SPF and DKIM by provider

SPF record for Zendesk

Last updated 2026-08-26

Zendesk sends ticket notifications and agent replies from your support address. Here is what to publish so it can do that as your domain, and what has to line up before DMARC will pass.

The SPF record

Add one mechanism to the SPF record on your sending domain:

In a complete record, alongside Google Workspace, that looks like:

Add this if Zendesk sends as an address on your domain, which is the usual reason anyone looks this up. Support addresses that stay on yourbrand.zendesk.com need nothing from you.

Then count your lookups. SPF allows ten DNS-querying mechanisms across the entire nested chain, and the eleventh turns the record into a permerror that authorises nothing. The record still reads correctly to a human while every check fails. Run the domain through the SPF checker after every change, because the number moves when your providers change their own records, not just when you change yours.

DKIM

Zendesk publishes the keys itself and you point at them with two CNAMEs:

Then turn on digital signing in the Admin Center, under Channels, Talk and email, Email. Zendesk checks the records before it lets you enable it.

DMARC alignment with Zendesk

DMARC passes when SPF or DKIM passes and the domain it authenticated matches the domain in your visible From address. A provider can pass both checks for its own domain and leave you failing. These are the Zendesk specifics:

• Zendesk's outbound mail carries a Zendesk envelope sender, so SPF alignment is not what saves you here. The DKIM CNAMEs are.
• Notifications sent on behalf of an agent still use the support address, so one set of records covers the whole help desk. Multiple brands with different domains need a set each.
• If your DMARC policy is at reject before signing is enabled, every ticket reply to a strict receiver bounces, and the customer sees silence rather than an error.

The general case is covered in alignment, explained, and the header you read to prove it is on the dmarc=fail page.

Verify it

Substitute your domain, and run these after the TTL on anything you replaced has expired:

Then send one message through Zendesk to a Gmail address you control, open Show original, and look for dkim=pass with your domain in header.i. That single check is worth more than any number of DNS lookups, because it tests the thing receivers actually do.

Our SPF checker gives you the lookup count, the DKIM checker confirms a selector resolves and the key is long enough, and the DMARC checker reads your policy back to you. All three are free and none of them ask for an account.

Values here were checked against Zendesk's own documentation, at Zendesk support site. Providers change DNS requirements without much announcement, so if their screen disagrees with this page, believe their screen and tell us.

A record can read correctly and still fail alignment once real mail moves through it. Receivers write that verdict into the reports they send. We read them for you, and paid plans email you the same day one names a new sender that failed, instead of holding it for Monday. See whether this sender passes. Your first domain is free.