What is SPF?

Sender Policy Framework: a TXT record listing which servers may send email for a domain.

An SPF record such as v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all lists allowed senders and ends with a policy for everything else (~all soft-fail, -all fail). SPF allows at most 10 DNS lookups; going over makes the whole record fail.

Try it

• Email security checker

Related terms

• DNSSEC: Cryptographic signatures that let resolvers verify DNS answers weren't tampered with.
• DKIM: DomainKeys Identified Mail: cryptographic signatures on outgoing email.
• DMARC: A policy telling receivers what to do with mail that fails SPF and DKIM alignment.