Skip to content
The Madison Avenue Field GuideA field guide to marketing & advertising, by Brandon Mina

GlossaryEmail & LifecycleSoft Bounce

Email & Lifecycle

Soft Bounce

A temporary email delivery failure, such as a full mailbox or server issue, that may succeed if retried later.

By Brandon MinaCEO, BrandPilot AIUpdated November 2026

Short answer

A soft bounce is a temporary email delivery failure, such as a full mailbox or server issue, that may succeed if retried later. Email platforms usually retry automatically. Addresses that soft bounce repeatedly are often converted to hard bounces and suppressed, since continued failures can hurt sender reputation.