Only 12.4% of domains publish a DMARC policy asking for enforcement
25.2% publish a DMARC record at all, and 49.3% of those set a policy stronger than "do nothing". Publication rates are the figure usually quoted; this is the one that describes what a receiver is actually told to do.
Almost none of the variation in mail authentication is organizations deciding differently. It is whoever provisioned the domain deciding for them.
SPF is published 1.8× as often as DMARC
45.9% of resolving domains publish SPF against 25.2% publishing DMARC — most of the estate has taken the first step and not the second.
Go deeper
What the MX records themselves say
Formally declare they accept no mail
16,990,928 of 192.0M domains publishing MX
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
16,990,928 domains publish the RFC 7505 null MX — deliberate, correct, and confirmed against live DNS.
Publish an MX that cannot deliver
2,113,578 of 192.0M domains publishing MX
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
2,113,578 domains where every MX host is undeliverable. 80% are parked — one platform default, not organizations breaking their own mail.
Every mail figure, citable
Free to quote with attribution. Open the notes on a card before you do.
Domains publishing an SPF record
168,198,042 of 366.2M resolving domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains publishing a DMARC record
92,112,897 of 366.2M resolving domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains publishing MTA-STS
330,078 of 366.2M resolving domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains publishing BIMI
187,313 of 366.2M resolving domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains publishing an SPF record, excluding parked domains
142,125,738 of 330.6M resolving domains not detected as parked
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains publishing a DMARC record, excluding parked domains
87,012,578 of 330.6M resolving domains not detected as parked
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Parked domains publishing an SPF record
26,072,304 of 35.5M parked domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Parked domains publishing a DMARC record
5,100,319 of 35.5M parked domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Parked domains publishing DMARC that set p=none
4,533,706 of 5.1M parked domains publishing DMARC
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains publishing an MX record
174,869,355 of 366.2M resolving domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains publishing an MX record, excluding parked domains
162,668,282 of 330.6M resolving domains not detected as parked
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Parked domains publishing an MX record
12,201,073 of 35.5M parked domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains with an MX that can actually receive mail
172,755,777 of 366.2M resolving domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains with a working MX, excluding parked domains
162,269,601 of 330.6M resolving domains not detected as parked
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Parked domains with an MX that can actually receive mail
10,486,176 of 35.5M parked domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
DMARC records at enforcement (p=quarantine or p=reject)
45,394,057 of 92.1M domains publishing DMARC
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
DMARC records set to p=none
46,662,221 of 92.1M domains publishing DMARC
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
DMARC records with an invalid policy value
56,619 of 92.1M domains publishing DMARC
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
DMARC records that neither enforce nor report
37,610,916 of 92.1M domains publishing DMARC
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
MTA-STS domains with a policy mode on record
234,936 of 330,078 domains publishing MTA-STS
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
MTA-STS domains whose policy is set to enforce
151,636 of 330,078 domains publishing MTA-STS
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains whose MX record cannot deliver mail
2,113,578 of 192.0M domains publishing MX
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains that formally declare they accept no mail
16,990,928 of 192.0M domains publishing MX
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Mail-operating domains with no named provider whose primary MX is under their own domain
16,798,307 of 23.1M mail-operating domains with no named provider
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Mail-operating domains with no named provider whose primary MX is a third-party domain the catalog does not name
4,062,552 of 23.1M mail-operating domains with no named provider
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Mail-operating domains with no named provider whose primary MX cannot take mail
2,122,230 of 23.1M mail-operating domains with no named provider
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Third-party MX domains serving mail-operating domains with no named provider
across Datazag DNS corpus: primary MX reduced to its registrable domain with the Public Suffix List and matched against the Datazag provider catalog
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Mail-operating domains with no named provider served by the 1,000 largest uncataloged MX domains
672,504 of 23.1M mail-operating domains with no named provider
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains on a third-party MX serving 100 or more of them
1,836,218 of 4.1M mail-operating domains with no named provider on a third-party MX
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains on a third-party MX serving 10 to 99 of them
1,389,765 of 4.1M mail-operating domains with no named provider on a third-party MX
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains on a third-party MX serving fewer than 10 of them
836,569 of 4.1M mail-operating domains with no named provider on a third-party MX
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Domains served by the largest uncataloged third-party MX domain
across Datazag DNS corpus: primary MX reduced to its registrable domain with the Public Suffix List and matched against the Datazag provider catalog
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Corporate mail domains
117,892,875 of 367.9M resolving domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Corporate mail domains whose mail Microsoft or Google runs
28,216,502 of 117.9M corporate mail domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Corporate mail domains whose mail Microsoft runs
13,827,641 of 117.9M corporate mail domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Corporate mail domains whose mail Google runs
14,412,282 of 117.9M corporate mail domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Corporate mail domains behind a dedicated email security gateway
2,700,648 of 117.9M corporate mail domains
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Dedicated email security gateway vendors serving corporate mail domains
across Datazag DNS corpus: every MX host matched against the Datazag provider catalog, then reverse DNS
Source: Datazag · as of 2026-11-05
Research using this data
Microsoft and Google run the mailboxes for 24% of corporate domains, eleven times the share behind a security gateway
The gateway market is concentrated but small; the mailbox layer behind it is eleven times larger. National markets turn global shares inside out: one vendor holds almost all of Sweden's.
Read on datazag.com1 in 4 domains publish DMARC, and about half of those enforce it
A census of resolving, unparked domains: about half of DMARC publishers only report spoofing. Among domains that run mail, report-only outnumbers enforcement two to one.
Read on datazag.comWho Really Runs Business Email? Microsoft leads Google 9 : 1 at the largest companies, and is level with it across corporate mail
The keyhole effect: enterprise studies see the largest companies. Across all corporate mail domains, hosting companies and registrars run more mail than Microsoft and Google together.
Read on datazag.comQuery these statistics directly
Every figure on this page is served as Parquet. Same format as the corpus itself.
SELECT * FROM read_parquet('https://observatory.datazag.com/observatory_statistics.parquet');