Google Postmaster Tools: how to set it up and read it

Google Postmaster Tools is a free dashboard that shows how Gmail sees email from your domain: how often people mark it as spam, whether you meet Gmail's rules, and which emails get refused. You set it up by adding your domain and one DNS record. It only counts personal Gmail addresses, so a small cold email campaign may show little or no data.

Why Google Postmaster Tools is worth a few minutes

You can't look inside other people's inboxes. When replies drop, you can't tell whether your email landed in spam or people just weren't interested. Postmaster Tools is the closest thing to a report card from Gmail itself.

The number that matters most is your spam rate. Google asks you to keep it below 0.1%, about 1 report in every 1,000 emails, and says it must stay under 0.3%. Cold email is where this goes wrong first, because nobody asked to hear from you.

What it can't show you

Two limits matter for cold email:

• Only personal Gmail counts. Google says the data "only applies to messages sent to personal Gmail accounts", meaning addresses ending in @gmail.com or @googlemail.com. Email to company inboxes isn't included, even on Google Workspace.
• Low volume leaves gaps. Data can be missing "if the total number of messages for a given day is too low", to protect people's privacy. Google doesn't say what that number is.

So if you send 20 emails a day, mostly to company addresses, expect an empty or patchy dashboard. That doesn't mean something is wrong. Set it up anyway, because it costs nothing and the data appears as you grow.

Before you start

• A Google account. A normal Google account or a Google Workspace account both work.
• Access to your domain's DNS, the public settings where you added your SPF record.
• SPF and DKIM set up. Some dashboards only count email that has DKIM. Our guide to SPF, DKIM and DMARC has the steps.

Step 1: Add your domain

1. Go to Postmaster Tools and sign in.
2. On the Manage Domains page, click Add new domain at the top right.
3. Enter the domain you send from, such as example.com, and click Create.

Google needs the domain your email is authenticated with. If you followed our guide, that's the domain in your sending address.

Step 2: Prove the domain is yours

Postmaster Tools shows nothing until you do this.

1. On Manage Domains, click More options to the right of your domain, then Verify domain.
2. Copy the record Google shows you.
3. Add it to your domain's DNS, where you bought or host the domain.
4. Go back to the window and click Verify.

It usually works right away, but it can take up to 10 minutes.

What each dashboard tells you

The data isn't live. It's usually updated within 24 hours, but it can take longer. Under Compliance status there's also a Deliverability analysis tool, which gives a recommendation about your domain.

Older guides tell you to watch your domain reputation. Google says the Domain and IP Reputation dashboards "will be retired", because reputation "is only one of many factors affecting deliverability". If you still see them, treat them as one signal and rely on your spam rate instead.

Check it worked

Your domain should show as verified on Manage Domains, and appear in the Domain menu above the dashboards. Domains that aren't verified don't appear there.

After you've sent email to personal Gmail addresses for a few days, check the Spam rate dashboard. If it's still empty, your volume is probably too low, which is fine.

Common problems

How Coldoutbound helps

Coldoutbound doesn't connect to Postmaster Tools. It tracks bounces and replies across all your recipients, not only Gmail, which helps at low volume when Postmaster Tools stays empty. A mailbox also pauses itself when 5% of its last 40 emails went to addresses that don't exist, or 3% were refused as spam or by policy.

Read more: Google on setting up Postmaster Tools, Google on the dashboards, Google on the old dashboards, Google on common sender issues.