Verify an Email Domain

To send email through Mailchimp, we need to verify that you are using a valid From email address hosted at a domain you can access. This helps keep your emails out of spam folders and protects your reputation by ensuring others can't use your domain without permission. You only need to verify a domain one time.

In this article, you'll learn how to verify your email domain.

Before you start

Here are some things you should know.

• We recommend that you both verify and authenticate domains owned by you or your organization when sending email from Mailchimp.
• If you’re using a subdomain to send email (you@subdomain.example.com) it needs to be verified separately from your domain.
• You can use free email providers like Gmail, Yahoo or AOL to send email from Mailchimp but they are public domains and you can't verify or authenticate them. Learn more about the limitations of free email addresses.

Beginning February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo will require a custom authentication and a published Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) record for anyone sending more than 5,000 emails to Gmail or Yahoo addresses in a 24-hour period. To prevent your emails from bouncing, we strongly recommend authenticating your email domain and configuring DMARC.

Also, if you use a free email service like Gmail or Yahoo for your From email address, we strongly recommend you switch to an email address from a private domain, like the one you use for work or for your website.

For more information about custom authentication and DMARC, check out About Email Domain Authentication.

Verify an email domain on the Domains Overview page

To verify your email domain on the Domains Overview page, follow these steps.

1. Click your profile icon and choose Account.
2. Click Domains.
3. In the Email Domains section, click Add & Verify Domain.
4. Enter the email address at the domain you want to verify and click Send Verification Email.

Domains from free email providers like yahoo.com can't be added to your verified domains. You may still be able to send from this domain, but we recommend you verify a custom domain owned by you or your organization.

1. When you receive the verification email, you can either click the Verify Domain Access button in the email, or enter the verification code in the pop-up in your account and click Verify.

2. Click Done to close the pop-up and return to the Domains Overview page.

Verify an email domain in the email builder

To verify your email domain directly from the email builder when creating a regular email, follow these steps.

1. In the From section, click Add From.
2. Enter the From name and From email address you want to use for the email.
3. Click Save. If your email domain has not been confirmed, you'll be asked to verify it.
4. Click Verify Domain.
   
5. In the Verify Domain pop-up, enter the email address containing the domain you want to verify and click Send Verification Email.
6. When you receive the verification email, you can either click the Verify Domain Access button in the email, or enter the verification code in the pop-up and click Verify.
7. Click Done to close the pop-up.

Domain verification links and codes expire after seven days. If your link or code has expired, you'll need to repeat these steps to request verification again. If you don't receive the verification email, take a look at our troubleshooting tips.

Next steps

After you verify your email domain, we recommend that you authenticate it to help make sure your emails get to your contacts' inboxes.

About Email Domain Authentication
Set Up Email Domain Authentication

Remove a verified email domain

If you need to remove a verified domain, you can do so from the Domains Overview page. Users with a Manager level or higher can remove a domain from the list of verified domains at any time.

To remove a verified email domain, follow these steps.

1. Click your profile icon and choose Account.
2. Click Domains.

3. In the Email Domains section, click the drop-down menu for the domain you want to work with, and choose Remove.
   

4. Click Remove Domain in the confirmation pop-up window.

All done! The screen will refresh and display a success message at the top of the screen.

Troubleshoot email domain verification

If you've followed the steps to verify your domain, but you haven't received your domain verification email, there are a few things that may be happening. Here are some tips to help you troubleshoot.

• Allow more time
  Depending on internet traffic and how busy your ISP is, it can take a couple hours for emails to arrive. This is more likely to happen around holidays and peak sending times.
• Resend to a different address
  You can try resending the verification message to a different email address with the same domain. We'll verify the domain if we can confirm that you manage the domain via one of the addresses provided.
• Add us to your safe senders list
  Add accountservices@mailchimp.com to your safe senders list. This is the address the verification email comes from and this will help prevent the email from being mistakenly blocked or marked as spam.
• Allowlist Mailchimp's IPs
  Ask your IT team to allowlist Mailchimp's delivery IPs. Allowlisting tells your mail server to allow any emails sent through our servers to be delivered (other providers may refer to it as "whitelisting"). Usually, this is the first time your domain receives mail from Mailchimp and it's possible that your receiving server is dropping the incoming mail because it doesn't recognize Mailchimp's IPs.
• Use the most recent email
  If you've requested domain verification more than once, you might receive multiple copies of the same email from us. Make sure you use the most recent email to verify your domain. Otherwise, verification won't work.