Glossary
Google Postmaster Tools
Google Postmaster Tools is a free Google service that shows senders how Gmail treats their mail, with data on spam rate, compliance with Gmail's sender rules, authentication and delivery errors for mail sent to personal Gmail accounts.
What Is Google Postmaster Tools?
In short You sign in with a Google account, add the domain you send from and verify it with a TXT or CNAME record in your DNS.
Data covers only mail to personal Gmail addresses (@gmail.com and @googlemail.com), not Google Workspace accounts. Google leaves out days when a domain sent too few messages.
The number to watch is the user-reported spam rate. Google's sender guidelines tell senders to keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.10% and never reach 0.30%. The v2 interface, launched in 2024, adds a Compliance dashboard that checks your domain against Gmail's sender guidelines. Google says the old Domain and IP Reputation dashboards will be retired, with no date yet.
Google Postmaster Tools Example
Example: a team sends 1,500 emails a day to Gmail users from one domain. Postmaster Tools shows the spam rate rising from 0.05% to 0.25% in the week after a new campaign starts. The team pauses that campaign, tightens the targeting, and the rate falls back under 0.10% over the next two weeks.
Google Postmaster Tools in Practice
For cold email, Postmaster Tools has a blind spot. Cold email goes mostly to company addresses, and mail to Google Workspace accounts doesn't count, so a low-volume sending domain may never show data. Register every sending domain anyway: when data does appear, it is Gmail's own view.
FAQ
What is Google Postmaster Tools?
A free Google service that shows how Gmail sees mail from your domain, including the spam rate reported by Gmail users, compliance with Gmail's sender guidelines, authentication results and delivery errors.
Is Google Postmaster Tools free?
Yes. You need a Google account and access to your domain's DNS to verify it.
Why does Postmaster Tools show no data?
Google leaves out days when a domain sent too few messages to personal Gmail accounts, to protect user privacy, and it shows nothing until the domain is verified. Mail to Google Workspace addresses doesn't count, so a domain that mostly reaches business inboxes can stay empty.
What spam rate should you stay under in Postmaster Tools?
Google tells senders to keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.10% and to avoid ever reaching 0.30%.
Does Postmaster Tools still show domain reputation?
For now. Google says the Domain and IP Reputation dashboards from the old interface will be retired and has not given a date. The v2 Compliance dashboard, which checks your domain against Gmail's sender guidelines, is the newer view.
Do This in Ken
Do This in Ken
Delivery checks SPF, DKIM and DMARC on every sending domain and shows pass or fail, the authentication Postmaster Tools also reports on. Ken does not connect to Postmaster Tools today.
- Module
- Delivery
- Open in Ken
- /features
The new Ken opens to the waiting list in batches.
Related
- GTM Glossary
Every GTM term, grouped by topic.
- Sender reputation
- IP reputation
- DMARC
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
- Email bounce rate
- Ken
Sources
| Source | Checked |
|---|---|
| Gmail Help: Set up Postmaster Tools | |
| Gmail Help: Learn about the deprecation of the old Postmaster Tools interface | |
| Google: Email sender guidelines |
Changelog
- Page published.