Overview

SendGrid Engagement Quality (SEQ) scores measure how "wanted" your email is by recipients. Higher scores (1-5 scale) correlate with better inbox placement. SEQ is a diagnostic tool — it tells you where your email program is healthy and where it needs improvement.

Key insight: SEQ scores are correlated with deliverability. A higher score means more emails land in inboxes, not spam folders.

Eligibility Requirements

Your account must meet ALL conditions to receive scores:

1. Pro or Premier Email API plan — SEQ is not available on Free or Essentials plans
2. Open tracking enabled in SendGrid settings
3. Minimum 1,000 messages sent in the previous 30 days

If not eligible, the score and metrics fields are omitted from API responses entirely.

The 5 Metrics

All scores range from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent).

Note: The overall score is NOT a simple average of the 5 metrics — the weighting formula is opaque. A single low metric (e.g., spam_rate = 1) can drag the overall score significantly.

API Endpoints

Get Your Scores (Date Range)

GET /v3/engagementquality/scores

Python

import os, requests

headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SENDGRID_API_KEY']}"}
response = requests.get(
    "https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/engagementquality/scores",
    params={"from": "2026-04-01", "to": "2026-04-23"},
    headers=headers
)

if response.status_code == 200:
    for entry in response.json()["result"]:
        print(f"Date: {entry['date']}, Score: {entry.get('score', 'N/A')}")
        metrics = entry.get("metrics", {})
        for metric, value in metrics.items():
            print(f"  {metric}: {value}")
elif response.status_code == 202:
    print("Scores not yet calculated — try again later")

Get Subuser Scores (Single Date)

GET /v3/engagementquality/subusers/scores

Returns paginated results with _metadata.next_params.after_key for pagination.

Response Patterns

200 OK — Scores available:

{
    "result": [{
        "user_id": "12345",
        "username": "myaccount",
        "date": "2026-04-22",
        "score": 4,
        "metrics": {
            "engagement_recency": 4,
            "open_rate": 5,
            "bounce_classification": 3,
            "bounce_rate": 4,
            "spam_rate": 5
        }
    }]
}

202 Accepted — Scores are calculated asynchronously. Not yet available for the requested date. Retry later.

Score or metrics omitted — Account/subuser is not eligible (open tracking off or <1,000 sends in 30 days).

CANNOT

• Cannot get scores without open tracking enabled — This is a hard prerequisite. No tracking = no score.
• Cannot get scores with fewer than 1,000 messages in 30 days — Low-volume senders are ineligible.
• Cannot query more than 90 days in the past — Date range is limited to the last 90 days.
• Cannot get real-time scores — Scores are calculated asynchronously (daily). A 202 response means "not ready yet."
• Cannot determine the exact weighting formula — The overall score is not a simple average. Individual metric weights are not published.
• Email Validation API is a separate paid feature — Referenced in bounce_rate improvement guidance, but requires Pro or Premier plan. Not included in base plan.
• Subuser endpoint accepts only a single date — Not a date range. Query one day at a time.

Next Steps

• Improve bounce rate: twilio-sendgrid-suppressions
• Track delivery events: twilio-sendgrid-webhooks
• Account setup: twilio-sendgrid-account-setup