How to set up MX records
MX records say which servers accept mail for your domain. Your provider gives you the values; this page shows what each one hands out, and what to publish if the domain should never receive mail at all.
What the number means
The number is a preference, not a rank of quality: senders try the lowest first and fall back to the next if it does not answer. Equal numbers share the load between them. The exact numbers do not matter — only their order does, which is why the same provider appears with 1/5/10 at one company and 10/20/30 at another.
What each provider gives you
Read from the published records of real customers rather than written from memory. Your provider’s control panel is still the authority — if it disagrees with this table, it is right and this is stale.
Google Workspace
| 1 | aspmx.l.google.com |
| 5 | alt1.aspmx.l.google.com |
| 5 | alt2.aspmx.l.google.com |
| 10 | alt3.aspmx.l.google.com |
| 10 | alt4.aspmx.l.google.com |
Microsoft 365
0 <alan-adı, noktalar tire>.mail.protection.outlook.com
This one is not a fixed value. The name is built from your own domain with the dots replaced by dashes, so copying someone else’s would point your mail at their tenant.
Zoho Mail
| 10 | smtpin.zoho.com |
| 20 | smtpin2.zoho.com |
| 50 | smtpin3.zoho.com |
Proton Mail
| 10 | mail.protonmail.ch |
| 20 | mailsec.protonmail.ch |
Fastmail
| 10 | in1-smtp.messagingengine.com |
| 20 | in2-smtp.messagingengine.com |
Migadu
| 10 | mx.migadu.com |
Yandex 360
| 10 | mx.yandex.ru |
Measured 2026-09-03. Providers change these; check yours against their control panel before publishing.
Domains that never receive mail
A domain that only sends — invoices, notifications, marketing — or one you never use for mail at all should say so. RFC 7505 defines a null MX: a single record with preference 0 and a lone dot as the host. Sending servers then get an immediate, permanent answer instead of retrying for days, and a bounce reaches the sender straight away.
example.com. IN MX 0 .
Do not publish this on a domain that does receive mail, including the one your staff read. It refuses everything.
Once it is published
Give DNS time, then read the records back. Worth confirming: the hosts resolve to an address at all, since an MX name with nothing behind it cannot accept anything.
Look up MX records