MX Record (Mail Exchange Record) (MX Record)
Why MX Record Is Important
Without correct MX records, your domain cannot receive email. This affects everything from customer communications to password reset flows, support tickets, and business correspondence. Misconfigured MX records cause emails to bounce, which can also damage your domain's sender reputation.
MX records support redundancy through priority values. You can configure a primary mail server (priority 10) and backup servers (priority 20, 30) that accept mail when the primary is down. This prevents email loss during server maintenance or outages.
MX records also interact with email authentication. SPF records should include your MX servers as authorized senders. If your MX records point to a third-party email provider (like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365), your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records must be configured to match. Inconsistencies between MX and authentication records can cause email delivery failures.
How to Verify
Use a DNS health checker to verify your MX records are correctly configured. The tool shows each MX record with its priority and target hostname. Verify the target hostnames resolve to actual mail servers and that the priority ordering is correct.
Configuration Reference
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Record Type | MX |
| Points to | Mail server hostname (not IP) |
| Priority | Lower number = higher priority |
| Common setup | Two MX records for primary and backup |
| Cannot point to | CNAME or IP address directly |