SPF records: how to write one, merge two, and stay under 10 lookups

SPF is a TXT record listing the servers allowed to send email as your domain. A domain can have only one. The most common SPF mistake is having two, which makes SPF fail completely.

What's in an SPF record

• v=spf1: marks the record as SPF. It must come first.
• mx, a:host, ip4:…, include:domain: the senders you allow.
• ~all: everything else is a "soft fail" (usually spam). -all means reject. Never use +all, which lets anyone send as you.

Merging two SPF records

If your website host or billing tool also sends mail as you, put every sender into one record.

Keep the old provider's include: only if it still sends mail for you. If you've moved away from it completely, drop it.

The 10-lookup limit

Each include:, a, mx and redirect costs one DNS lookup, and include: can hide more lookups inside. More than 10 lookups in total gives a PermError, and receivers treat it as no SPF at all. To stay under the limit:

• Remove includes for services you no longer use.
• Use ip4: for fixed servers, which cost no lookup.
• Send newsletters from a subdomain such as news.yourcompany.com, which has its own SPF record.

Check your SPF now. It flags missing, duplicate and loose (+all) records.

Verify and test

1. Wait 5–30 minutes after saving. Most changes show up within minutes, but some take up to a few hours.
2. Go back to dashboard.syncgaze.in → Domains and click Verify. Each record turns green when SyncGaze can see it.
3. Run a free check on mail.syncgaze.in/check. It reads your MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records and explains anything still missing.
4. Send a test email to a Gmail address and open Show original. It should show SPF: PASS, DKIM: PASS and DMARC: PASS.