Free, reads live DNS
Email blacklist checker
Check whether your domain's sending IPs are listed on major DNS blacklists (DNSBLs). Enter a domain or an IP address.
No sending IPs could be resolved for that domain.
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Direct answer
What is an email blacklist?
An email blacklist, or DNSBL, is a DNS list of IP addresses that have sent spam or been compromised. Mail servers query the list during delivery. A listed IP is often refused or sent to spam. The listing is about the sending IP, not the words in the message. An address that is not listed can still miss the inbox.
- Enter a domain to check the IPs in its A and MX records, or enter one IP directly.
- Spamhaus, SpamCop, Barracuda, and SORBS are queried as DNS. Some lists refuse queries from shared resolvers and return unknown rather than a false listed result.
- A listing on one list and a clean result on the others is common. Fix the list that actually listed the IP.
- Delisting is done on that list’s own site, after the spam or the open relay is stopped. Removing the DNS record on your side does not clear the listing.
Questions people ask
If I am not listed, why is mail still in spam?
Blacklists are one signal. Gmail and Outlook also use engagement, complaints, authentication, and their own reputation data, which is not a public DNSBL. A clean blacklist check rules out a listing. It does not prove inbox placement.
Should I check the domain or the sending IP?
Check the IP that actually sends the mail. A domain’s website IP and its sending IP are often different. The IP is in the Received header of a message you sent to yourself, or in your mail provider’s dashboard.
What does unknown mean?
Unknown means the list did not answer the query. Spamhaus and Barracuda often refuse lookups that come through a public DNS resolver. Unknown is not the same as listed.
How do I get off a blacklist?
Stop the cause first: a compromised account, an open form, or a purchased list. Then use the removal page of the list that listed you. Repeat checks here after the list publishes the removal. Most removals are not instant.
The records are only half of inbox placement.
Once SPF, DKIM, and DMARC pass, a cold domain still needs a slow sending history. iSend warms the domain and sends with the same authentication these tools just checked.