SPF Record Lookup
Analyze your SPF record to ensure authorized email delivery and protect your domain's sender reputation.
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What is an SPF Record?
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email authentication standard that helps protect your domain from being used for spam. It relies on a DNS TXT record to publish a list of authorized mail servers and IP addresses permitted to send emails on behalf of your domain.
Email deliverability heavily depends on correct SPF configuration. A misconfigured or syntactically incorrect SPF record can cause legitimate business emails to be flagged as spam or outright rejected by providers like Gmail and Outlook.
Use the Geekflare SPF Lookup tool to validate SPF setup. Our tool queries your domain's DNS for TXT records. It specifically looks for the record beginning with v=spf1, and parses the mechanisms. The tool evaluates the record for common critical errors.
What the Tool Checks
| Check | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| SPF TXT record | Confirms the domain publishes a sender policy. |
| Multiple SPF records | Domains should publish exactly one SPF record. Multiple records can cause SPF permerror. |
| Terminal policy | -all is stricter, ~all is softer, and +all is unsafe. |
| DNS lookup count | SPF has a 10 DNS-lookup limit. Too many lookup mechanisms can break validation. |
| Deprecated mechanisms | ptr is deprecated and should usually be replaced. |
How to Read the Results
If the result is Found, one SPF record was found and no high-risk patterns were detected by this check.
If the result is Review, the SPF record exists but should be tightened or corrected.
If the result is Missing, add a TXT record beginning with v=spf1 for the domain that sends email.
SPF is only one part of email authentication. For stronger spoofing protection, use SPF together with DKIM and DMARC.
Frequently Asked Questions
SPF, or Sender Policy Framework, is a DNS TXT record that lists which mail servers are allowed to send email for a domain.
The tool queries TXT records, finds records beginning with v=spf1, parses mechanisms and modifiers, and flags issues such as multiple SPF records, +all, missing terminal policy, deprecated ptr, and SPF DNS lookup limits.
No. SPF helps receiving mail servers validate the sending host, but it should be used with DKIM and DMARC for stronger domain email protection.