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Swan doesn’t fire off every queued message at once. A separate scheduler runs for each step type, and each one moves contacts forward a little at a time, so sending accounts build up a natural, human-like pattern of activity instead of a burst.

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How pacing works

Each step type has its own schedule: LinkedIn messages become eligible for the 15-minute scheduling cycle only after the connection is accepted. Until then, the contact stays Pending before the message step runs, without consuming a sending slot. After acceptance, the sending window and inbox limits still apply. See Replies and stop conditions for what happens if the invitation is rejected or expires after about 2 weeks. On every pass, Swan advances at most one contact per inbox for that step type — so if an inbox has ten contacts waiting on an email step, one moves forward per pass, not all ten at once. Wait steps are the exception: every contact whose wait has elapsed moves forward on the same pass, since letting a wait run its course doesn’t put any load on a sending account. The net effect, before any per-inbox limits kick in, works out to roughly:
  • Up to about 20 emails per inbox per hour of sending window — capped by that inbox’s configured daily limit (default and maximum: 150).
  • Up to about 4 LinkedIn messages per inbox per hour — capped by that inbox’s configured daily limit (default and maximum: 40, or 80 with Sales Navigator).
  • Up to about 3 LinkedIn connection requests per inbox per hour — capped at 25/day and 120/week, or 50/day and 200/week with Sales Navigator. Connection-request limits are fixed.
Actual sending limits are checked independently and can slow this down further — pacing controls how often Swan tries to advance a contact, limits control how many sends are allowed per day. Ask Swan in chat to change an inbox’s daily email or LinkedIn message limit within its ceiling; see Sending limits.

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Sending window

Each org has a sending window that controls when regular messages (emails and LinkedIn messages) go out — by default, weekdays (Monday–Friday) between 9:00 and 19:00, in the sequence’s timezone. Outside that window, Swan holds those steps until the window reopens; it doesn’t queue up sends to fire in a burst when the window starts, since pacing still applies once it does. An Admin can configure a different set of days and hours for this window at Tools → Outreach → Configuration, or by asking Swan in chat. Anyone who can chat with Swan can ask it to show the current window. LinkedIn connection requests and wait steps are exempt from the sending window and can be processed at any time of day — a connection request doesn’t put the same load on an inbox as a message thread would, and a wait step isn’t sending anything at all. Sequence timezones use standard IANA time zone identifiers (for example America/New_York, Europe/London, UTC).

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Wait steps

A wait step pauses a contact’s progress for a set amount of time (minutes, hours, days, or weeks, depending on how the step is configured) before moving to the next step. Wait steps aren’t affected by the sending window — the clock runs continuously, and the next real send after the wait still respects the window and pacing rules above.

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Common questions

Why didn’t my sequence send anything overnight or over the weekend? Emails and LinkedIn messages only go out inside the sending window (default Mon–Fri, 9:00–19:00 in the sequence’s timezone). Connection requests and wait steps aren’t restricted this way. Can I set a different sending window per sequence, or per recipient’s timezone? The sending window is configured at the org level and applied using the sequence’s own timezone setting, not the recipient’s local timezone. Why does LinkedIn move slower than email? Email is checked every 3 minutes, LinkedIn messages every 15 minutes, and connection requests three times an hour — so LinkedIn steps naturally advance less often than email steps, on top of LinkedIn’s own lower daily caps. How fast will a new sequence start sending after I approve it? The first send happens on the next scheduling pass that falls inside the sending window, subject to normal pacing and limits — not necessarily immediately. Do wait steps count against the sending window? No — the wait itself runs on its own clock and is checked every 3 minutes regardless of the window. Only the actual email or LinkedIn message that follows is subject to the window.