DMARC Validator API

About the DMARC Validator API

A DMARC record lookup API. Send a domain and it reads the published DMARC policy, splits it into its tags and tells you whether the record is usable: the policy (none, quarantine or reject), the subdomain policy, the rollout percentage, the DKIM and SPF alignment modes, the reporting options and any problems found, such as a missing or misspelled policy.

Email security teams, deliverability consultants and SaaS products that send on a customer's behalf use it to audit sender domains, to check a DMARC change after it propagates, and to screen vendors or new signups for how easily their domain can be spoofed.

The Free plan returns the raw record, every parsed tag, the domain that aggregate and forensic reports go to, the issues list and an overall verdict. Paid plans add the full report addresses with a check that each is a well-formed email address, whether the domain actively enforces DMARC, and an email-spoofing risk score from 0 to 100 with a low, medium or high band, so you can rank domains by email deliverability and protection against spoofing without reading each policy yourself.

How it works

DMARC Validator queries TXT records at _dmarc.<domain>, after removing any scheme and leading www. from domain. The first record beginning with v=DMARC1 (case-insensitive) becomes dmarc_record, and hasDmarc and valid become true. The record is split on ; and each tag on its first =.

p is checked against none, quarantine and reject; any other value adds INVALID_POLICY to issues, and a missing p adds MISSING_POLICY. pct is returned as a number clamped to 0 to 100, and a non-numeric value is reported as 100 with an INVALID_PCT issue. pct stays null when the tag is absent, which means the default of 100. ri is returned as a number. sp, adkim, aspf, fo and rf are passed through as written and are null when absent.

rua and ruf strip mailto: from each comma-separated address and drop any !size suffix. valid is true only when every address is a well-formed email; domain is the domain of the first one.

isEnforced is true only when the policy is quarantine or reject and pct is absent or 100. riskScore starts from the policy: 75 for no record or no policy, 60 for none or an unrecognised value, 30 for quarantine and 5 for reject. It then adds 20 when an enforcing policy covers less than 100 percent of mail. riskLevel is high at 60 or above, medium from 25 and low below that. If DNS does not answer, the call returns a 503 instead of reporting the domain as unprotected. Results are cached for 30 minutes. On the Free plan the report addresses and their valid flags, isEnforced, riskScore and riskLevel are removed.

What people use it for

Vendor Security Audits

Audit partner domains during vendor reviews by inspecting their published DMARC policy and flagging entries set to none instead of reject.

Outbound Campaign Verification

Before sending mass marketing broadcasts, deliverability platforms verify sender domains to confirm that DMARC records exist and specify strict alignment modes.

Inbound Mail Protection

To stop spoofed sender addresses, secure email gateways evaluate incoming message domains against live DMARC policies and quarantine suspicious traffic.

Domain Portfolio Health

DNS administrators track customer domains across registrars to detect misconfigured report addresses, missing subdomain policies, and unaddressed syntax issues.

Ways to call it

One endpoint, many ways in — REST with JSON, XML, YAML and CSV, plus GraphQL and an MCP interface for AI agents.

JSON

Default REST response

XML

Markup format

YAML

Human-readable

CSV

Tabular export

Beta

GraphQL

Query language

New

MCP

For AI agents

How it compares

Side by side with the tools people weigh DMARC Validator against — what each one is better at, in plain terms.

Request parameters — GET /v1/dmarcvalidator

Sent in the query string. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them. Anything not listed here is dropped rather than passed through.

Required

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curl "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/dmarcvalidator?domain=paypal.com" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Authentication

Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — no token exchange, and no per-endpoint scope to configure.

Response — GET /v1/dmarcvalidator

Every APIVerve endpoint returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape.

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{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "host": "paypal.com",
    "dmarcHost": "_dmarc.paypal.com",
    "hasDmarc": true,
    "dmarc_record": "v=DMARC1; p=reject; rua=mailto:d@rua.agari.com,mailto:dmarc_agg@vali.email; ruf=mailto:d@ruf.agari.com,mailto:MTc4Mzcw@ruf.vali.email",
    "rua": {
      "email": "d@rua.agari.com,dmarc_agg@vali.email",
      "domain": "rua.agari.com",
      "valid": true
    },
    "ruf": {
      "email": "d@ruf.agari.com,MTc4Mzcw@ruf.vali.email",
      "domain": "ruf.agari.com",
      "valid": true
    },
    "v": "DMARC1",
    "p": "reject",
    "sp": null,
    "pct": null,
    "adkim": null,
    "aspf": null,
    "fo": null,
    "rf": null,
    "ri": null,
    "valid": true,
    "issues": [],
    "isEnforced": true,
    "riskScore": 5,
    "riskLevel": "low"
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Response headers

Every response carries your balance, so your own code always knows where it stands without polling anything. All four are exposed to browsers through CORS.

Errors

Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change.

What a call costs — 10 credits per call

Credits are shared across every APIVerve API — one balance, one key, one bill. Failed requests never count against it, so a rejected input costs nothing.

Calls are what the credits buy at this API's rate — spend them here, on any of the other APIs, or across both. Nothing is reserved per endpoint.

Zero-code embed — one snippet, no backend

Drop an interactive DMARC Validator form onto any page. The widget calls the API for you, so no key ever appears in your markup and there is nothing to deploy.

Changelog — DMARC Validator API

Every change to this endpoint, newest first. Breaking changes ship as a new version and the previous one keeps serving — response fields are added, never removed or retyped in place, so an integration written against v1 keeps working.

Currently v1Data refreshed realtime