Free reference · measured, not estimated
SPF lookup costs by provider
What each email provider's include: term actually spends against the ten DNS lookups SPF allows, resolved from live DNS rather than estimated. 52 providers, measured on 23 August 2026.
Ungated · no email required · re-measurable in one click
In short
- This page lists the DNS lookup cost of the include: value published by 52 email providers, measured against live DNS on 23 August 2026.
- An include costs one lookup for the term itself plus one for every DNS-querying term inside the record it points at, counted across the whole tree. RFC 7208 §4.6.4 permits ten such lookups per evaluation, and exceeding it is a permerror that most receivers treat as though no SPF record were published at all.
- 27 of the 52 providers measured cost exactly one lookup, because their records contain only ip4 and ip6 ranges, which cost nothing. The most expensive measured was ActiveCampaign at 11 lookups.
- These figures move without warning when a provider edits its own record, so the date of measurement is stated rather than implied. The free SPF record generator resolves each provider at the moment you select it, which is the current figure.
Read this first
Why an include never costs just one
The cost is never one
People count the include: lines in their record and stop there. A receiving server does not: it resolves each one, then everything inside it, all the way down. A record with three includes can spend nine lookups.
These numbers move
Providers rewrite their own records without announcing it, and a provider that flattens its record to raw addresses can drop from four lookups to one overnight. Any table of costs is a photograph, not a fact — including this one, which is why it carries the date it was taken.
Ten is the whole budget
The limit is per evaluation, not per record, so every service you add competes for the same ten. Going over is a permerror, and most receivers treat a permerror as though the domain had published no SPF record at all.
Worth knowing before you plan a record: ActiveCampaign alone costs 11. A single include over ten lookups cannot be combined with anything at all — the record is already a permerror before you add your mailbox provider.
The table
Measured cost of every provider include
Each row was resolved with the same evaluator behind our free SPF checker, counting every DNS-querying term in the whole tree as RFC 7208 §4.6.4 requires. “Inside” is how much of the cost comes from terms nested within the provider's own record rather than from your include line.
Mailbox providers
| Provider | Include value | Lookups | Inside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho Mail | include:zoho.com | 5 | 4 nested terms |
| iCloud+ custom domain | include:_spf.icloud.com | 4 | 3 nested terms |
| Migadu | include:spf.migadu.com | 4 | 3 nested terms |
| Namecheap Private Email | include:spf.privateemail.com | 4 | 3 nested terms |
| Titan Email | include:spf.titan.email | 4 | 3 nested terms |
| Yandex 360 | include:_spf.yandex.net | 4 | 3 nested terms |
| GoDaddy Email | include:secureserver.net | 3 | 2 nested terms |
| Proton Mail | include:_spf.protonmail.ch | 2 | 1 nested term |
| Zoho Mail (EU) | include:zoho.eu | 2 | 1 nested term |
| Zoho Mail (India) | include:zoho.in | 2 | 1 nested term |
| Fastmail | include:spf.messagingengine.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| Google Workspace | include:_spf.google.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| IONOS | include:_spf.perfora.net | 1 | nothing nested |
| Microsoft 365 | include:spf.protection.outlook.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| Rackspace Email | include:emailsrvr.com | 1 | nothing nested |
Gateways and filters
| Provider | Include value | Lookups | Inside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cisco Secure Email | include:iphmx.com | 3 | 2 nested terms |
| Barracuda Email Security | include:spf.ess.barracudanetworks.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| Mimecast (EU) | include:eu._netblocks.mimecast.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| Mimecast (US) | include:us._netblocks.mimecast.com | 1 | nothing nested |
Sending platforms
| Provider | Include value | Lookups | Inside |
|---|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign | include:activecampaign.com | 11 | 10 nested terms |
| AWeber | include:aweber.com | 6 | 5 nested terms |
| Mailgun | include:mailgun.org | 5 | 4 nested terms |
| SocketLabs | include:_spf.socketlabs.com | 4 | 3 nested terms |
| Elastic Email | include:_spf.elasticemail.com | 2 | 1 nested term |
| SendGrid | include:sendgrid.net | 2 | 1 nested term |
| SparkPost | include:sparkpostmail.com | 2 | 1 nested term |
| Amazon SES | include:amazonses.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| Brevo | include:spf.brevo.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| Campaign Monitor | include:_spf.createsend.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| Constant Contact | include:spf.constantcontact.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| GetResponse | include:_spf.getresponse.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| Mailchimp Transactional | include:servers.mcsv.net | 1 | nothing nested |
| MailerLite | include:_spf.mlsend.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| MailerSend | include:_spf.mailersend.net | 1 | nothing nested |
| Mailjet | include:spf.mailjet.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| Postmark | include:spf.mtasv.net | 1 | nothing nested |
| SMTP2GO | include:spf.smtp2go.com | 1 | nothing nested |
CRM, marketing and support
| Provider | Include value | Lookups | Inside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freshdesk | include:email.freshdesk.com | 7 | 6 nested terms |
| Freshsales | include:_spf.freshsales.io | 3 | 2 nested terms |
| Klaviyo | include:send.klaviyo.com | 3 | 2 nested terms |
| Atlassian | include:_spf.atlassian.net | 2 | 1 nested term |
| Crisp | include:_spf.crisp.chat | 2 | 1 nested term |
| Pipedrive | include:_spf.pipedrive.com | 2 | 1 nested term |
| Salesforce | include:_spf.salesforce.com | 2 | 1 nested term |
| Adobe Marketo Engage | include:mktomail.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| Greenhouse | include:mg-spf.greenhouse.io | 1 | nothing nested |
| Help Scout | include:helpscoutemail.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| HubSpot | include:_spf.hubspotemail.net | 1 | nothing nested |
| Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | include:et._spf.pardot.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| Shopify | include:shops.shopify.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| SurveyMonkey | include:spf.surveymonkey.com | 1 | nothing nested |
| Zendesk | include:mail.zendesk.com | 1 | nothing nested |
Measured on . Each include target was resolved with the same evaluator the free SPF checker uses, over DNS-over-HTTPS, counting every DNS-querying term in the whole tree as RFC 7208 §4.6.4 requires. The cost shown is one lookup for the include itself plus everything inside it. To see what any of these costs right now, rather than on that date, open the SPF record generator and select the provider — it resolves the record live and shows you what it read.
What to do with this
Plan the record before you publish it
The useful move is to add up the providers you actually need before you write anything. Two mailbox providers and a helpdesk can be well inside the limit; the same three with a marketing platform that relays through an ESP can be over it, and the record will look perfectly valid while failing. The generator does that arithmetic as you tick, against live DNS, and refuses to pretend a record is inside the limit when it is not.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Lookup limit questions, answered
Or stop spending your lookup budget on tools you replaced.
SmartReach buys and authenticates your sending domains and mailboxes with SPF, DKIM and DMARC already in place, then warms them, rotates them, and verifies every address before you send.