AI Send Time Optimization in HighLevel

Updated: February 4, 2026  | 
Author: Bill Stilwell

This post covers how Smart Send works, what data it uses, when to use it versus standard scheduling, and how it compares to Batch Send.

Reading time: about 7 minutes.

What Is AI Send Time Optimization in HighLevel?

AI Send Time Optimization – called Smart Send in HighLevel – is a feature that changes when each contact receives a campaign email rather than sending everyone the same message at the same moment.

Instead of picking Tuesday at 10am and hoping that works for your whole list, Smart Send analyzes each contact individually and delivers the email when that specific person has historically been most likely to open their email.

The result is more opens from the same campaign without changing a word of the content, the subject line, or the list.

Find it in the Send or Schedule step of any email campaign at Marketing, then Emails, then Campaigns.

How Does It Work?

When Smart Send is enabled for a campaign, HighLevel does not send all emails at once.

Instead, it looks at each contact’s email open history and identifies the time window when that person most frequently engages with email. The campaign message is then queued for delivery during that contact’s optimal window.

The process is automatic. You enable the toggle, set a start time for the campaign to begin processing, and let the system handle individual delivery scheduling from there.

You do not pick the optimal times – the AI does that for each person based on their actual behavior.

What Data Does It Use?

HighLevel uses the contact’s email open history from the last 60 days of engagement data within the sub-account.

This means the feature works best for lists with an established email history. Contacts who have been in the sub-account for a while and have opened previous campaigns give the AI enough data to make a meaningful prediction.

Contacts with insufficient engagement history – new contacts, contacts who have never opened an email, or contacts whose last open was more than 60 days ago – receive the email at the campaign’s default send time. This is the expected fallback behavior, not an error.

The 24-Hour Delivery Window

Because Smart Send staggers delivery based on individual optimal times, a campaign does not complete sending all at once.

The full delivery window can extend up to 24 hours from the campaign start time. Contacts who have an optimal window late in the day or the following morning will receive the email later than contacts whose optimal window falls earlier.

This means campaign statistics – opens, clicks, unsubscribes – accumulate gradually over the 24-hour period rather than spiking immediately after a single send time. This is expected behavior and does not indicate a problem with delivery.

For time-sensitive campaigns where you need all recipients to receive the email at the same moment – a flash sale ending in 6 hours, for example – Smart Send is not the right choice. Standard scheduling ensures everyone gets the email at the same time.

Smart Send vs. Batch Send

These are two different tools that both stagger email delivery, but they serve different purposes.

Batch Send staggers delivery in fixed-size groups at regular intervals – for example, 200 emails per hour until the list is exhausted. It controls the volume of outgoing mail to avoid deliverability issues from sending spikes.

It does not consider individual recipient behavior.

Smart Send staggers delivery based on each contact’s individually optimal engagement time. Volume is a secondary effect – the primary purpose is timing optimization per recipient, not volume management.

If your concern is deliverability on a large list, Batch Send addresses that directly. If your concern is maximizing open rates, Smart Send is the right choice.

Both can be appropriate depending on the campaign’s goals.

When to Use Smart Send vs. Standard Scheduling

Smart Send is best for campaigns where open rate is the primary success metric and delivery timing is flexible.

Good candidates include newsletters, educational nurture sequences, re-engagement campaigns for dormant contacts, monthly update emails, and any content-focused email where the value does not depend on a specific delivery moment.

Standard scheduling is better when all recipients need the email at the same time. Flash sale announcements, event reminders with a countdown, limited-time offer launches, and any campaign with a time-bound call to action should use standard scheduling so no recipient receives the email after the window has closed.

What Can You Do With It?

• Improve open rates without touching the content: Smart Send extracts more performance from an existing campaign simply by delivering it at the right time for each person – no subject line testing or copy rewriting required.
• Avoid the Tuesday-10am guessing game: Most marketers pick a send time based on general industry benchmarks. Smart Send replaces that guess with individual behavioral data from the actual contacts on the list.
• Reduce inbox competition for each contact: When every sender on a list chooses the same popular send time, all emails compete in the same inbox moment. Smart Send spreads delivery across the day, reducing the chance a contact’s inbox is flooded when your email arrives.
• Get a natural deliverability benefit from staggered volume: The gradual delivery pattern avoids the sending spike that large simultaneous sends can trigger with spam filters – a secondary benefit on top of the open rate improvement.
• Use it on re-engagement campaigns for maximum impact: Re-engagement campaigns need every possible advantage. Sending at the individual optimal time gives dormant contacts the best chance to notice and open – timing is often the difference between re-activation and unsubscribe.

Key Definitions

Use Cases by Industry

Marketing Agencies – Client Email Campaigns

An agency sends monthly newsletters for 15 local business clients. Each newsletter goes to a list of 300 to 800 contacts.

The agency enables Smart Send on every newsletter campaign to extract more opens from the same content.

After three months of using Smart Send, average open rates across client campaigns improve by 8 to 12 percentage points compared to the previous standard-scheduled sends. The agency reports the improvement in monthly client reports as evidence of optimization work.

Result: The same campaigns produce measurably better results with a single settings change – and the improvement shows up in client reporting as a concrete deliverable.

Online Education – Nurture Sequences

A course creator has a 10-email nurture sequence for new leads that delivers over 30 days. Smart Send is enabled on each email in the sequence so that every contact receives each message at their individual best time rather than at a fixed hour set once during sequence setup.

Open rates on the mid-sequence emails – which typically see the steepest drop-off – hold up better when delivered at the recipient’s optimal time versus the original fixed 9am send time.

Result: Sequence completion rates improve and more leads reach the end-of-sequence offer email with the campaign still active in their inbox habits.

E-commerce – Post-Purchase Follow-Up

An e-commerce brand sends a post-purchase email sequence. The first email is transactional and fires immediately after purchase – Smart Send is not appropriate for that one.

The second email, a week later, invites the customer to leave a review and see related products. Smart Send is enabled on this one.

Because the review request and cross-sell email is not time-sensitive, the 24-hour delivery window is not a concern. The improved open rate on this email translates directly to more review submissions and more cross-sell clicks.

Result: A simple toggle change on one email in the sequence produces measurable improvement in review volume and secondary purchase revenue.

Local Service Businesses – Re-engagement Campaigns

A home services company has 600 contacts in their HighLevel CRM who have not engaged with any email in 90 days. A re-engagement campaign is built to win them back.

Smart Send is enabled because these contacts represent the toughest audience – every possible advantage matters.

The campaign is designed to arrive at each dormant contact’s historical best open time rather than during the inbox rush at 9am when every other sender is competing for attention.

Result: Re-engagement rates on the Smart Send campaign are noticeably higher than a previous standard-send re-engagement attempt to the same audience segment.

B2B Service Providers – Newsletter

A B2B consultancy sends a monthly industry insights newsletter. Their audience is primarily business owners and executives who check email inconsistently – some are morning email readers, some check in the evening, some browse on weekends.

Smart Send accounts for this variability automatically. The consultant who reads email at 7am gets the newsletter at 7am.

The founder who checks email at 8pm gets it at 8pm. The one who reads on Sunday morning gets it Sunday morning.

Result: A list with highly variable email habits sees open rate improvement across all segments rather than only the segment that happened to match the original fixed send time.

Who Is This For?

How to Enable AI Send Time Optimization

Step 1: Create or open an email campaign

Go to Marketing, then Emails, then Campaigns.

Create a new campaign or open an existing draft. Complete the content, subject line, sender name, and recipient list before moving to the send settings.

Step 2: Navigate to the Send or Schedule step

After configuring the campaign, proceed to the Send or Schedule step.

This is where you choose when and how the campaign is delivered – standard send, scheduled, batch, or smart.

Step 3: Select Smart Send

In the sending options, look for Smart Send and select it.

This enables AI Send Time Optimization. HighLevel will now analyze engagement data and stagger delivery to each contact’s individually optimal time window.

Step 4: Set the campaign start time

Even with Smart Send enabled, you set a start time for when the campaign begins processing.

HighLevel starts queuing deliveries from that time and schedules each contact for their optimal window within the following 24 hours.

Step 5: Review the recipient count

Confirm your recipient list is correct before sending.

Contacts without sufficient engagement history will receive the email at the default campaign start time rather than an optimized time – this is expected behavior.

Step 6: Send or schedule the campaign

Click Send Now or Schedule for your chosen start time.

HighLevel begins queuing deliveries immediately or at the scheduled time. The campaign will complete delivery within 24 hours as each contact receives the email at their optimized window.

Step 7: Monitor delivery progress

Go to Marketing, then Emails, then Statistics to monitor the campaign.

Opens and clicks will accumulate gradually over 24 hours with Smart Send – this is expected. Do not compare the early stats to a standard-send campaign and assume something is wrong.

Step 8: Compare to previous campaigns

After the campaign completes, compare the final open rate to a previous campaign sent to a similar audience without Smart Send.

This comparison gives you a concrete measure of the impact for your specific list and content type.

Step 9: Decide your default practice

Decide whether Smart Send should be your standard choice for content-focused campaigns going forward, reserving standard scheduling only for time-sensitive sends.

Most email marketers who use Smart Send once apply it to all future non-time-sensitive campaigns after seeing the open rate improvement.

How Does It Connect to HighLevel?

• Email Campaign Automation: Smart Send is a send option within Email Campaign Automation. It applies to any campaign built and sent through the Email Builder – no separate configuration outside the campaign flow.
• Workflow Builder: Smart Send applies to email campaigns, not to Send Email actions inside Workflow Builder. Workflow emails fire based on trigger timing and wait actions – they do not use the Smart Send system.
• Multi-Channel Campaigns: Multi-Channel Campaigns are built in Workflow Builder and do not use Smart Send. Smart Send is exclusive to the standalone email campaign system under Marketing, then Emails.
• Tag-Based Automation: Smart Send campaigns can be sent to tag-filtered contact lists. Tag-Based Automation creates the segmentation – Smart Send optimizes delivery timing for whoever is in that segment.
• Custom Sub-Account Reports: Open rate improvement from Smart Send campaigns can be highlighted in Custom Sub-Account Reports as a measurable deliverable for agency clients.

Common Questions

What is AI Send Time Optimization in HighLevel?

A feature called Smart Send that analyzes each contact’s past email engagement and delivers the campaign at their individually optimal open time. Found in the Send or Schedule step of any email campaign under Marketing, then Emails.

Where do I find AI Send Time Optimization in HighLevel?

In the Send or Schedule step of any email campaign. Look for the Smart Send option in the sending method selector and enable it before sending or scheduling.

How does HighLevel’s AI Send Time Optimization work?

HighLevel analyzes each contact’s email open history from the last 60 days. It identifies when that specific person most frequently opens emails and delivers the campaign during that window instead of at a fixed global send time.

What data does HighLevel use for Send Time Optimization?

Email open history from the last 60 days within the sub-account. Contacts with insufficient engagement history receive the email at the campaign’s default send time instead of an AI-optimized individual time.

How long does it take for a Send Time Optimized campaign to complete sending?

Up to 24 hours from the campaign start time. Emails are staggered to each contact’s optimal window across the day – this is expected behavior, not a delivery problem.

Does AI Send Time Optimization work for contacts with no engagement history?

No. Contacts without sufficient recent history receive the email at the campaign’s default send time.

The AI optimization only applies to contacts with enough open data for a meaningful individual prediction.

Can I use AI Send Time Optimization for every email campaign?

You can, but it is most valuable for content-focused campaigns where timing is flexible. Avoid it for time-sensitive campaigns – flash sales, countdown offers, event reminders – where all recipients need the email at the same moment.

Does AI Send Time Optimization improve deliverability?

The staggered delivery naturally spreads volume over time, which avoids sending spikes that can trigger spam filters. This provides a modest secondary benefit to deliverability alongside the primary open rate improvement.

Is AI Send Time Optimization available on all HighLevel plans?

Smart Send is available in the HighLevel email campaign system. Check the Send or Schedule step of your campaigns for the Smart Send option to confirm availability in your account and plan level.

How is Smart Send different from Batch Send in HighLevel?

Batch Send staggers delivery in fixed volume groups at set intervals to control sending volume. Smart Send staggers delivery based on each contact’s individual optimal engagement time to improve open rates.

They serve different purposes and can complement each other.

To Wrap It Up

Email send time is one of the most commonly optimized campaign variables – and historically one of the hardest to get right because the same list contains subscribers in different time zones, different professions, and different daily routines.

Choosing Tuesday at 10am based on industry benchmarks works reasonably well for the segment of your list that fits the average. It underserves everyone else.

Smart Send replaces that single average with individual data. The morning reader gets the email in the morning.

The late-night browser gets it at night. The person who only opens email on weekdays but always at noon gets it at noon on a weekday.

The practical impact varies by list quality and campaign type. Lists with rich engagement history and content-focused campaigns see the largest improvements.

New lists with no history and time-sensitive campaigns see little or no benefit from Smart Send – and the 24-hour delivery window can cause problems for the latter.

The rule of thumb is simple: if timing flexibility does not matter for the campaign, use Smart Send. If all recipients need the email at the same moment, use standard scheduling.

That decision covers the vast majority of cases.

Here is how to get started:

1. Go to Marketing, then Emails, then Campaigns
2. Create or open a content-focused campaign – newsletter, nurture email, or re-engagement send
3. Complete the content and recipient configuration as normal
4. In the Send or Schedule step, select Smart Send
5. Set your campaign start time
6. Send or schedule the campaign
7. Monitor Statistics over the 24-hour delivery window – expect gradual accumulation of opens rather than an immediate spike
8. After completion, compare the open rate to your last standard-send campaign to the same audience
9. Apply Smart Send as your default for all future non-time-sensitive campaigns

The 24-hour delivery window surprises people who check campaign stats an hour after sending and see low open numbers. The campaign is not underperforming – it is still delivering.

Check final stats after the full 24 hours before drawing conclusions.