test weekly and again any time you change content, subject line patterns, or sending infrastructure. Automatic Tests can schedule recurring runs, and you can connect as many sender accounts as you send from with no per-inbox or per-seat fee. Your monthly quota is metered by tests, not by senders.

What is a good inbox placement rate?

For a healthy, permission-based list, aim for 90% or higher to the primary inbox. Below 80% a meaningful slice of your audience never sees the message, and below 60% you have a real deliverability problem.

Real averages run lower. Across the email measured in our deliverability benchmark, 61% reaches the primary inbox, 5% lands in a tab, and 33% goes to spam. That average is depressed because most people test when they already suspect a problem. There is also no single inbox rate: placement swings by provider, which is why inbox placement is measured per provider rather than as one number.

How accurate is seed-list testing?

Precise for what it measures, directional for the rest. A seed test measures exactly how each provider filtered this message, so content, HTML, authentication and blacklist problems show up reliably and reproducibly.

What it cannot reproduce is your subscribers' engagement history. Seed mailboxes do not open, click, or reply, and reputation-driven filtering leans on those signals, so treat placement at engagement-sensitive providers as a strong indicator rather than a guarantee. No single tool is ground truth: run a test, fix what it names, then retest.

Why do my emails land in the Promotions tab instead of Primary?

Reaching the Gmail inbox is not the end of the story, because the inbox itself is split into tabs. Promotions is not spam, but it usually means far lower opens. Gmail categorises on content and engagement: heavily templated, image-led campaigns with promotional language drift to Promotions, while conversational and transactional mail tends to reach Primary.

Our report shows the tab, not just the folder, so you can tell a Primary placement from a Promotions or Updates one at Gmail before you send at scale.

What does a Missing result mean?

Missing means the provider accepted your message but it never appeared in the inbox, a tab, or the spam folder. It was silently dropped or quarantined, which is the worst outcome of the four: there is no spam folder for the recipient to rescue it from.

It usually points at a reputation or authentication problem rather than content. Check SPF, DKIM and DMARC alignment first, then your domain and IP reputation.

See where every send actually lands.

Daily runs across all 11 seed mailboxes. Save reports, schedule recurring tests, and unlock per-provider placement history.

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