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Connect a domain you own, and your campaigns can come from any address on it, such as news@yourbrand.com or hello@yourbrand.com. You don’t need a mailbox behind the address. AlpacaRelay sends the mail and signs it for your domain, so inbox providers see it as genuinely yours. Setup is a one-time DNS change. The Set up automatically button makes the change for you, and otherwise you copy a few records into your DNS provider.
Not sure whether you want this or Gmail? A domain is the better choice once you send to more than a few hundred people, or want a brand address rather than a personal one. See how they compare.

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Before you start

  • You need to be a workspace owner to add a domain. Once a domain is verified, any member can add addresses on it.
  • You need access to the domain’s DNS: the login for wherever the domain is managed, such as Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, or Google Domains. If someone else manages it, send them the records from Add the records yourself.
Use a subdomain, such as news.yourbrand.com or mail.yourbrand.com, rather than yourbrand.com itself. Your recipients still see your brand, and if a campaign ever hurts sending reputation, the damage stays on the subdomain instead of reaching the email your team uses every day.

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Add your domain

1

Open Sending domains

Click your workspace name, then Settings → Sending domains.
2

Add the domain

Type the domain, such as news.yourbrand.com, and click Add domain. It appears as a card with the status Connecting.
3

Connect it

Click Set up automatically and follow the window that opens. It finds your DNS provider and asks you to sign in there, then adds the records for you. If you don’t see the button, or your provider isn’t listed, add the records yourself.
4

Wait for Verified

After an automatic setup the card says DNS records added. We’re confirming them. This usually takes a few minutes, and the card turns Verified on its own.

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Add the records yourself

Click Show DNS records on the domain’s card. The table lists each record’s type, name, and value, with a copy button on each. Add them at your DNS provider:
On Cloudflare, set each CNAME to DNS only (grey cloud). A proxied record (orange cloud) breaks the signature, and the domain never verifies.
Then click Check again. DNS changes usually show up within minutes, but some providers take a few hours. We keep checking in the background for three days after you add the domain, so you don’t need to stay on the page. If the domain still isn’t verified after three days, its status turns Failed. Click Set up automatically again, or Check again if you add records yourself. Either one issues fresh signing records, so replace the old ._domainkey records at your DNS provider.
“Custom MAIL FROM is not set up” means the bounce. records are missing or wrong. Your mail still sends, and the domain still works. Adding them improves deliverability with some inbox providers.

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Add addresses

Once the domain is Verified, its card gets an Addresses section. Type the part before the @ (for example news) and add it. The address is ready straight away, and you can add as many as you like. You can also add an address while you set up a campaign. Any member can do this, not just owners.

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Use it in a campaign

In the campaign’s From step, choose Your domain, or pick an address you’ve already added from the account list. Add an address on your domain creates a new address right there. Then set the Name your recipients see and, if replies should go somewhere specific, a Reply to address. Replies go to the Reply to address, or to the sending address if you leave it empty. If nobody reads that mailbox, set Reply to. If no domain is verified yet, owners are taken to Sending domains, and other members are asked to have an owner set one up.

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Warm-up: how much you can send

A new domain has no sending history, and inbox providers distrust sudden volume from an unknown sender. So every domain starts small and grows as it proves itself: The limit rises on its own, one step at a time, while the domain sends steadily and without delivery problems. You don’t need to request it. Over the limit, emails wait rather than fail. They go out as capacity frees up, the next hour or the next day. When you set up a campaign, the recipient estimate tells you how long it will take to send.
Plan your first big send. A 5,000-person launch from a brand-new domain takes days at step 1. Start with smaller campaigns to your most engaged contacts in the week before.

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Warnings and pauses

Inbox providers judge a sender by how many emails bounce and how many recipients mark them as spam. We watch both for your workspace, and a banner on Sending domains and in the campaign From step tells you when something needs attention.
  • Amber banner (warning): too many recent emails bounced or were marked as spam. Sending continues. Clean your list now, before it turns into a pause.
  • Red banner (paused): sending from your domains is paused, and the banner says why. Nothing sends from any of your domains, test emails included. Queued emails wait, and nothing is lost. Only support can resume sending, and after that every domain starts again at step 1 of warm-up. Gmail sending isn’t affected.
Almost every pause comes from the list, not the email. Only email people who agreed to hear from you, never send to bought or scraped lists, and remove addresses that bounced elsewhere before your first send from a domain.

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Test emails

Test sends from a domain address go only to your own verified account email, never to anyone else. Each workspace can send 100 tests per 24 hours. While sending from your domains is paused, test emails from them aren’t sent either. You can still send tests from a connected Gmail account.

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Remove an address or a domain

Delete an address or a domain from its card, then confirm. Deleting is owner-only, and it’s refused while any of the domain’s addresses still has emails queued or sending. Wait for the campaign to finish first. Removing the DNS records without deleting the domain stops it verifying, and its sending stops with it.

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Troubleshooting

It’s owner-only. Ask a workspace owner to add the domain. Once it’s verified, you can add addresses yourself from the campaign’s From step.
Usually one record is missing or mistyped. Check that each record’s name matches exactly. Some providers add your domain to the end automatically, so abc._domainkey.news.yourbrand.com must be entered as abc._domainkey.news. On Cloudflare, check the CNAMEs are DNS only. Then click Check again.
Your provider may not support automatic setup, or the sign-in was cancelled. Click Show DNS records and add them yourself.
Three days passed without the records being found. Click Set up automatically or Check again to get fresh records, and replace the old ones at your DNS provider.
That’s warm-up. The domain is sending at its current step’s hourly and daily limits, and emails above the limit wait their turn. The limits rise as the domain keeps sending cleanly.
The red banner says why, usually too many bounces or spam complaints. Until support resumes sending, nothing goes out from your domains, test emails included. Clean the list behind the campaigns that caused it, then contact support. Your queued emails are kept, and your domains start again at step 1 of warm-up.