How to Check If Your Emails Are Going to Spam (5 Ways)
inboxy team · · 3 min read
Most senders find out they're in spam when replies quietly dry up. You don't have to wait for that. These five checks show where your email lands, from the quickest to the most thorough.
1. Run an inbox placement test
A placement test sends your email to test inboxes and reports where it landed: primary inbox, promotions or spam. It is the quickest and most direct answer.
With inboxy's free inbox placement test, you send a blank email from the mailbox you want to check and get a deliverability score back, along with whether SPF, DKIM and DMARC pass.
2. Send to your own seed inboxes
Keep a few test inboxes on different providers, for example a Gmail account, an Outlook account and a Google Workspace account at another company. Send them the exact email from your campaign, including links and signature, and look at where it lands. It's free and shows the real email, but it's a small sample and your own inboxes may treat you more kindly than strangers' do.
3. Check Google Postmaster Tools
Google Postmaster Tools is free and shows how Gmail sees your domain: your spam complaint rate, domain reputation and authentication results. Add your sending domain and verify it with a DNS record. Data appears once you send enough email to Gmail users. Gmail treats a spam rate approaching 0.3% as a serious problem and recommends staying under 0.1%.
4. Watch your reply and open rates
A sudden drop in replies with no change to your list or copy usually means you've moved into spam. Open rates are unreliable now that many inboxes load images automatically or block tracking, so trust replies more. If replies fall sharply on one mailbox or domain but not others, the problem is that mailbox or domain.
5. Check your authentication and blacklists
Open an email you sent in Gmail, choose Show original and check that SPF, DKIM and DMARC all say PASS. A fail on any of them is a common reason for landing in spam. Then check your domain and sending IP against the major blacklists. Our blacklist guide explains how to get removed.
What to do if you're landing in spam
- Pause campaigns on the affected mailboxes.
- Fix the cause. Work through the 12 most common reasons cold emails go to spam.
- Keep warmup running to rebuild positive engagement.
- Re-test weekly and restart slowly once you're back in the inbox.
quick answers
What is the quickest way to check if my email goes to spam?
Run an inbox placement test. It sends your email to test inboxes and shows whether it lands in the primary inbox, promotions or spam within minutes.
Is an inbox placement test free?
inboxy's inbox placement test is free: send a blank email from the mailbox you want to check and you get a deliverability score back.
Can I trust open rates to tell me if I'm in spam?
Not on their own. Many inboxes load images automatically or block tracking, so open rates are unreliable. A sudden drop in replies is a better warning sign.
How do I check SPF, DKIM and DMARC on an email?
In Gmail, open the email, choose Show original, and check that SPF, DKIM and DMARC all show PASS.
What spam complaint rate is too high for Gmail?
Gmail recommends keeping spam complaints under 0.1% and treats rates approaching 0.3% as a serious problem.
