You can <\/span>check your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup through Gmail, command-line tools, MxToolbox, or an email deliverability test.<\/span><\/p>\n Bounces and a high spam complaint rate can hurt your sender reputation and email deliverability, and can even lead ISPs to block you. One reason your emails may be marked as spam is incorrect configuration of DMARC, DKIM, and SPF records.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, according to <\/span>Snov.io\u2019s 2026 report<\/span><\/a>, proper email authentication correlates with stronger campaign performance:<\/span><\/p>\n Read on how to configure these records correctly to ensure strong email performance and higher deliverability.<\/span><\/p>\n Let’s start off with clearing up some terms.<\/p>\n When reading SPF, DKIM, and DMARC definitions, you will notice DNS being mentioned a lot. DNS<\/strong> (Domain Name System) is a repository of domain names (example.com)<\/em> and their corresponding IP addresses (111.222.333.444)<\/em>. Each domain can have more than one IP address, for example,\u00a0a subdomain or domain mail server will have different IPs.<\/p>\n To set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, you need access to DNS. Usually, your company’s system administrators or, in some cases, developers can help you with it.<\/p>\n SPF<\/b> (Sender Policy Framework) is a DNS record\u00a0<\/span>that specifies which\u00a0servers are allowed to send email<\/span>\u00a0from a specific domain (for example, <\/span>snov.io<\/span>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With it, you can verify that messages coming from your domain are sent by mail servers and IP addresses authorized by you. This might be your email servers or servers of another company you use for your email sending.<\/span><\/p>\n If SPF isn’t set, scammers can take advantage of it and send fake messages that look like they come from you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It’s important to remember that there can be only <\/span>one SPF record for one domain. Within one SPF record, however, there can be several servers and IP addresses mentioned (for instance, if emails are sent from several mailing platforms).<\/span><\/p>\n DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)<\/b> is another technical standard that helps identify fake email addresses<\/a>, fight against spam, and prevent spoofing and identity theft.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n DKIM <\/span>adds a digital signature to the header of your email message, which email servers then check to ensure that the email content hasn’t changed.<\/span> Like SPF, a DKIM record exists in the DNS.<\/span><\/p>\n DMARC <\/b>(Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) defines how the recipient’s mail server should process incoming emails if they don’t pass the authentication check (either SPF, DKIM, or both).<\/span><\/p>\n Basically, if there’s a DKIM signature, and the sending server is found in the SPF records, the email is sent to the recipient’s inbox.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If the message fails authentication, it’s processed according to the selected DMARC policy: <\/span>none, reject, or quarantine.<\/p>\n The “reject” option is the most effective, but it’s better to choose it only if you are sure that everything is configured correctly.<\/span><\/p>\n Now that we’ve clarified all the terms, let’s see how you can check if you have an existing SPF record, DKIM record<\/a>, and DMARC policy set in place.<\/span><\/p>\n \r\n 14 Best Email Warm-Up Tools (Tested And Compared)<\/a>\r\n <\/p>\r\n 21\/08\/2026<\/p> <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\r\n \r\n The Ultimate Guide To Email Deliverability (With Glossary)<\/a>\r\n <\/p>\r\n 23\/09\/2026<\/p> <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r<\/div>\n Send a test email to your address and then open the message. Click <\/span>“Show details.” If you see a “mailed-by” header with the domain name and a “signed-by” header with the sending domain, your DKIM and SPF are fine.<\/p>\n If you go to <\/span>“Show original,” you can see more information on SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.<\/span><\/p>\n Done!<\/span><\/p>\n Now let’s look at how you can check SPF<\/a>, DKIM<\/a>, and DMARC records<\/a> in Windows through the command line. For Mac users, the process is a bit different; verification is done through the Mac OS Terminal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You can check your SPF record using <\/span>nslookup \u2014 a default query tool that provides the user with a command-line interface to access the DNS.<\/p>\n To check DKIM with the help of <\/span>nslookup, follow these steps:<\/span><\/p>\n\n
What do SPF, DKIM, and DMARC stand for?<\/span><\/h2>\n
SPF helps prevent spoofing by verifying the sender’s IP address<\/span><\/h3>\n
DKIM shows that the email belongs to a specific organization<\/span><\/h3>\n
DMARC aligns SPF and DKIM mechanisms<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"DMARC](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/1631717859.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
![\"Delivery](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/1631718026.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/BEST-EMAIL-WARM-UP-TOOL.png\")
<\/div>\r\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Email-Deliverability-Guide.png\")
<\/div>\r\n How to check DKIM, SPF, and DMARC via Gmail<\/span><\/h2>\n
Option 1\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"DKIM,](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/1631718121-1.png\")
<\/p>\nOption 2\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"DKIM,](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/1631718109-1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"DKIM,](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/1631718096.png\")
<\/p>\nHow to check DKIM, SPF, and DMARC via command line<\/span><\/h2>\n
SPF record check<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
![\"SPF](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/1631718634.png\")
<\/p>\n\u00a0How to read SPF correctly<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n
DKIM record check<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
![\"DKIM](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/1631718660.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"DKIM](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/1631832430.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"DMARC](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/1631718648.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"DKIM,](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/1631720541.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"How](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Snov-io-01-19-2025_03_29_PM.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"How](\"https:\/\/snov.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Snov-io-12-16-2024_02_59_PM.png\")
<\/p>\n