Verify your SPF record validity
SPF Record Checker
Use this tool to lookup and validate your SPF record.
SPF Status
Record Checks
| Valid SPF record | |
| Failure Mode | |
| DNS Lookups below 10 | /10 |
| Void Lookups below 2 | /2 |
| Error Details | |
| Warning |
| Tag | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| v | v = spf1 Record version | |
| +ip4 | Allow the listed IPv4 addresses | |
| +ip6 | Allow the listed IPv6 addresses | |
| +include | Check the SPF record of the listed domain for a matching IP address | |
| +a | Allow the IP addresses listed in the domain’s A record | |
| +mx | Allow the IP addresses of the domain’s MX hosts | |
| +ptr | Allow the IP addresses of the domain’s PTR hosts | |
| +exist | SPF passes if an A record lookup of the listed domain returns a valid result | |
| +redirected | Replace the current SPF record with that of the listed domain | |
| -/~/? | Apply a hardfail/softail/neutral result if no other mechanisms match |
Any text as spf content
This is any error
Get your SPF record validated in seconds with PowerDMARC’s SPF record checker today!
What is an SPF Record?
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is an email authentication protocol that allows recipients to distinguish between the domain owner’s authorized list of senders, and unauthorized emails. Authenticating your email using SPF is the first step toward preventing domain name abuse and impersonation. To configure SPF you have to set up a DNS record. Pairing your SPF record with other email authentication DNS records can increase its efficacy against cyberattacks.
Our free SPF checker tool helps you look up and check for errors in your SPF record. SPF checks help you to verify your domain’s SPF (Sender Policy Framework) configuration.
What is an SPF Lookup Used For?
Our SPF lookup tool can instantly check your SPF DNS record. It can be used to:
SPF Record Examples
1. Basic SPF record: v=SPF1 mx -all
Explanation:
mx: Allows all the mail servers listed in the domain’s MX records to send email.
2. SPF record allowing specific IP addresses: v=SPF1 ip4:192.0.2.1 -all
Explanation:
ip4:192.0.2.1: Allows the server with the IP address 192.0.2.1 to send email.
ip4:198.51.100.1: Allows the server with the IP address 198.51.100.1 to send email.
3. SPF record including another domain’s SPF record: v=SPF1 include:_SPF.example.com -all
Explanation:
include:_SPF.example.com: Includes the SPF record of example.com. This means any servers authorized to send mail for example.com are also authorized for this domain.
How Our SPF Checker Works
Our SPF Checker Tool works by:
1. Retrieving the domain’s SPF record from DNS.
2. Parsing the record to understand its rules and mechanisms.
How Does SPF Impact Email Deliverability?
SPF can have a significant impact on email deliverability, hence it needs to be done right! This is why SPF checker tools play a crucial role in maintaining the proper functioning of Sender Policy Framework for implemented domains.
SPF Record Tags Explained
SPF records are published in the DNS (Domain Name System) and are comprised of several tags that define the syntax of the record. Here’s a breakdown of the commonly used SPF tags:
Why You Need to Test SPF Records
An SPF checker tool can reduce the chances of your legitimate email messages landing in the spam folder, improve your overall email security, and filter out fraudulent emails. Here are the various benefits of frequent SPF record checks:
How to Make Sure Your SPF Record is Valid?
More Email Authentication Protocols to Explore
SPF Record Check FAQs
Check our comprehensive database of popular SPF record checker questions we come across often on our support forum.
Is SPF record check free? How often should I perform SPF checks? Why do I need SPF? What are my next steps? How To Check SPF Records In Office 365? What to do if SPF checks fail? How To Improve SPF Management With Macros? Do I need an SPF Automation Tool for SPF Record Management? How often should I use the SPF checker tool to monitor and maintain SPF records for my domain? What steps should I take if the SPF checker tool detects errors or inconsistencies in my SPF records? Why choose the PowerDMARC SPF checker, validator and record lookup tool? What Are SPF Best Practices? Why Is SPF Record Optimization Required? What Is The SPF Lookup Limitation? What Happens If You Exceed SPF Lookup Limits? What Is An SPF Permerror? Why Is SPF Permerror Harmful For You? Can SPF checks produce false positives or false negatives?
Is SPF record check free?
With PowerDMARC, SPF record checks are completely free of charge no matter how many times you need to check SPF compliances and for how many different domains. However, lookups are performed 1 domain at a time.
How often should I perform SPF checks?
Our email authentication experts recommend domain owners to perform SPF checks once every month to ensure that record validity is maintained.
Why do I need SPF?
You need SPF to enhance email security and prevent email spoofing as it allows receiving mail servers to check whether the incoming email is sent from an authorized source.
What are my next steps?
Along with SPF, it is important to set up DMARC and DKIM for well-rounded protection against cyber attacks and reduce your DNS lookups with an SPF flattening tool.
How To Check SPF Records In Office 365?
To check the SPF record in Office 365, follow these steps:
- Log in to your Office 365 Admin Center
- Go to Settings > Domain
- Select your domain name and click on DNS records
- Check if your TXT status is ok, and review your SPF record from the list of DNS records.
What To Do If SPF Checks Fail?
Failing SPF checks in email authentication can lead to several consequences:
- Increased likelihood of emails being marked as spam or rejected by recipient servers.
- Diminished email deliverability, affecting communication with clients, partners, or customers.
- Higher risk of phishing attacks succeeding, as spoofed emails may appear legitimate to recipients.
- Damage to the sender's reputation, potentially leading to being blacklisted by email service providers.
- Negative impact on brand reputation due to compromised email security and potential misuse of the sender's domain.
How To Improve SPF Management With Macros?
At PowerDMARC, we do more than just offer SPF flattening services. While our platform fully supports automatic and dynamic flattening methods for SPF, we also offer an alternative (and better) solution. In several cases, traditional as well as automatic SPF flattening methods fall short in optimizing your record effectively. Hence, we encourage using Macros.
Our platform supports SPF Macros integration which optimizes your record to stay under SPF limits for both lookups and character length! Macros are also effective in far more complex situations in comparison to flattening. This ensures an optimal and error-free SPF experience.
Do I need an SPF Automation Tool for SPF Record Management?
While using an SPF automation tool for SPF record management is not mandatory - it is recommended. Automation tools can ensure your record is error-free, and provide easy and instant optimization through flattening or preferably Macros integration. It saves organizations a lot of time, money, and effort.
How Often Should I Use The SPF Checker Tool?
It's recommended to periodically monitor and maintain SPF records for your domain, especially after any changes to your email infrastructure or domain settings.
A good practice is to check SPF records whenever you make updates to your DNS records, email servers, or sender policies. Additionally, regular checks, such as every few months or after significant changes, can help ensure the continued effectiveness of your SPF configuration.
What Steps To Take If The SPF Checker Tool Detects Errors In Your SPF Record?
If the SPF checker tool identifies errors or inconsistencies in your SPF records, consider the following steps:
- Review the SPF record syntax and configuration for accuracy, ensuring that it includes all authorized email sources.
- Correct any misconfigurations, such as missing or incorrect IP addresses, or mechanisms.
- Update DNS records with the revised SPF information and allow time for DNS propagation.
- Test the revised SPF record using the SPF checker tool to verify its accuracy.
- Monitor email deliverability and SPF authentication status to ensure that the issues have been resolved effectively through DMARC reports.
- Consider consulting with our email security experts for assistance in troubleshooting and optimizing SPF configurations. Contact us now!
Why Choose The PowerDMARC SPF Checker, Validator, And Record Lookup Tool?
While SPF records can be looked up manually, using PowerDMARC’s SPF validation tool is a no-brainer. We do more than just a routine SPF lookup. We provide an in-depth analysis of your SPF record syntax and DNS configuration. Our SPF lookup tool provides an overview as well as highlights errors in your SPF record.
This allows you to easily edit your SPF record and fix your errors, saving you a lot of time. As it is free, there are no limits to the number of times you can use our tool to check your SPF record!
What Are SPF Best Practices?
To help keep your SPF record functioning properly, you can follow the tips given below:
- Make sure you are following RFC-specified SPF restrictions. The details of these limitations have been explained more in the next question.
- Make sure you are authorizing all your email-sending sources, including third-party vendors. Failing to authorize email vendors and service providers you use to frequently send emails can lead to serious deliverability issues. Generally, you can find configuration guides in the support section on each of your vendor websites. Alternatively, you can check out our FAQs and blogs to find steps to configure SPF records for most vendors.
- Avoid using SPF mechanisms like the “PTR”. It is widely considered unreliable and slows down the authentication process. It also introduces more complexities in your SPF record.
- White SPF “-all” and “~all” can both be configured as a part of best SPF practices, in case of safe SMTP relaying we recommend using the softfail mechanism (~all). On a hardfail policy, relayed SMTP emails will fail SPF, leading to potential deliverability issues.
Why Is SPF Record Optimization Required?
There are several reasons why SPF record optimization may come in handy. Below are some of the reasons:
Outdated SPF records
Your SPF record may be outdated. In this sense, you may have expanded your emailing efforts by onboarding other email service providers or simply switched from your current vendor to a new one. Your DNS doesn’t know this! Hence you need to access your DNS to edit your SPF record and include these new sending sources.
Extremely long SPF records
If your SPF record is too long, so much so that it exceeds the string character limit, then optimization becomes important. You need to shorten your record to stay under the character length limit so SPF functions properly.
SPF records requiring more than 10 lookups
Oftentimes your SPF record may need more than 10 DNS queries to look up and verify sending sources. This isn’t permitted and can lead to SPF permerror. Hence you may need to optimize your record to reduce complexities and stay under the permitted lookup limit.
What Is The SPF Lookup Limitation?
The Internet Engineering Task Force defines a set limit for the number of permitted lookups during an SPF verification session. The maximum number is 10. If an SPF record exceeds 10 DNS lookups, SPF breaks and returns a permerror result.
Moreover, IETF also limits the number of void lookups (DNS lookups that return an empty response) to a maximum of 2.
What Happens If You Exceed SPF Lookup Limits?
If your record exceeds the limit for SPF lookups, your record will break and get invalidated. You will also receive a permerror (permanent error) result for the verification. This may often be treated as an SPF fail by receiving servers and can potentially lead to email deliverability issues.
What Is An SPF Permerror?
SPF permerror denotes a permanent error in your SPF record that is typically caused when the SPF record breaks due to errors in your record, missing SPF record, or exceeding the limitations defined for SPF.
Why Is SPF Permerror Harmful For You?
SPF permerror is a permanent error which means that a retrial or a timeout will not fix it! When you receive an SPF permerror result, it is an indication of SPF failure. In several cases, emails failing SPF can be rejected or flagged as spam or potentially suspicious.
This takes a toll on your brand reputation, your credibility, your email deliverability, and in turn your email marketing efforts.
Can SPF Checks Produce False Positives Or False Negatives?
SPF checks may incorrectly flag legitimate emails as spam or unauthorized if the sender's SPF record is misconfigured or if the email is forwarded through intermediary servers not listed in the SPF record.
Forwarding scenarios can present challenges for SPF because forwarding often involves relaying emails through intermediary servers that may not be listed in the original sender's SPF record. This can lead to SPF failures if the forwarding server's IP address is not authorized in the SPF record.
Include Mechanism: SPF allows domain owners to authorize additional servers to send emails on their behalf using the "include" mechanism. This mechanism allows a domain owner to delegate email-sending responsibilities to third-party services or other domains. By including these authorized servers in the SPF record, forwarding scenarios involving these servers can be properly authenticated.
Despite this, SPF does have limitations in handling forwarding scenarios. For instance, SPF may not work reliably in scenarios involving multiple forwarders or complex forwarding chains. Additionally, SPF does not inherently authenticate the content of emails, so even authenticated forwarded emails could still be phishing attempts or contain malicious content. Therefore, it's essential to complement SPF with other email authentication mechanisms like DKIM and DMARC to enhance email security comprehensively.
What Our Clients & Partners Say About Us
PowerDMARC is a highly reliable and effective domain security platform with a user-friendly interface.
Belgin Abraham (CEO, Channel Next)
“Very easy and intuitive multi-tenant management. Flexible partner program with easy to work with terms and pricing. Overall a fantastic company, product, and MSP vendor.”
Bill Barnett (Founder and President at ClearView IT)
“PowerDMARC has made enabling DKIM and DMARC settings, and monitoring results very easy for my domain.”
Mr. Toshikazu Watanabe (Domain Owner)
