A dedicated IP is an IP address used to send email for one sender only, as opposed to a shared IP whose reputation is pooled across many senders.
In depth
With a dedicated IP your sending reputation is entirely your own — no one else’s behaviour can help or harm you. The trade-off is that you must build that reputation from scratch by warming the IP up: sending gradually increasing, consistent volume over days or weeks. Dedicated IPs make sense at higher, steady volumes (broadly tens of thousands of messages a month and up); low or erratic senders usually get better deliverability on a well-managed shared IP.
Example
A retailer sending 500,000 emails a month warms a dedicated IP over two weeks so mailbox providers learn to trust its steady volume.
Related terms
See our full email marketing glossary or the complete email marketing guide.