Bulk sender requirements
Also called: Gmail sender requirements, 5,000 messages a day
Google's published requirements for senders of large volumes to Gmail. The core of them is SPF and DKIM on the sending domain, a DMARC record (p=none is sufficient), From alignment, one-click unsubscribe on marketing mail, and spam rates below the published thresholds; the full list also covers TLS, valid forward and reverse DNS, and RFC-conformant formatting.
In plain terms
The checklist Gmail expects you to have finished before you send at volume.
Why it matters for deliverability
These moved authentication from best practice to entry requirement. The alignment clause is the one that catches people out, because SPF and DKIM can both pass while the From domain still fails to align.
What to do about it
- Publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC — p=none satisfies the requirement, so there is no excuse for not having a record.
- Verify that the visible From domain aligns with whichever mechanism passes.
- Implement one-click unsubscribe on marketing and subscribed mail.
- Monitor the spam rate in Postmaster Tools rather than assuming.
- Read Google's page in full before you rely on this summary: it also covers TLS on connections, valid forward and reverse DNS for sending IPs, and RFC-conformant message formatting. The list above is the authentication and unsubscribe core, not the whole requirement set.
Source
Google — Email sender guidelines
“Set up SPF and DKIM email authentication for your domain. Set up DMARC email authentication for your sending domain. Your DMARC enforcement policy can be set to none.”
Checked 2026-08-29
Go deeper
Definitions reviewed 2026-08-29. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
See how your own mail is handled
Run a real message through MailTester and read the authentication results, spam score and delivery signals described on this page against your own domain.