In September 2025, Google removed the domain and IP reputation dashboards from Postmaster Tools. The one chart most senders used to check domain reputation is gone.
In September 2025, Google removed the domain and IP reputation dashboards from Postmaster Tools. The one chart most senders used to check domain reputation is gone. So here is the 2026 answer: you triangulate three independent sources. Your Gmail spam rate in Postmaster Tools v2, a blacklist scan across Spamhaus and Cisco Talos, and one independent score such as Validity Sender Score or a seed inbox test. No single tool gives a verdict anymore. If all three agree, trust the read. If they disagree, the worst one is usually right.
This is a how-to post. It covers what to check, which free tools to use, and what a healthy result looks like on each.
An email domain reputation check is the process of measuring how mailbox providers such as Gmail and Outlook rate the trustworthiness of a sending domain. It combines spam complaint rates, blacklist status, authentication results, and recipient engagement into one picture of whether mail from that domain reaches the inbox. No single public score defines it; providers calculate reputation privately and expose only fragments.
Domain reputation is a mailbox provider's running score of how much it trusts mail from your domain. It decides whether you land in the inbox, the Promotions tab, or spam. In 2026 it carries more weight than IP reputation for most cold senders, because shared sending platforms pool many senders on the same IPs.
The way you check it changed in late 2025. Google redirected everyone to Postmaster Tools v2 on September 30, 2025 and decommissioned the v1 API on October 31. The v2 tool dropped the Domain Reputation and IP Reputation charts entirely. What replaced them: spam rate, feedback loop, authentication, encryption, and a compliance panel. Spam rate is now the primary Gmail-side signal, and the bar is a rate below 0.1% that never reaches 0.3%.
That is why a single-number check no longer works. You rebuild the picture from fragments across several tools.
Run these five checks in order. Each one is free. Together they tell you whether your domain is safe to send from.
1. Google Postmaster Tools v2 (Gmail signal). Add your domain, verify the DNS TXT record, and send enough volume for data to appear, usually a few hundred messages a day. Watch spam rate first. Below 0.1% is healthy. Between 0.1% and 0.3% is a warning. At or above 0.3% you stop sending and fix your list. Also check that SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and TLS all show as passing. See our Google Postmaster Tools guide for the full walkthrough.
2. Microsoft SNDS (Outlook consumer signal). Smart Network Data Services covers outlook.com, hotmail.com, and live.com. It is IP-based, so it is most useful if you run a dedicated IP. It reports complaint rate, spam-trap hits, and a red or green filter result per IP. Our Microsoft SNDS guide covers setup and reading the color codes.
3. Blacklist scan. Check both your sending domain and your sending IP against the major lists. MxToolbox runs about 80 blacklists in one pass. Spamhaus and Cisco Talos are the two that matter most for inbox placement. A listing on Spamhaus SBL or a "Poor" Talos rating will tank delivery on its own. Full method in our email blacklist check guide, and remediation steps in how to get off an email blacklist.
4. Validity Sender Score. A 0 to 100 score, updated roughly monthly, mostly tied to your sending IP. Above 80 is healthy, the 70s are workable if everything else is clean, and below 70 means delivery is already suffering. Treat it as a trend line, not a verdict. A score falling five points a month matters more than the absolute number.
5. Seed inbox placement test. Send your live campaign to a set of seed addresses across Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and a few business domains, then record where each one lands. Mail-tester gives you a content and authentication score out of 10 in one shot. A dedicated inbox placement test or spam score checker gives you folder-level placement by provider, which is the closest thing to ground truth.
What good looks like across all five: spam rate under 0.1%, no blacklist hits, Sender Score above 80, all authentication passing, and seed mail landing in the primary inbox on at least 90% of tests.
There is no single number, because Gmail and Microsoft do not publish one. Use these proxy thresholds instead. Spam complaint rate below 0.1%. Validity Sender Score above 80. Zero listings on Spamhaus, Barracuda, or Talos. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC all aligned and passing. Hard bounce rate under 2% on every send.
Miss one of those and you have a specific problem to fix, not a vague "bad reputation." That is the point of checking several sources: each one points at a different root cause.
A brand-new domain has no reputation at all, which is its own risk. Providers treat unknown domains with suspicion, so you warm up gradually over 3 to 8 weeks before running real volume. Start at 10 to 20 emails a day per mailbox and ramp slowly while engagement stays positive.
Rebuilding a damaged reputation takes longer than building a fresh one, often 4 to 12 weeks of clean sending, because you are overwriting a negative history rather than writing on a blank slate. See what is email warm-up and why it matters and our best email warm up tools roundup.
Spam complaints do the most damage per event. One complaint per thousand sends is the ceiling, so a single bad batch to an unengaged list can cross it. Spam-trap hits are next: they signal you are mailing addresses no human opted into. After that comes a high hard bounce rate, which is almost always a list-quality problem, then sudden volume spikes, then missing or misaligned authentication.
The common thread is list quality. Verified, relevant recipients complain rarely and bounce rarely. See how to clean a B2B email list, what is email bounce rate, and what percentage of B2B emails are invalid. If your reputation is already damaged, work through how to fix domain reputation cause first.
For most cold senders, domain reputation matters more. If you send through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, you share outbound IPs with thousands of other tenants, so your individual IP reputation is diluted and largely out of your control. Your domain is the identifier that follows you.
On a dedicated IP you own both signals, which is more control and more responsibility. That tradeoff is covered in dedicated IP vs shared IP email. Either way, run the domain checks. They apply in both setups.
The Three-Source Reputation Rule: never trust a single tool's read on domain reputation. Confirm it against a provider signal, a blacklist scan, and an independent score. Act on the worst of the three.
This rule exists because each tool has a blind spot. Postmaster Tools only sees Gmail. SNDS only sees Microsoft consumer mail. Sender Score leans on IP history. A blacklist scan catches infrastructure problems but says nothing about engagement. Any one of them can show green while your mail is quietly going to spam somewhere else.
Run all three source types on the same day and compare. If Postmaster spam rate is clean, no blacklist hits, and Sender Score is 85, you can send with confidence. If the blacklist scan is clean and Sender Score is fine but your spam rate is 0.28%, believe the spam rate and pause. The quotable version: "A green light on one dashboard is not permission to send. It is one vote out of three."
Re-run the full check monthly, and always after a large campaign or any list you did not verify yourself.
Most domain reputation damage traces back to one thing: emailing people who never should have been on the list. Bad addresses bounce, unengaged contacts complain, and both signals hit your domain within days.
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The single-dashboard era of checking domain reputation ended when Google retired the v1 charts in 2025. The replacement is a habit, not a tool: check a provider signal, a blacklist scan, and an independent score on the same day, every month. Keep your spam rate under 0.1%, stay off every blacklist, and hold Sender Score above 80. If one source disagrees with the other two, treat the worst reading as the truth and stop sending until it clears. Start with a verified list, because that is what keeps all three readings green.
Can I still see my domain reputation in Google Postmaster Tools?
No. Google removed the Domain Reputation and IP Reputation dashboards when it moved everyone to Postmaster Tools v2 on September 30, 2025. The replacement signals are spam rate, feedback loop, authentication status, and a compliance panel. Spam rate below 0.1% is now the primary indicator of a healthy domain.
What is a good email sender reputation score?
On Validity Sender Score, above 80 is healthy, the 70s are workable if authentication and bounce rates are clean, and below 70 means your deliverability is already suffering. Sender Score is mostly IP-based, so pair it with a Gmail spam rate check and a blacklist scan for a complete picture.
How do I check domain reputation for free?
Use Google Postmaster Tools v2 for Gmail, Microsoft SNDS for Outlook consumer mail, MxToolbox or Spamhaus for blacklist status, Validity Sender Score for an IP trend line, and mail-tester for a content and authentication score. All five are free. Run them together, not in isolation.
How long does it take to fix a bad domain reputation?
Expect 4 to 12 weeks of consistent, clean sending to a verified and engaged list. Rebuilding takes longer than building fresh because you are overwriting a negative history. Fix the root cause first, whether that is a bad list, a blacklist listing, or broken authentication, then let time and good engagement do the rest.
Does a new domain have a reputation?
Not yet, and that is a risk in itself. Mailbox providers treat unknown domains cautiously. Warm up a new sending domain over 3 to 8 weeks, starting at 10 to 20 emails a day per mailbox, before you run real campaign volume. Sending hard from a cold domain looks like spam.
Should I check the domain or the sending IP?
Both, but domain reputation matters more for most cold senders because shared platforms like Google Workspace pool many senders on the same IPs. Your domain is the identifier that follows you across providers. Check IP reputation too if you run a dedicated IP.
How often should I run a domain reputation check?
Monthly at minimum, and always after a large send or a list you did not verify yourself. Reputation moves on a lag of days to weeks, so a monthly cadence catches a decline while it is still small enough to reverse without a full domain rebuild.
Inbox rotation means sending one campaign from many mailboxes instead of one, so no single account sends enough volume to trip a spam filter. Instead of pushing 200 emails a day through one inbox, you push 20 a day through ten.
Gmail's technical sending limits in 2026: a free Gmail account can send to 500 recipients per rolling 24 hours, and a Google Workspace account can send to 2,000 recipients per day, of which a maximum of 2,000 can be external. New Workspace accounts start much lower, often around 500 a day, and...
Warming up a new email domain takes 3 to 8 weeks. For a brand-new domain with zero sending history, 30 days is the practical floor in 2026, not the two weeks that used to be common advice.
For cold email, put 2 to 3 sending mailboxes on each domain. Some teams stretch to 4 or 5, but 3 is the number that keeps you safe without much thought.
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