Gmail, is among one of the best free e-mail services available on the Internet. Right from the day of its launch on April 1, 2004, people started appreciating it. If you remember, not so long before, to open Gmail account you needed an invitation from existing Gmail users. According to a Wiki entry, Gmail invitation were being sold on eBay for as high as $150 per invite. Infact, even my friends offered me 300 INR to send them Gmail invite.

The point of telling all this is, Gmail remained free since it launch, eventhough some people made money selling Gmail invite. Gmail also offered best service with ever growing storage space. But when it comes to sending email, they have limit like most other free service.

As per this article from Gmail help, I was astonished to know that…

Google will temporarily disable your account if you send a message to more than 500 recipients or if you send a large number of undeliverable messages.

Even worse, those access Gmail via POP or IMAP interface, limit is as low as 100.

Like me if you are also unaware about this fact, then recheck the recipients address once again before hitting the send button, as exceeding its limits or sending many mails to invalid ids may temporarily disable your account.

Added by Editor:

Gmail’s disabling of your account prevent you from sending mails only. This is to just prevent spammer abusing their server. Many free email services enforces limit like this. But if you keep pushing limit more often you may end up with your account getting deleted.

As festival season is around, do not get panic if your account get temporarily disabled when you send wished to more than 500 people. Actually this is the reason, I never sent any greetings via email to all on special occasions. I have contact list of more than 2000 and picking 500 is not an easy job!

Related: Gmail’s 10 Latest Lab Features