How to set up SPF, DKIM & DMARC for Instantly.ai

Instantly.ai is built for cold outreach, where the standard advice — including Instantly's own — is to never send from your primary domain. Buy 2–3 secondary domains for outreach and authenticate each one separately, so a deliverability problem never touches your main domain's reputation.

SPF

Add Instantly's include to the SPF record of whichever domain you're actually sending from — your primary domain if you insist, but a secondary sending domain is the recommended setup.

Type	`TXT`
Host / Name	`@` @ means the root of the domain. If your provider rejects @, enter the bare domain or leave the Host field empty.
Value / Content	`v=spf1 include:_spf.instantly.ai ~all` combine with any other senders on the same domain — a domain gets exactly one SPF record.

DKIM

Instantly generates the key when you connect the domain in its dashboard; copy the exact selector and value it shows.

Type	`TXT`
Host / Name	`instantly._domainkey`
Value / Content	`k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCB…` Example only — copy the exact value from Instantly → Settings → Sending Accounts → your domain's DKIM record.

Instantly.ai → Settings → Domains, add your sending domain.
Publish the SPF and DKIM records it shows for that domain.
Use Instantly's built-in DNS checker (or our own checkers) to confirm both resolve correctly before warming up the domain.

DMARC

DMARC is per-domain, not per-provider — one record at _dmarc.yourdomain.com covers Instantly.ai and everything else that sends as you. Start in monitor-only mode:

Type	`TXT`
Host / Name	`_dmarc` Some providers want the full _dmarc.yourdomain.com here.
Value / Content	`v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:your-report-address` Example only — replace your-report-address — our DMARC generator builds the record, or sign up free and we generate it with a report address that feeds your monitoring dashboard.

Provider note: DKIM signs as your domain once connected, so alignment holds regardless of which domain (primary or secondary) you authenticate — the point of a secondary domain is reputation isolation, not authentication.

Full walkthrough: how to set up DMARC without breaking your email, and why aligned authentication is what DMARC actually checks.

Verify it worked

After DNS propagates (minutes to an hour), send a message from Instantly.ai to our inbox test — it shows the real SPF/DKIM/DMARC verdicts a receiver computes, including whether authentication aligned with your domain. Then HealthCheck Email keeps checking daily and alerts you when a record breaks.

Records current as of 2026-07-14. Provider dashboards change — the authoritative reference is Instantly.ai's official docs.