Free tool
Domain reputation check for email
Domain reputation is how mailbox providers judge mail from your domain: its listings, its authentication, its history and how recipients react to it.
Lookups go from your browser to Cloudflare's public DNS resolver and the domain's registry. A full check takes a few seconds; nothing is stored.
About this tool
About the domain reputation checker
This check reads the public part in one report: 13 blocklists for the domain and its mail server IPs, SPF, DKIM and DMARC, MX records, and the domain's registration and expiry dates, each with the fix.
Complaints and engagement stay with the mailbox providers. Gmail shows spam rate and delivery errors in Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft shows IP data in SNDS; the report links both, plus Spamhaus, Cisco Talos and Google Safe Browsing lookups with your domain filled in.
How it works
What a DNS check can see, and what it cannot
Any receiver can look up the same public signals before it accepts your mail, and this report shows them: blocklist entries for the domain and its mail server IPs, whether SPF, DKIM and DMARC are published and valid, where MX points, and how old the domain is.
What it cannot see decides most of Gmail's and Outlook's filtering: how many recipients mark your mail as spam, how many open, reply or delete it unread, and the reputation score each provider keeps for your domain and IPs. No public tool reads those. Gmail shows part of it in Postmaster Tools, Microsoft in SNDS, and Postmaster Tools v2 explains what replaces Gmail's old reputation dashboard.
Background
How to read the report
The banner counts errors and warnings across all four parts; each part then shows its worst finding. Error: it hurts delivery now, fix it before you send more. Warning: fix it soon or confirm it by hand. Note: read it and decide.
- Blocklists: a listed domain or sending IP is an error; a UCEPROTECT level 2 or 3 entry lists your provider's network and is a warning; the email blacklist check has the removal steps for each list
- Authentication: missing SPF or DMARC, two SPF records or more than 10 SPF lookups are errors; Gmail and Yahoo require all three records from bulk senders (what cold email domains need); fix each record in the SPF, DKIM and DMARC checker
- Mail servers: a domain without MX cannot receive replies or bounces, which looks like a domain set up only to send
- History: a domain registered in the last two weeks has no reputation yet, good or bad; mailbox providers build it from the first weeks of mail, which is why mailboxes warm up for 14 days first
- Every part passes and mail still lands in spam: the cause is in what only the providers see, usually complaints, the list or the volume; Gmail cold emails going to spam walks through it
Background
How to improve a domain's reputation
- Publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC for every service that sends as the domain, and keep one SPF record under 10 lookups
- Keep the spam rate in Postmaster Tools below 0.1%, and never let it reach 0.3% (spam complaint thresholds)
- Send cold email from separate domains, so the main domain's reputation stays out of it (should you use your main domain)
- Warm up new mailboxes for 14 days, then send about 25 cold emails per mailbox a day and raise volume in steps
- Verify lists before you send: bounces and spam traps come from old and bought lists
- When a domain is listed and replies are gone, replacing it is usually faster than repairing it; what to do with a burned domain has the tests
Background
Why the report has no reputation score
Gmail and Microsoft keep their own reputation for every domain and IP and publish no score. A single number from a third-party tool mixes blocklists and DNS into something that looks like Gmail's view and is not. The report gives each signal with its fix instead, and the domain health check runs the same DNS checks with fewer blocklists when you only need a quick pass.
Cisco Talos and Spamhaus do publish their own domain reputation; the report links both with your domain filled in. The email domain reputation checkers compared post covers more tools and what each one measures.
Free guide19 min read
Send 100,000 cold emails a month
Domains and mailboxes you need, DNS, warm-up, lists, copy and follow-ups, with a launch checklist, sent to your inbox.
Questions
How do I check my domain's reputation?
Enter the domain above for the public signals: blocklists, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MX and domain age. For what Gmail sees, verify the domain in Google Postmaster Tools and read its spam rate and delivery errors. For Outlook.com and Hotmail, Microsoft SNDS shows data for IPs you control.
How do I check my sender reputation with Gmail?
In Google Postmaster Tools. Google is retiring its Domain and IP Reputation dashboards; the Spam rate, Compliance status and Delivery errors dashboards stay, and a delivery error can say the sending domain or IP has a low reputation. Data covers mail to personal Gmail accounts once your daily volume is high enough.
What is a good domain reputation for email?
No blocklist listings, SPF, DKIM and DMARC passing, a spam rate in Postmaster Tools below 0.1%, no reputation-related delivery errors, and recipients who reply. This report covers the first two; the rest comes from Postmaster Tools and your own replies and bounces.
How do I fix a bad domain reputation?
Find what caused it first: complaints, a bad list, a volume jump or a compromised account. Stop it, fix authentication, request removal from any blocklist, then send lower volume to engaged recipients for a few weeks. For a cold email domain with replies gone, a fresh domain with warmed-up mailboxes is usually faster.
Does a new domain have a bad reputation?
It has none. Gmail and Yahoo set no minimum domain age, but a new domain has no sending history, so providers treat its first mail with caution. Warm up its mailboxes for 14 days before the first cold email and raise volume over the following week.
What is the difference between domain and IP reputation?
IP reputation belongs to the server that sends the mail; on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 that IP is shared with other customers and managed by the provider. Domain reputation follows your domain across every server it sends from, so it is the one you control and the one that moves with you.
Is there a domain reputation score I can look up?
Not from Gmail or Microsoft; they publish none. Cisco Talos and Spamhaus show their own ratings, and the report links both. Treat them as one security vendor's view of your domain.
Does this tool store the domains I check?
No. DNS and blocklist lookups go from your browser to Cloudflare's public DNS resolver and the registration date comes from the domain's registry. We do not receive the domain or the result unless you ask us to email the fixes.
In your AI assistant
Run the same checks in Claude or ChatGPT
Free SKILL.md files with the rules behind this tool. Install them in Claude or Claude Code, or paste them into ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok or Cursor.
Mailboxes, warm-up and sending in one place
$2.50 a mailbox a month. DNS records are set for you, and every mailbox shows its warm-up numbers from day one.
Deliverability call
Talk to our deliverability team
Book a call with the people who run our mailbox infrastructure. We look at your current setup and tell you what to change. Running 1,000+ mailboxes? We also quote a volume price below every vendor list price in our comparisons, warm-up and sending included.
- Review your domains, DNS records and current inbox placement
- Size the setup: domains, mailboxes per domain and daily volume per mailbox
- Plan warm-up and the move from your current provider or sequencer
- 1,000+ mailboxes: a volume price per mailbox for your setup
Free call
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