When SendOps shows a message as **Accepted**, the receiving mail server took it. That is all it means. It does not mean the message reached the recipient's inbox.

This label used to read **Delivered**. It was renamed because "delivered" sounds like "in the inbox", and SendOps can't promise that.

## What happens after a server accepts a message

Delivery happens in two steps:

1. **Your SES hands the message to the receiving server** (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, a company's own mail server). If the server takes it, SES records a delivery. SendOps shows this as **Accepted**.
2. **The receiving provider decides where to put it.** It can file the message in the inbox, move it to junk, or quarantine it.

Step 2 happens inside the provider, after the handover. Nothing about it comes back to SES, so SES can't report it, and neither can SendOps. A message can be accepted and still never be seen.


  A company's mail admin tells you your mail is being quarantined. SendOps shows every message as Accepted. Both are true: the company's server accepted each message, then quarantined it because it failed an authentication check under your own DMARC policy.


## Where Accepted appears

- The **Accepted** column in the [Deliverability by Provider](/reports/deliverability-reports#deliverability-by-provider) table.
- The **Accepted** status filter on the [Messages Dashboard](/reports/messages-dashboard).

Rates that are worked out "over accepted messages", like open and click rates, use this same count.

## How to see what happens after acceptance

You can't see inbox placement directly, but you can see the things that decide it. The [Deliverability Score](/reports/deliverability-score) brings them together for each sending domain:

- **Is your mail signed as your domain?** If not, providers that enforce your DMARC policy junk or reject it. The [authentication check](/reports/deliverability-score/authentication-check) sends a real message and reports how it arrived.
- **Is your reputation healthy?** High bounce or spam-report rates make providers filter you harder.
- **Are people opening your mail at every provider?** If one provider accepts your mail but almost nobody there opens it, your mail is probably landing in junk at that provider.
- **Do you meet the provider's own rules?** Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo publish rules for high-volume senders, and filter mail that breaks them.

## What's next?

- Read [Deliverability Score](/reports/deliverability-score) to see how each domain is scored.
- See [Deliverability Reports](/reports/deliverability-reports) for bounce and complaint rates per provider.