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How to Set Up an SPF Record on Gandi DNS – Step-by-Step (2025)

Published on
June 19, 2025
Post by
Mike Shamsuddin
How to Set Up an SPF Record on Gandi DNS – Step-by-Step (2025)

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You already know you need SPF to have a better chance of landing in your prospect’s inbox.

You also know you must add the SPF record to your domain provider account, in this case, Gandi.

However, you may not know how to add the SPF record to your domain.

We’re changing that today. After reading this post, you’ll know exactly how to set up an SPF record on Gandi’s DNS management system.

How to Set Up an SPF Record on Gandi

⚠️ Before continuing, ensure your domain uses Gandi's DNS servers. If your domain’s name servers are pointed away from Gandi, for example, to your hosting company, then that’s where you have to manage your DNS records.
  • Step 1: Log in to your Gandi account
  • Step 2: Go to the Domains section and click on your domain name
  • Step 3: Navigate to the DNS Records tab
  • Step 4: Check for an existing SPF record
    • Look for a TXT record starting with v=spf1
    • If it exists, do not create a new one. You must edit the existing record
    • Add only the new include: part. For Google Workspace, use:
    • include:_spf.google.com
    • Your updated SPF might look like:
    • v=spf1 include:somesendingserver.net include:_spf.google.com ~all
    • Note: SPF has a DNS lookup limit of 10. Ensure to remove redundant servers from your record.
  • Step 5: Figure out what SPF records you need
    • Make a list of all services that send emails from your domain (e.g., Gmail, Mailgun, Sendinblue)
    • Then, check their official documentation for the correct include: entry. Examples:
    • Google Workspace → include:_spf.google.com
    • Mailgun → include:mailgun.org
    • Sendinblue → include:spf.sendinblue.com
    • Or use our SPF Record Generator lower down the page.
  • Step 6: Click on Edit the Zone
  • You now have two ways to edit:
      1. Table Mode (recommended)
      • Step 7a: Click the Add button (or pencil icon to edit an existing TXT record)
      • Set the following:
        • Type: TXT
        • Name: @
        • TTL: 10800 (or leave it as default)
        • Value: Your full SPF record, e.g., v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all
        • Step 8a: Click Save
      1. Text Mode
      • Step 7b: Click on Edit DNS Records
      • Step 8b: Add a new line with all required fields
        • Example:
        • @ 10800 IN TXT "v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all"
      • Step 9b: Click Save

Validating Your SPF Record

After saving your record, it won’t be active immediately.

In the worst-case scenario, it can take up to three days for your record to propagate fully.

However, in most cases, your record will be ready in a few hours.

You can use Mailivery’s DNS Status meter to see if your record is good to go:

When your SPF record is ready, the status indicator will turn green.

SPF record not working, even after waiting for a day or two?

The syntax of an SPF record must be perfect. A single additional space or other typo renders your record useless.

Check your record’s syntax by using Mailivery’s free SPF syntax checker below:

SPF Syntax Checker

SPF in Plain English: What You Need to Know

Sender Policy Framework lets you decide what email servers can send from your domain.

In your domain’s SPF record, you can define exactly the tools and services you allow to send on your domain’s behalf.

For example:

If you use Google Workspace’s email infrastructure to send cold emails, you’ll add their servers to your SPF record.

If you also use an email marketing platform like Mailchimp or SendGrid to send newsletters, you’ll need to include their servers in your SPF record, too.

In other words, instead of having multiple SPF records, which would cause complications during authentication, you add multiple sending servers to a single record.

SPF record example

Here’s an SPF record example from Office 365:

v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all

Looks complicated?

It’s not. Here’s what the components of an SPF record mean:

  • The v mechanism holds the SPF version. It’s always v=spf1 since that’s the only version in widespread use.
  • The include mechanism holds the authorized sending server. If the sending server is an IP number and not a domain, you use the ip4 or ip6 tag.
  • The all mechanism determines the policy for unauthorized emails. In the example above, it’s set to -all (hard fail), meaning emails that fail authentication should be rejected. Another popular setting is ~all, which tells receiving servers that emails failing authentication should be marked as suspicious but delivered regularly.
  • Another common setting is ~all, which tells receiving servers to accept emails that fail authentication but treat them as suspicious.

SPF Record Generator

Creating the correct SPF record to add to your domain’s DNS records can be tough.

But don’t worry. You can use Mailivery’s free SPF Record Generator below:

SPF Record Generator

SPF Record Generator

Please select at least one service to generate your SPF record.

Gmail Gmail/Google Workspace
Outlook Outlook/Office 365
Mailgun Mailgun
Zoho Zoho Mail
AWS Amazon AWS
Sendgrid Sendgrid
Brevo Brevo
Porkbun Porkbun

After Setting Up SPF

DKIM and DMARC

Setting up SPF alone is not enough for optimal email deliverability.

You must also set up two other email authentication protocols called DKIM and DMARC. Here’s what they’re good for:

  • DKIM prevents emails from being modified during transit
  • DMARC determines what to do with unauthorized emails

It’s essential you set up all three DNS records to increase your chances of reaching the inbox. Remember, emails that don’t get read can’t convert into meetings or sales.

Email Warm Up

What would happen if you started sending hundreds of cold emails a day from a domain without a sender reputation?

The emails will go to the spam folder!

To prevent this, slowly build up your sender reputation first.

How?

By starting with a low volume of emails and increasing that number slowly.

But just slowly increasing the sending volume isn’t enough. You must also get replies to those emails so that email service providers know your emails are valuable.

Oh, and any of your warm-up emails that do land in spam must also be moved to the inbox.

Sounds like a heck of a job, doesn’t it?

Well, that’s why email deliverability tools like Mailivery exist.

Mailivery does all the heavy lifting for you so you can concentrate on high-value tasks.

Mailivery Starters plan comes with a free 7-day trial so you can start warming up your email today.

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