Defaults.Exposed › Methodology › v7 registry › SPF record
SPF record
Methodology v7 · canonical ID spf-exists · Email Security · scored · census as of July 28, 2026
Stops criminals sending email that looks like it's from you, and helps your mail reach the inbox.
Definition
| Canonical ID | spf-exists |
|---|---|
| Category | Email Security |
| Grade impact | Scored — counts toward the grade |
| Pass | The domain publishes exactly one syntactically valid SPF TXT record (v=spf1 …). |
| Fail | No SPF record is published, or the published record does not parse. |
| Example (passing) | v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com -all |
No-data rule: when this check couldn't be determined for a domain (timeout, SERVFAIL, redacted
source) it returns N/A and is excluded from that domain's scoring denominator — "couldn't determine"
is never counted as a failure. "Determined absent" is a real fail.
Prevalence across the census
50.3% of graded domains publish a syntactically valid SPF record (138,744,955 of 275,666,275, as of July 28, 2026).
Invalid (unparseable) SPF records are counted separately and excluded from this pass share.
Census denominator: 275,666,275 graded domains. Aggregates only — never an individual domain's result.
Fix it
Plain-English impact, cost of ignoring it, and step-by-step remediation: defaults.exposed/en/fix/spf
Cite this check
Defaults.Exposed, "SPF record (spf-exists)", Grading Methodology v7 (census as of July 28, 2026). https://defaults.exposed/methodology/v7/spf-exists
Permalink: https://defaults.exposed/methodology/v7/spf-exists ·
All 34 checks: v7 registry ·
Machine-readable: checks.json ·
Licence: open data