How do I set up Gmail for my domain?
To get your domain’s incoming email to appear in Gmail, you need to set up an MX record.
1. Sign in to your domain host account.
GoDaddy and eNom are examples of domain hosts. Who is my domain host?
2. Locate the page where you can edit your domain’s DNS records.
The page might be called something like DNS Zone File, Name Server Management, or Advanced Settings. Get specific steps for your domain host.
3. Locate the records section for your domain.
This will vary depending on your domain host, but click the option to add a new record and select MX as the record type.
4. Update your existing MX records to point to Google’s mail servers by entering Google’s MX record values.
Copy/paste the exact values from here.
5. Delete any MX records not pointing to the Google servers.
Or give them a lower priority than the Google server records.
6. Save your changes and wait until they take effect.
The changes can take up to 72 hours to go into effect depending on your domain host, but generally occur within a few hours.
If the changes don’t take effect after 72 hours, contact Google.
If the first MX record in your list looks like this, then mail sent to fionabriffa.com.au will be routed to Gmail.
| Name / Host | Time to Live | Record Type | Value / Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| @ | 3600 sec | MX | aspmx.l.google.com |
Dreamhost: Verify your domain
Tip: For convenience, expand the steps in this article and print it to refer to as you go through the verification process.
Why verify?
After you verify that you own your domain, you can start using Gmail, Drive, and all the other services included with your G Suite account.
How do I verify?
G Suite gives you a verification record that you copy and paste into your domain settings.
Need help with verification? Contact Google Support for fast, free, personalized help.
When you initially sign up for G Suite, Google provides the verification record in the G Suite Setup Wizard (on the Verify your domain and set up email page).
If you need to verify your domain and you’re not already in the Setup Wizard, go to Find the G Suite verification record for information on how to enter it.
- On the Verify your domain and set up email page, click the Choose a different method drop-down list and select Add a domain host record.
- Click the link in the wizard to open your domain host sign-in page in a new tab.
Note: If the wizard doesn’t provide a link to your domain, click here to open the DreamHost® site in a new tab. The Setup Wizard remains open in the first tab.
- Sign in to DreamHost.If you don’t know your username and password, you can reset your password or contact DreamHost support.
- Click through the wizard steps until you see the verification record.The record looks like this:google-site-verification= [followed by a unique string of text and numbers].
- Copy the verification record (entire string of text and numbers).
- Go back to the DreamHost site tab you opened earlier in step 1.3.
- On the left side, click Domains and Manage Domains.
- Scroll down the screen until you see the domain that you want to verify with G Suite.
- Under your domain name, click DNS to view the settings for your domain.
If you see a warning message about changing your DNS settings, disregard it. Adding the TXT record won’t damage your website or DNS settings.
- Scroll down to the Add a custom DNS record section.
- Click the Type drop-down list and select TXT.
- Paste the verification record you copied earlier into the Value field.
- Click Add Record Now.
- Return to the Setup Wizard in the first tab.
- Check the I saved the TXT verification record box to move on to the next step.
Next steps
Now it’s time to set up your Gmail with G Suite. Keep the Setup Wizard and domain host site tabs open. Get detailed instructions for setting up Gmail with your host in an additional tab.
G Suite MX record values
Here are the values to use in your domain’s DNS settings to configure MX records for G Suite. Each record points to a Google mail server. Note important details below about setting mail server Priorities.
You enter these values at your domain host, not in your Google Admin console.
Note: Some domain hosts use different labels for the name and value fields, and some hosts also require a trailing period at the end of the server name.
For example: ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
Make sure you follow the specific instructions for your domain host when entering these record values.
| Name/Host/Alias | Time to Live (TTL*) | Record Type | Priority | Value/Answer/Destination |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blank or @ | 3600 | MX | 1 | ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM |
| Blank or @ | 3600 | MX | 5 | ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM |
| Blank or @ | 3600 | MX | 5 | ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM |
| Blank or @ | 3600 | MX | 10 | ALT3.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM |
| Blank or @ | 3600 | MX | 10 | ALT4.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM |
* The TTL is the number of seconds before subsequent changes to the MX record go into effect. Once the MX records are configured correctly, we recommend changing the TTL value from 3600 to 86400, which tells servers across the Internet to check every 24 hours for updates to the MX record instead of every hour. Learn more
Priorities
The Priority column shows the relative priorities of the Google mail servers. Mail is delivered to the server with the highest priority first. If for some reason that server isn’t available, mail is delivered to the server with the next highest priority, and so on through all your the servers. Priority values don’t have to be exactly like those shown in the table. And in fact, different domain hosts have different systems for setting MX record priority.
If your domain host assigns priorities using numbers, choose the lowest number (highest priority) for ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM, as shown in the table above. If your host uses some other method for assigning priority, follow that method to designate ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM as the primary server. If your host allows only one MX record or doesn’t allow ranking, enter ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM as the only MX record.