How to check domain reputation for email: Postmaster Tools, blocklists, DMARC reports and placement tests

How to check domain reputation for email: the short answer

Check a sending domain's reputation in four places: Google Postmaster Tools for mail to personal Gmail accounts, a blocklist check, your DMARC reports and a placement test across providers. Each looks at the domain from a different side, so read all four.

Warmy's pricing page, as read on October 23, 2026, shows plans starting from $49 a month and lists a reputation tracker with blacklist alerts and Google Postmaster data in every plan. The best inbox placement tools page compares Warmy with tools that test placement.

Google Postmaster Tools: what it shows

Google Postmaster Tools is a free service. To add a domain, enter the DKIM (d=) domain or the SPF (Return-Path) domain, then verify ownership with a DNS record at your domain provider. Google says verification usually happens right away and can take up to 10 minutes. Postmaster Tools covers mail sent to personal Gmail accounts only, and data can be missing when daily volume is too low.

Google's help page lists dashboards for spam rate, reputation, authentication and delivery errors. Warmy's help center says Domain and IP Reputation are no longer in Postmaster Tools v2, retired in late 2025, while Google's dashboards page still describes a Domain Reputation dashboard. Look in your own Postmaster account to see which dashboards it shows.

Google says Gmail can take some time to adjust after spam rates improve, and Warmy calls Postmaster a reporting dashboard, not a deliverability fix.

Blocklists, and the ones that matter less

Warmy's pricing page lists blacklist alerts in its reputation tracker, and its blocklist article advises checking your IP and domain against known blacklists regularly. Warmy's deliverability checker article says not to panic over every marked listing. For Spamhaus, Warmy's article says to look up your IP in Spamhaus's own tool and that only the owner can submit a removal request.

Heatwave is a blocklist from the vendor Validity. Warmy's Heatwave page says that, based on its conversations with professionals at Google and Microsoft, neither provider uses it in filtering, and that a listing is not a verdict on your deliverability. Both statements are Warmy's own position.

DMARC reports

A DMARC record with a rua tag asks providers to send you reports on who sends as your domain and what fails. Warmy's DMARC page says to expect the first reports within one to two days. Gmail does not send forensic failure reports, and Microsoft says it has no plans to send them. How to set up SPF DKIM and DMARC shows the record and the order.

A placement test across providers

Warmy's deliverability test sends to mailboxes outside its warm-up network. Its B2C providers are Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and Zoho, and its B2B providers are Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and SMTP. Warmy's help center sets its own benchmark at 85% or more inbox placement on the providers your list uses.

Warmy's free Email Deliverability Test page says results usually arrive within minutes and show observed placement, not a guarantee. Read Gmail bulk sender requirements if the test shows Gmail spam, and why are my emails going to spam for causes.

GlockApps suits a sender who wants placement tests from a free plan: its pricing page lists Free at $0 with 2 spam test credits, and Essential at $85 a month on monthly billing, as read on October 23, 2026. Warmy lists its deliverability tester in every plan, so placement tests come with warm-up.