# Bulk Email Deliverability Auditor - SPF, DKIM, DMARC (`technicaldost/bulk-email-deliverability-auditor`) Actor

Audit SPF, DKIM, DMARC and MX for thousands of domains at once. Returns a graded deliverability score, the parsed records, and a plain-English list of what is wrong. DNS only, so it is fast and costs a fraction of a cent per domain. No API key needed.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/technicaldost/bulk-email-deliverability-auditor.md
- **Developed by:** [Technical Dost Solutions](https://apify.com/technicaldost) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.50 / 1,000 domain auditeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Bulk Email Deliverability Auditor — SPF, DKIM, DMARC

**Audit the DNS records that decide whether your email lands, across thousands of domains at once — with a graded score and a plain-English list of what is broken.**

Everything here is a DNS lookup: no HTTP, no browser, no API key. That is why a full four-record audit costs a fraction of a cent per domain.

### What you get

```json
{
  "domain": "stripe.com",
  "grade": "A",
  "deliverabilityScore": 100,
  "acceptsEmail": true,
  "mxProvider": "Google Workspace",
  "hasSpf": true,
  "spfPolicy": "fail",
  "hasDmarc": true,
  "dmarcPolicy": "reject",
  "hasDkim": true,
  "issues": [],
  "spf": { "includes": ["_spf.google.com"], "dnsLookupCount": 4, "exceedsLookupLimit": false },
  "dmarc": { "policy": "reject", "percentage": 100, "rua": "mailto:dmarc@stripe.com" },
  "dkimSelectorsFound": ["google"]
}
```

### Main use cases

- **Lead-list hygiene.** Drop domains with no MX before you send — they cannot receive mail at all.
- **Cold outreach QA.** Check your *own* sending domains before a campaign.
- **Security and M\&A due diligence.** A domain with no DMARC is trivially spoofable.
- **Agency audits.** Grade a whole client portfolio in one run and export the problems as CSV.
- **Monitoring.** Schedule it to catch the day someone edits an SPF record and breaks sending.

### What it actually checks

| Record | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| **MX** | Whether the domain can receive mail at all, plus which provider runs it |
| **SPF** | Which servers may send as the domain. Flags `+all` (anyone may send) and the **10-lookup limit**, past which receivers return permerror and SPF silently stops working |
| **DMARC** | What receivers should do on failure. Flags `p=none` (monitoring only), partial `pct=`, and a missing `rua` reporting address |
| **DKIM** | Signing keys, probed across the selectors Google, Microsoft, Zoho, Proton, Mailchimp and others use |

The SPF 10-lookup check is the one most tools miss — a record can look perfect and still fail in production because it needs 11 lookups.

### Pricing

| Event | Price | When |
|---|---|---|
| **Domain audited** | **$0.0015** | One domain with all four record types checked |

Not charged for: unparseable input, or domains where every DNS lookup failed.

**1,000 domains = $1.50.**

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| `domains` | array | **required** | Domain, URL or email address — all accepted. Up to 5,000. |
| `dkimSelectors` | array | 14 common ones | DNS cannot enumerate selectors, so we probe known ones. Add yours if you know them. |
| `concurrency` | integer | `8` | Parallel lookups. |

### Limitations

- **DKIM detection is best-effort.** DNS provides no way to list a domain's selectors, so a domain using a custom selector will show `hasDkim: false` even though DKIM works. Supply your selector to confirm.
- **This audits configuration, not reputation.** It does not check blocklists, IP reputation or inbox placement, and cannot promise your mail reaches the inbox.
- Records are read live from public resolvers (1.1.1.1, 8.8.8.8); very recent DNS edits may still be cached upstream.

### Related Actors

- **[Website Brand & Favicon Extractor](https://apify.com/technicaldost/website-brand-favicon-extractor)** — enrich the same domain list with brand assets.
- **[SSL Certificate & Security Header Audit](https://apify.com/technicaldost/ssl-certificate-security-audit)** — the TLS half of the same due-diligence job.

### Reliability

- Retries on 429 and 5xx with exponential backoff; permanent 4xx errors are not retried.
- Bad input is reported and skipped, never charged.
- One failing target never aborts the rest of the run.
- Concurrency is bounded and configurable — this work is network-bound, so parallel requests, not memory, are what control speed.

### Data source and responsible use

Reads only publicly available data. No authentication bypass, no CAPTCHA circumvention, no browser automation.

Not affiliated with any of the services checked.

# Actor input Schema

## `domains` (type: `array`):

Domains to audit. A bare domain, a full URL, or an email address all work — acme.com, https://www.acme.com/pricing and bob@acme.com are treated the same.

## `dkimSelectors` (type: `array`):

DKIM selectors to probe. DNS gives no way to list a domain's selectors, so by default the actor tries the ones used by Google, Microsoft, Zoho, Proton, Mailchimp and others. Add your own if you know them.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many domains to audit at once. DNS lookups are network-bound, so this is what controls speed.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "domains": [
    "google.com",
    "github.com"
  ],
  "concurrency": 8
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

No description

## `problems` (type: `string`):

No description

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "domains": [
        "google.com",
        "github.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("technicaldost/bulk-email-deliverability-auditor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "domains": [
        "google.com",
        "github.com",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("technicaldost/bulk-email-deliverability-auditor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "domains": [
    "google.com",
    "github.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call technicaldost/bulk-email-deliverability-auditor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,technicaldost/bulk-email-deliverability-auditor"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/9x7jPtFy0OIvSe4Ec/builds/3d82acVINe2Fmd1lP/openapi.json