Add a DMARC record in Porkbun

Updated 2026-09-30 · Setup Guides

If your domain's nameservers are curitiba.ns.porkbun.com, fortaleza.ns.porkbun.com, maceio.ns.porkbun.com and salvador.ns.porkbun.com, Porkbun is your DNS host — those are the four default nameservers Porkbun lists. That's true even for a domain registered somewhere else: Porkbun's DNS can host an external domain. You publish the record in Porkbun's DNS records editor.

The record you're publishing

The Value is your DMARC policy. If you're setting up monitoring with DMARCmetric, Add your first domain generates the full value for you, including your workspace's unique rua= reporting address — copy it from the wizard with the copy button rather than retyping it. p=none is the right starting policy: it monitors everything and blocks nothing.

If you host email with Porkbun, check first: Porkbun's Configure DMARC button, shown to domains with its email hosting, publishes a DMARC record for you.

The steps below add a new record, for a domain with no DMARC record yet. If _dmarc already has one, don't add another — edit the one you have instead.

Step by step

1. Click ACCOUNT in the top-right corner and select Domain Management.
2. Find your domain and click the DNS button under its name. (Or open Details and click the edit icon under DNS RECORDS.)
3. In Manage DNS Records, look for a TXT record whose Host is _dmarc. If there is one, edit it instead.
4. Click Add Record, and set Type to TXT - Text record.
5. In Host, enter _dmarc — only the subdomain part, the way Porkbun's own guides enter it.
6. In Answer, paste your v=DMARC1; … value.
7. Leave TTL on its default and click Add.

Porkbun says a new record usually resolves everywhere moments after you click Add; a changed record takes longer. If your own computer looked up _dmarc before the record existed, it may keep failing there for a few hours — what Porkbun calls negative caching.

If you already have a DMARC record

A domain can have only one DMARC record, so don't click Add Record — change the one that's there. Never add a second _dmarc record next to the old one: with two, email providers ignore both.

1. In Manage DNS Records, find the existing TXT record whose Host is _dmarc, and click the pencil icon to its right.
2. Edit that record.
3. What you change depends on what DMARCmetric shows you — check which of these two it is before you touch anything:
   • If DMARCmetric shows only an address (mailto:rua+…, shown when it couldn't read your DNS at that moment), don't replace anything. Add that address to your existing rua= tag, separated by a comma. If the record has no rua= tag, add one: rua= followed by the address, separated from the tag before it by a semicolon. Leave your policy and every other tag as they are.
   • If DMARCmetric shows a full record (starting with v=DMARC1), replace the record's whole Answer with it. That value is built from your existing record: your policy and tags are kept, and it includes your DMARCmetric reporting address.
4. Save the record.

If there are several. If the list shows more than one TXT record at _dmarc that starts with v=DMARC1, delete the extras and keep one, then change the one you keep exactly as in step 3: if DMARCmetric shows a full record, that record becomes its Answer; if it shows only an address, add the address to its rua= tag. Until only one is left, receivers treat the domain as having no DMARC policy at all.

Verify it's live

From a terminal:

dig TXT _dmarc.example.com +short

You should see your v=DMARC1; … value echoed back in quotes. No terminal handy? Run your domain through the free DMARC checker — it fetches the live record and validates the syntax, which dig won't do. And if you added the record as part of DMARCmetric onboarding, press Verify DNS in the wizard; Verify your domain explains each result it can give you.

Common mistakes

• A second record next to Porkbun's. If you used Configure DMARC for Porkbun email hosting, a DMARC record is already published. Edit it rather than adding another.
• Typing the whole domain in Host. Porkbun wants only the subdomain part — _dmarc — not the full name; its API guide says not to include the domain name itself.
• Two _dmarc records. A domain may have only one DMARC record; receivers treat two TXT records at _dmarc as no valid policy at all. If a record already exists, edit it — don't add a second.
• Editing the value by hand. A missing semicolon between tags, mailto; instead of mailto:, or a mangled reporting address all invalidate the record or send your reports nowhere. Copy-paste the whole value, then confirm with the checker.

If some of your domains live at other providers, the same record works everywhere — the Cloudflare and GoDaddy walkthroughs cover those panels.