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Two SPF records on your domain? Why your app's emails fail SPF

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Source checked 10 Oct 2026 · Published 21 Oct 2026 · Last reviewed 21 Oct 2026 · By Ctrl+Z Therapy (how we test)

The short answer

Google's SPF guide: each domain can have one SPF record, but that record can list several services. Microsoft's guide: "Multiple SPF TXT records for the same domain or subdomain cause SPF to return permerror", a permanent error, because the receiving system can't determine which record to evaluate. The fix is to merge them into one record, with an include for each service.

What to do

  1. In your domain's DNS records, find every TXT record that starts with v=spf1.
  2. Merge them into one record with an include for each service and one ~all at the end, and keep only that record. Google's example for Google Workspace plus Amazon: v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:amazonses.com ~all
  3. Keep it to 10 references to other domains or servers at most. Google says SPF can take up to 48 hours to start working.
  4. Ask your AI tool: "Here are my domain's TXT records. Merge the SPF records into one valid record that keeps every sending service, and tell me which record to delete."

Good to know

  • Two SPF records on different subdomains are fine. The rule is one per domain or subdomain.
  • The guides say SPF returns permerror. They don't say what each receiving server then does with your email.

Source

Checked on 10 Oct 2026. Prices, limits and settings change, so check the source before you rely on them.

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