Google Workspace Emails Going to Spam? 9 Causes and Fixes

Google Workspace emails going to spam can feel random: some land, others disappear. This guide is for business owners, founders, recruiters and small teams sending from their own Google Workspace address, whether that’s everyday email or a mail merge.

Start with a five-minute check, then work through the nine causes we see most often, each with its fix.

Why are my emails going to spam in Gmail? Start with a 5-minute check

Before changing anything, find out which kind of problem you have.

1. Read the header. Email a colleague at a different Gmail or Google Workspace address (Google notes you can’t check DKIM by emailing yourself). Ask them to click More > Show original and find the Authentication-Results line, which shows whether SPF, DKIM and DMARC passed.

2. Read Gmail’s warning. When Gmail files an email in Spam, it shows a note at the top explaining why. If the note says Gmail couldn’t confirm who sent it, the problem is your domain settings.
3. Test more than one provider. Send the same email to addresses you control at Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo. Spam everywhere points to your setup. Spam at only one provider points more to reputation or content.

1. Your SPF record is missing or doesn’t list every sender

SPF is a short line of text in your domain’s DNS, the settings at the company where you registered your domain. It lists every service allowed to send email as your domain. Google warns that email from services left off the list is more likely to be marked as spam.

If you only send from Google Workspace, Google’s record is:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

include:_spf.google.com is Google’s own value that authorizes Workspace to send for you. If a contact form, invoicing app or newsletter tool also sends as your domain, each needs its own include: in the same record, from that service’s help pages:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:[your other email service] ~all

Keep one SPF record per domain: under the SPF standard, two records cause an error. Google allows up to 10 include: tags.

For a plain-English explanation of all three records, read SPF, DKIM and DMARC explained.

Our step-by-step guide covers setting up SPF for Google Workspace.

2. DKIM isn’t turned on

DKIM adds a digital signature to each email that proves it came from your domain and wasn’t changed on the way. Google calls it the preferred way to authenticate.

Unless your domain host set it up for you (Google notes Squarespace adds the key automatically) or you bought your domain from a Google partner at signup, you need to turn DKIM on yourself:

1. In the Google Admin console, go to Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Authenticate email.
2. Pick your domain and click Generate New Record. Choose 2048-bit if your domain host supports it.
3. Add the host name and TXT value it shows as a new TXT record at your domain host.
4. Back in the Admin console, click Start authentication.

Google says DKIM can take up to 48 hours to start working, and a domain that only just turned on Gmail may need to wait 24–72 hours before it can generate a key.

Our guide to turning on DKIM in Google Workspace walks through each screen.

3. You have no DMARC record, or another tool fails it

DMARC tells receiving servers what to do with email that claims to be from your domain but fails SPF and DKIM. To pass, an email must pass SPF or DKIM, and the domain that passed must match the domain in your From address. That match is called alignment.

Gmail and Outlook require DMARC above 5,000 emails a day to their users, and Yahoo requires it for bulk senders. It helps at any volume. Start with a policy that only reports:

v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc-reports@yourcompany.com

Add it as a TXT record on _dmarc.yourcompany.com. Google recommends starting with p=none (“deliver as normal and send me reports”) once SPF and DKIM have worked for 48 hours.

A common trap: another tool sends as you@yourcompany.com but authenticates with its own domain. It can pass its own checks and still fail DMARC alignment. Ask the provider how to authenticate your domain with them.

Our guide to setting up DMARC for Google Workspace explains the reports and when to tighten the policy.

4. Your inbox or domain is new, or has been quiet

A new domain, or an inbox that has barely sent anything, has no sender reputation: the trust mail providers build from your past sending. Without it, providers are cautious, and Google notes steady volume matters most for new domains.

The fix is time and steady sending. Start small, with people likely to reply, and grow gradually. Building that history before a bulk send is called warmup.

Our guide to warming up a new Google Workspace email shows a day-by-day plan.

5. You sent too many, too fast

Google advises against volume spikes if you don’t have a history of sending large volumes: even suddenly doubling your usual volume can bring rate limits or a reputation drop. It also prefers a steady pace, like one message per second, to bursts.

Google Workspace’s limits tell you the most you’re allowed to send, not what’s safe:

Split big sends across several days, and keep each day close to what the inbox normally sends.

Our guide to Gmail and Google Workspace sending limits covers the details for each tool.

6. Some people on your list didn’t expect your email

Who you email matters more than any setting. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft all say to email only people who want to hear from you, and never to buy lists. People who don’t recognize you ignore or report your email.

Old or scraped lists also bring bounces, emails that fail because the address no longer exists. Yahoo and Microsoft advise removing invalid addresses promptly.

• Email customers, contacts you’ve spoken with, people who asked to hear from you, and candidates who applied.
• Remove addresses that bounced and people who haven’t engaged in a long time.
• Say who you are and why you’re writing in the first line.

7. People are marking your email as spam

A spam complaint happens when someone clicks “Report spam”, and it’s the strongest negative signal there is. Google’s guidance is to keep your spam rate in Postmaster Tools (Google’s free dashboard for senders) below 0.10%, and never let it reach 0.30%. Yahoo asks senders to stay below 0.3%. Google adds that a lower spam rate can take time to change where your email lands.

Two sources of complaints people often miss:

• Other tools on the same domain. Gmail tracks feedback per domain, so complaints about a newsletter sent from a marketing tool count against the same domain your Workspace inbox uses.
• Your own team. Google warns that marking internal messages as spam can hurt your domain’s reputation. If colleagues use “Report spam” to clear internal mail, ask them to archive or filter it instead.

Give every bulk email an easy way to opt out, and stop emailing anyone who asks.

8. Your email looks misleading or pushy

Wording matters less than most people think. Filters weigh reputation, authentication, complaints and engagement more heavily, and Mailchimp notes an email usually needs several triggers before it’s filtered. Wording matters most because pushy emails get reported.

Google’s own guidelines call out these patterns:

• “Re:” or “Fwd:” in a subject line when the email isn’t a reply or forward
• display names that are more than your name or company, like “URGENT” or “Last chance”
• links that don’t make clear where they go (Mailchimp also advises against link shorteners)
• text hidden with code
• mixed content, like a promotion added to a receipt

Keep links to one or two, skip attachments on bulk sends, and write the way you would to one person.

For common trigger words and plainer alternatives, see our guide to spam trigger words.

9. Your domain has been flagged

If everything else checks out, see whether your domain is on a blacklist (or blocklist): a public list of domains and servers reported for spam that some mail servers check. Spamhaus offers a free lookup.

Google also suggests regularly checking your domain, and any domains linked to it, on its Safe Browsing site status page.

Our guide to checking whether your domain is blacklisted explains how to get off a list.

What warmup can and can’t fix

Warmup builds trust in your inbox. It can’t make people want an email they didn’t expect.

Warmuply warms up your Google Workspace inbox in the background, exchanging everyday-looking emails with a network of inboxes, a little more each day (cause 4). It shows a daily safe-send number (cause 5), checks SPF, DKIM and DMARC in plain English with the exact text to paste (causes 1–3), runs placement tests at Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo, and sends same-day blacklist alerts (cause 9). It works alongside Gmail’s mail merge, YAMM, GMass, Apps Script or sending by hand. Most inboxes need around 4–12 weeks before sending at full volume.

Causes 6, 7 and 8 stay with you: who you email, whether they welcome it, and what it says. No tool can promise inbox placement.

Fixed the cause? How to recover

Restart small. Wait up to 48 hours for DNS changes, confirm the header passes, then send to your most engaged contacts first and grow a little each day. Resending the same email to the same list usually makes things worse. Before each bigger send, run a placement test.

Our guide on testing whether your email lands in the inbox, Promotions or spam shows how.

If the problem is a mail merge, our mail merge going to spam checklist goes deeper on bulk sends.

Before you hit send

• A test email shows SPF, DKIM and DMARC all passing in the header.
• Every service that sends as your domain is in your SPF record.
• Everyone on the list knows you or asked to hear from you, and can opt out easily.
• Today’s volume is close to what this inbox usually sends.

Check your domain settings with our free domain checker. Then start a free 7-day trial of Warmuply. No card needed.