SPF too many lookups – how to fix
Your SPF record triggers more than 10 DNS lookups. Receivers will fail or softfail SPF. Here's how to reduce lookups.
Why it matters
SPF allows at most 10 DNS lookups when a recipient evaluates your record. Each include:, a, mx, ptr, or exists can consume lookups. Exceeding the limit causes a permerror; many receivers will then treat SPF as fail or ignore it.
How to fix it
Remove unused include: mechanisms for providers you no longer use.
Ask your ESP if they support flattened SPF or a single include that wraps multiple IPs.
Avoid chaining many includes (each include can itself trigger more lookups).
Consider moving some sending to a subdomain with its own, shorter SPF record.
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