include:sparkpostmail.com – SparkPost
Short answer: include:sparkpostmail.com lets SparkPost's mail servers pass SPF for your domain. It costs 2 of the 10 DNS lookups SPF allows (checked live).
| Service | SparkPost |
|---|---|
| Lookups | 2 of the 10 DNS lookups SPF allows (checked live) |
| Record now | v=spf1 exists:%{i}._spf.sparkpostmail.com ~all |
Do you need it?
Often not. From our SparkPost setup guide: Not needed on your root domain when you set up a bounce domain: the bounce CNAME points to sparkpostmail.com, becomes the return-path and makes SPF pass and align. An old include:sparkpostmail.com on your root does nothing for mail with a SparkPost bounce domain.
If you added include:sparkpostmail.com only because an old article said so, it may just cost lookups. Send a test email through SparkPost and see which domain SPF is checked for.
Who uses it
In our scan of top websites on 23 Oct 2026:
- 8 of the 2,214 world's top-3,000 sites that publish SPF (0.4%)
- 3 of the 1,961 India's top-3,000 sites that publish SPF (0.2%)
- 0 of the 428 Indian government sites that publish SPF (0.0%)
Add it the right way
- Keep one SPF record per domain:
v=spf1 include:sparkpostmail.com ~all, plus your other senders in the same record – SPF generator. - Stay under 10 lookups in total; every include counts, nested ones too.
- SPF alone isn't enough for Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook: turn on DKIM and publish DMARC.
Check your domain
After the fix, send a test email to see SPF, DKIM and DMARC pass on a real message, then keep an eye on it: free DMARC monitoring shows every service that sends mail as your domain and which ones fail, in plain English.
Get it fixed on Fiverr
Prefer to do it yourself? Get the step-by-step Fix Kit ($15) – 28-page guide, checklist, 20+ providers.