Glossary
What is an SPF record?
An SPF record is a line of text in your domain's DNS that lists which servers may send email for that domain. A receiving mail server checks it to decide whether a message claiming to come from you really came from an allowed sender. Missing or wrong SPF makes your mail more likely to land in spam.
Published by Sellinger AI. Numbers and settings checked on 24 October 2026 against the fact register. Report an error.
How does SPF work?
SPF stands for Sender Policy Framework. You publish a TXT record on your domain that names the services allowed to send as you, such as your mailbox provider. When a message arrives, the receiving server looks up that record and checks the sending server against it. The result is a pass, a fail or something in between, and it feeds into the spam decision together with DKIM and DMARC.
What does an SPF record look like?
| Setup | Record | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace only | v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all | Google may send for the domain; treat others as suspicious |
| Microsoft 365 only | v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com ~all | Microsoft may send for the domain |
| Two services | v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:servers.example.com ~all | Both may send; the second include is a placeholder |
Check your own provider's help page for the exact include. ~all is a soft fail for other senders; -all is a hard fail.
A domain should have one SPF record. Two separate SPF records on the same domain is a common mistake that can make the check fail. The SPF standard also limits how many DNS lookups a record may trigger, ten, so a record with many includes can break without anyone noticing.
Why does it matter for cold email?
Google's email sender guidelines ask senders to publish an SPF record that includes all senders for the domain, and say senders missing from it are more likely to be marked as spam. Yahoo Sender Hub asks for both SPF and DKIM. A cold email domain without SPF looks risky at any volume. Google and Yahoo bulk sender rules has the full list, read 19 October 2026.
How Sellinger handles it
Sellinger sends from your own connected Gmail or Outlook mailbox. It does not set up or check your domain records, run inbox placement tests or monitor your domain, so you or your IT provider set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC at the domain. Before a campaign, check that the SPF record on the sending domain includes your mailbox provider.
What Sellinger does control is the sending pattern: Every connected account has daily limits that the agent cannot exceed, set per account. LinkedIn defaults are 20 invitations a day and 150 a week. Email defaults to 50 sends a day per mailbox, with an optional warm up that starts at 5 a day and doubles every 3 days up to the limit.
Common questions
Is SPF enough on its own?
Can I have two SPF records?
Does SPF check the From address?
Sources and method
Google email sender guidelines and Yahoo Sender Hub, read 19 October 2026 for the linked blog post. Sellinger sending behaviour from the fact register, checked 24 October 2026.
Related: DKIM, DMARC, Email deliverability, Google and Yahoo bulk sender rules.
