How to Look Up an SPF Record

SPF is a mechanism that declares which servers are allowed to send email for your domain. It is written in a DNS TXT record, so you can check it by looking up TXT.

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SPF records are written in TXT

There is no dedicated record type for SPF. Records starting with v=spf1 are registered as a TXT record. To look it up, choose TXT as the type.

How to read it

"v=spf1 include:_spf.example.net ip4:203.0.113.10 ~all"

v=spf1: The SPF version. It must always come first.
include:…: Pulls in the SPF settings of another domain. Add it when you use an email delivery service.
ip4: / ip6:: IP addresses that are allowed to send.
a / mx: Allows the servers that the domain’s A and MX records point to.
~all: Senders that match nothing above are treated as “suspicious” (soft fail). -all means “reject”, and ?all means “no opinion”.

Common errors

There are two SPF records: For a domain, the TXT record starting with v=spf1 must be only one. If there are several, SPF becomes invalid. Merge them into one line.
More than 10 lookups: The name lookups for include, a and mx are limited to 10 in total. Going over that causes an error.
The TXT value is too long: If it exceeds 255 characters, register it split into several strings. On screen they appear separated by quotation marks.
You forgot a subdomain: If you send from mail.example.com, that hostname needs its own SPF record too.

You can check the receiving server settings with MX records.

FAQ

If I set up SPF, will my email always be delivered?

No. SPF is one kind of authentication, and one of the signals a receiving server uses to judge whether a message is spam. Setting up DKIM and DMARC as well makes delivery more likely.

I see a lot of TXT records.

Besides SPF, TXT records also hold domain ownership verification (for Google and others), DKIM and DMARC. The one that starts with v=spf1 is the SPF record.

Look up TXT records

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Last updated: 2026-10-21