How to set up MX records for Google Workspace email

Content

Overview

In this article we will cover how to set up MX records for Google Workspace email, Use MX records to verify your domain (if you haven’t already verified it), and to set up Gmail as your professional email.

After you've switched to Google's MX records, you can get your email in your Gmail inbox or through an email client like Microsoft Outlook.

How it works

Keep setup instructions open and sign in to your domain host in another window or tab. Your domain host manages technical settings for your domain.
Then update the MX record settings to direct your email to your Google Workspace account. It’s like registering a new address with the post office so that your mail gets delivered.
If you already use an email with your domain (your email address ends with @example.com), you’ll start receiving messages in Gmail instead of with your old email provider.

Google Workspace MX setup

Note

If people already have an email with your domain (such as [email protected]), create their user accounts in the Google Admin console before you set up your MX records. That way, they’ll continue to receive the email.

Sign in to your domain's account at your domain host.
Go to the section where you can update your domain’s MX records. It might be called something like “DNS Management,” “Mail Settings,” or “Advanced Settings.”
Delete any existing MX records.
If you can’t delete the existing records, change their priority number to 20 or higher.
Add new MX records for the Google mail servers.

If your domain host limits the number of MX records, just add the first 2 records in this table Values for Google Workspace MX records.

Name/Host/Alias	*Time to Live (TTL)**	Record Type	Priority	Value/Answer/Destination
leave blank	3600	MX	1	ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
leave blank	3600	MX	5	ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
leave blank	3600	MX	5	ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
leave blank	3600	MX	10	ALT3.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
leave blank	3600	MX	10	ALT4.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM

Note

Some domain hosts use different labels for the name and value fields. Some hosts require a trailing period at the end of the server name.

Save your changes.
Open the setup tool in the Admin console.
In the Gmail section, click Activate.
Verify that you've created all existing email addresses and are ready for Gmail to start receiving all emails for your domain. Click Continue.

To start using Gmail

Sign in to admin.google.com with your Google Workspace username and password.
In the top right corner, click the App Launcher >Mail.
On the next page, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Activate Gmail.
Typically, you can send and receive messages at your new Google Workspace email address in less than 6 hours. However, it may take 48–72 hours before you receive an email at your new address. It’s no fun to wait, but the time for MX records to take effect depends on your domain host. We have no control over this. In the meantime, you can get your email messages from your old email client.