Mailchimp SPF record

Standard Mailchimp campaigns are sent from Mailchimp’s own domain with Mailchimp’s own Return-Path, so a typical Mailchimp account needs no change to your root SPF record at all.

The SPF include for Mailchimp

Authorize Mailchimp by adding its mechanism to your single SPF TXT record:

v=spf1 include:servers.mcsv.net ~all

Approximate lookup cost: 1 DNS lookup(s). Remember you have a budget of 10 total across every sender in the record.

Provider include values change occasionally. Confirm the current value in your Mailchimp admin console before publishing, and never create a second v=spf1 record — a domain may have only one. Combine all senders into one record:

v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:servers.mcsv.net ~all

You only need an include (Mailchimp’s transactional service uses spf.mandrillapp.com) if you are sending with your own domain as the envelope sender. For most newsletter use, leave your root SPF alone — a great example of why not every “sender” belongs in your record.

When adding Mailchimp pushes you over the limit

Every include you stack — your mailbox provider, this one, a marketing tool, a help desk — adds to the same 10-lookup budget. The moment recursive expansion crosses 10, receivers return permerror and your SPF stops passing. You cannot shrink the nested provider records, so the durable fix is to flatten the record or move to a single-lookup macro that stays in sync automatically.