How to add MX records in Squarespace (and find your DNS settings)

If your domain is registered with Squarespace, including the many domains that moved over from Google Domains, its DNS records live in your Squarespace account. That’s where you add the MX records that tell the world where your email goes, plus the TXT and CNAME records that prove your mail is genuine. This guide shows where to find those settings in Squarespace’s current dashboard and how to add each record type, following Squarespace’s own help pages, which are linked throughout.

Where to find DNS settings in Squarespace

1. Log in to Squarespace and open your domains dashboard (account.squarespace.com/domains).
2. Click the domain name.
3. Click DNS in the side panel, then DNS Settings.
4. Scroll to Custom Records. That’s where your own MX, TXT and CNAME records go, and where the Add record button is.

Squarespace asks you to re-enter your password, or confirm with two-factor authentication, before it saves a change (Squarespace: edit your domain’s DNS records).

If you came from Google Domains: Squarespace took over Google Domains’ registrations on September 7, 2023, and the move is complete. You now manage those domains, DNS included, in the same Squarespace domains dashboard (Squarespace: about the Google Domains migration). If you go looking at the old Google Domains site, it won’t have your records.

When the DNS isn’t in Squarespace at all

You can only edit DNS in Squarespace if the domain is registered there or connected with Nameserver Connect. If your domain is registered elsewhere and connected to a Squarespace site with DNS Connect, the records live with that other provider, so add them there. If you bought the domain through Google Workspace, Squarespace says to add records in the Google Admin console instead (Squarespace: add DNS records for email).

Before you touch MX records

MX records decide where every message to your domain is delivered, so a mistake here stops your email. Squarespace’s help page warns that “deleting your MX records stops your email”. If your custom address is also your Squarespace login or contact email, you could lock yourself out of the code needed to fix it. Two habits avoid trouble:

• Write down your current MX records somewhere outside that email account before you change anything.
• Only replace MX records when you mean to move where mail is received. To add a service that sends as your domain, you usually need TXT and CNAME records, not MX.

How to add an MX record in Squarespace

Squarespace has presets that add the right MX records for Fastmail, Google Workspace, iCloud, Neo, Proton Mail, Titan Email and Zoho Mail. For any other provider, add custom records. Squarespace’s steps (add DNS records for email) are:

1. In DNS Settings, click Add record.
2. Set Type to MX.
3. In Name, enter @ for the domain itself, or the subdomain if the records are for a subdomain.
4. In Priority, enter the number your provider gave you. Squarespace accepts 0 to 255.
5. In Mail Server, enter the host name your provider gave you.
6. Click Save.
7. Repeat for each MX record, with its own priority.

Priority is a ranking, not a score: senders try the lowest number first and fall back to higher ones. Copy the numbers your provider gives you exactly. If you’re moving to a new provider, remove the old provider’s MX records once the new ones are in, so mail doesn’t split between the two.

Adding TXT records: SPF, DKIM and DMARC

TXT records carry the authentication that keeps your mail out of spam. All three go in Custom Records with Add record:

• SPF: Type TXT, Name @, and the value from your provider in Text (it starts with v=spf1). A domain may only have one SPF record. Squarespace’s page says that if you add more than one SPF record as custom records, “They merge into one.” Even so, check the result with an SPF checker afterwards.
• DKIM: your provider gives you a name such as selector._domainkey and either a TXT value (a long key starting v=DKIM1 or k=rsa) or a CNAME target. Use the type your provider names.
• DMARC: Type TXT, Name _dmarc, and a value such as v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com. Squarespace’s instruction is worth repeating: “Leave your domain off the end. We add it for you.”

That last point applies to every record. Squarespace appends your domain to the Name field, so entering _dmarc.yourdomain.com creates _dmarc.yourdomain.com.yourdomain.com, which nothing will ever look up.

Adding CNAME records

Email services often use CNAME records for DKIM keys and custom Return-Path domains, because it lets them rotate keys without you editing DNS. Add one the same way: Add record, Type CNAME, the host your provider gave you in Name (without your domain), and the target in Data. InboxNest, for example, sends through Postmark, which uses a CNAME from pm-bounces to pm.mtasv.net for its Return-Path.

You’ll also see A records in the list. They point your domain at a website’s server, not at email, so leave them alone when you’re setting up mail.

How long changes take

Squarespace says a saved record “can take up to 48 hours to work” (Squarespace). In practice it’s often much quicker, but resolvers that saw the old value keep it until its TTL expires, and Squarespace’s default TTL for custom records is 4 hours (Squarespace: edit DNS records). If you’re about to change an existing record, lowering its TTL a day beforehand makes the switch-over quicker.

One more warning from Squarespace: changing nameservers or resetting DNS settings removes your existing records, including MX. Copy everything down before doing either.

Check your records

Once you’ve saved the records, check what the rest of the internet sees. These free tools read your live DNS, without needing a Squarespace login:

• MX checker: confirms your MX records, priorities and provider, and that every mail server resolves.
• Support email checker: checks MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC together and gives one verdict.
• DKIM checker: enter your provider’s selector to confirm the key was pasted correctly.

If a record is missing after an hour or two, the usual culprit is the domain typed twice in Name, or a record added to the wrong domain in the dashboard.

Using InboxNest with a Squarespace domain

If you’re connecting a Squarespace domain to InboxNest, the setup screen shows the exact records your account needs. Squarespace-specific instructions, including which records to leave alone, are in our Squarespace DNS guide. If the domain already has working email, you keep its MX records and forward just the support address instead (Direct MX or forwarding?).