How to add DNS records for your POWR Email sending domain

To send email from your own domain, you need to add three TXT records to your domain's DNS. These records tell inbox providers like Gmail and Outlook that POWR is allowed to send email on your behalf, which keeps your campaigns out of the spam folder.

POWR generates the exact records for you in the setup wizard — this guide explains where to put them and what to watch out for.

Until your domain is verified, your emails keep sending from sent-with@powrmail.io, so nothing breaks while you set this up.

Before you start

You'll need access to wherever your domain's DNS is managed. That's usually the company you bought the domain from — GoDaddy, Namecheap, Shopify, Squarespace, and so on. If you've since pointed your domain at another service like Cloudflare, you'll add the records there instead.

Adding these records won't affect your website or any email you already send. You're only adding new records, not changing existing ones.

The three records

Open Settings → Sending domain in POWR Email and go to step 2. You'll see a table with your three records. Every value there is unique to your domain — copy them from the app rather than from this page.

Record	Type	Name / Host	What it does
SPF	TXT	`@`	Authorizes POWR's mail servers to send for your domain
DKIM	TXT	`k1._domainkey`	Cryptographically signs your emails so they can't be tampered with
DMARC	TXT	`_dmarc`	Tells inbox providers what to do if a message fails the checks above

All three are TXT records. Some DNS providers label the "Name" field as "Host", "Hostname", or "Record name" — they all mean the same thing.

Adding the records

Sign in to your DNS provider and find the DNS settings for your domain. It's usually called DNS, DNS records, Manage DNS, or Zone editor.
Choose to add a new record and set the type to TXT.
Copy the Name / Host from POWR into the name field, and the Value into the value field. Use the copy button next to each row so nothing gets mistyped.
Leave TTL at the default, or set it to 5 minutes (300 seconds) while you're setting up so changes show up faster.
Save, then repeat for the other two records.
Back in POWR, click I've added these records. We'll start checking automatically.

Guides for common providers

Using a provider that isn't listed? The steps are the same everywhere — look for TXT records in the DNS section.

Common mistakes

These account for nearly every failed verification.

Adding a second SPF record. Your domain must have exactly one record starting with v=spf1. If you already have one — from Shopify, Google Workspace, or another email tool — don't add a second. Edit the existing one and add include:_spf.sparkpostmail.com to it, before the final ~all or -all. Two SPF records make every inbox provider reject the check, even if one of them is correct.

Your provider adds your domain to the end of the name. Some providers automatically append your domain, turning k1._domainkey into k1._domainkey.yourdomain.com.yourdomain.com. If you see your domain repeated after saving, enter just k1._domainkey and let the provider add the rest.

The @ symbol isn't accepted. For the SPF record, @ means your root domain. If your provider rejects it, leave the name field blank or type your domain in full — for example yourdomain.com.

Underscores get rejected. k1._domainkey and _dmarc both start with an underscore, and a small number of providers won't accept them. If yours refuses, contact their support — the records won't work without the exact names.

The DKIM value gets broken up. DKIM values are long, and some providers split them into several quoted pieces when saving. That's normal and works fine. What doesn't work is splitting it yourself — paste it as one continuous value.

Extra spaces or line breaks. Copy with the button in POWR rather than selecting the text by hand. A stray space at the start or end of a value will fail the check.

How long it takes

DNS changes usually appear within a few minutes, but can take up to 48 hours to spread across the internet. POWR re-checks your records automatically every few minutes, so you can close the tab and come back later — your progress is saved.

When all three records are confirmed, your domain switches to Verified and you can start sending from your own address.

If we still can't find your records after 48 hours, POWR will let you know and give you a link to re-check once you've fixed them.

Still not working?

Confirm you added the records to the right domain — the root domain, not a subdomain like mail.yourdomain.com.
Check that you added them at the provider your domain actually points to. If you moved your domain to Cloudflare or a similar service, records added at your original registrar won't take effect.
Look for duplicate or leftover records, especially older SPF entries.
Make sure each value matches POWR exactly, with nothing truncated.

Still stuck? Contact POWR support and include your domain name — we can see exactly which record is failing.