Google Postmaster Tools v2: What Changed, What Replaced Domain Reputation, and How to Read Compliance Status

Updated 17 October 2026. Google has postponed, but not cancelled, the retirement of the old interface; this page is updated when that changes.

What Postmaster Tools v2 is, per Google

Google's help page on the deprecation of the old interface says three things that matter:

1. All the dashboards in the old Postmaster Tools are available in v2, "with the exception of the Domain and IP Reputation dashboards, which will be retired." The Reputation dashboard "is being replaced by a new, more intuitive version."
2. v2 adds a Compliance status dashboard, which "displays your compliance with the email sender requirements described in our Email sender guidelines."
3. The deprecation of the legacy web interface "has been postponed" because of sender feedback, but Google "encourages all senders to transition" and says the legacy version "will eventually be retired."

Everything else you read about "v2" (dates for the web switch, how long compliance data lags) comes from deliverability vendors observing the product, not from Google. This page marks those items as vendor observations.

Timeline

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Set up and verify your domain

1. Go to Postmaster Tools and add the domain you send from. Use the domain that appears in DKIM signatures or the From header; if you send from mail.example.com with DKIM on example.com, add example.com and you will see subdomain data rolled up. Add subdomains separately if you want them broken out.
2. Google gives you a DNS TXT record (a CNAME option may also be offered). Publish it at your DNS host.
3. Return to Postmaster Tools and verify. Google says verification status "can take up to 10 minutes" to update after the record is live. DNS propagation at your host can add more time.
4. Add team members as users under the domain's settings, so the dashboards do not depend on one person's account.

"Adding domain unsuccessful." The common causes are a TXT record not yet visible in DNS, the record published at the wrong host name (for example at www instead of the root), or a domain that another Google account already verified. Check the record with a DNS lookup tool, wait, and retry. If the domain was verified by a former employee's account, you will need access to that account or to remove its record and re-verify.

Old vs new dashboards

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(dashboard names as of 17 October 2026)

Google's "Get started" page describes the dashboards as covering "spam rate, reputation, message authentication, and delivery errors." Google’s dashboard help uses Compliance status, Spam rate, Feedback loop, Authentication, Encryption and Delivery errors. Its deprecation notice does not name the promised replacement reputation dashboard; do not assume it is already available. The legacy web retirement date remains unspecified as of 17 October 2026.

Reading the Compliance status dashboard

Compliance status is a checklist, not a score. It mirrors the Email sender guidelines and tells you, per requirement, whether traffic from your domain passes:

• Authentication: SPF and DKIM pass rates, and whether the From domain aligns with one of them. For bulk senders both SPF and DKIM must be set up, and only one needs to align.
• DMARC: whether a DMARC record exists for the sending domain. A policy of p=none satisfies the requirement, but Google's FAQ lists a missing record under "delivery support or mitigations unavailable."
• One-click unsubscribe: whether marketing messages carry List-Unsubscribe and List-Unsubscribe-Post headers per RFC 8058.
• Spam rate: whether the user-reported spam rate is below the threshold. The target is below 0.10% and the limit is 0.30%.

Two things to know when reading it. First, compliance reflects traffic Google has already seen, so a fix does not flip the status immediately; vendors observing the dashboard report delays of up to about a week before changes appear. Second, the dashboard covers personal Gmail recipients only. A sender whose complaints come from Google Workspace users will look clean here and still have a problem.

The Spam rate dashboard

This is the number that decides mitigation eligibility. It shows the daily share of delivered mail that personal Gmail users reported as spam. Keep it below 0.10%; never let it reach 0.30%. A sender above 0.3% is not eligible for mitigation until the rate "remains below 0.3% for 7 consecutive days."

Read the trend, not the latest point. One spike aligned with one send is a list problem (an old segment, a purchased file). A slow climb over weeks is a frequency or relevance problem. Days with no bar are usually low-volume days: Google omits data "if the total number of messages for a given day is too low" to protect user privacy.

Authentication, Encryption, Delivery errors, Feedback loop

• Authentication shows the share of traffic that passed SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Anything below roughly 100% on DKIM for a single-ESP sender means a configuration gap somewhere: a second system sending without signing, a rotated key, an unauthenticated subdomain.
• Encryption shows the share of inbound traffic sent over TLS. TLS is a requirement for all senders.
• Delivery errors shows the share of messages rejected or temporarily failed, with the reason category. This is where the sender requirement failures surface as 4.7.x and 5.7.26 responses before the spam-rate graph moves.
• Feedback loop reports complaint data by the identifier you place in a Feedback-ID header. It only populates if you add the header; most ESPs can do this per campaign or per client, which makes it useful for agencies and multi-brand senders.

What to use instead of the old reputation scale

The retired Domain Reputation label compressed several signals into one word. The replacement is to read the signals separately, which is better for diagnosis even if it feels like a loss:

1. Spam rate trend (is it rising, and did a specific send cause it?)
2. Compliance status (which requirement is failing?)
3. Delivery errors (what is Google saying at the SMTP level?)
4. Your own engagement by segment (who is clicking, and who never does?)
5. The new Reputation dashboard, once it is in your account, as a summary rather than a diagnosis.

For Microsoft recipients, use SNDS and JMRP; for Yahoo, the Complaint Feedback Loop. None of those feeds into Postmaster Tools.

Want the audit that reads all of these together? The Data & Deliverability Audit covers authentication, alignment, unsubscribe headers, spam-rate exposure and which list segments drive it. Request the audit →

API v2 migration notes

For teams that pull Postmaster data into a warehouse or dashboard: the v2 API went GA on 3 February 2026 and the v1 API is being retired. Google's release notes describe the v2 API as providing "access to the full Postmaster Tools dataset, including compliance status data," with a queryDomainStats method for flexible querying and support for batch operations. The data schema changed, so v1 integrations need code changes rather than an endpoint swap. A May 2026 preview added GetDomainComplianceStatus, which returns a deliverability status verdict you can alert on. Google's migration guide is linked in the sources.

FAQ

Is the old Postmaster Tools gone? Not yet. Google postponed the retirement of the legacy web interface after sender feedback, but says it will eventually be retired and encourages everyone to move to v2 now. The v1 API is being retired in favor of the v2 API, which has been generally available since 3 February 2026.

Where did Domain Reputation go? Google is retiring the Domain and IP Reputation dashboards and replacing the Reputation dashboard with a new version. In the meantime, read spam rate, Compliance status and delivery errors together.

Why is my dashboard empty? Three common reasons: the domain is not verified yet (verification can take up to 10 minutes after the DNS record is live), your volume to personal Gmail is too low for Google to show data for that day, or you added a subdomain while the traffic is attributed to the root domain.

How often is data updated? Spam rate is calculated daily. Compliance status reflects traffic Google has already processed, and vendors observe delays of up to about a week before fixes show.

Does Postmaster Tools cover Outlook, Yahoo or Google Workspace? No. Data applies only to messages sent to personal Gmail accounts. Use Microsoft SNDS and JMRP for Outlook.com and Yahoo's Complaint Feedback Loop for Yahoo and AOL. Google Workspace recipients are outside the sender guidelines entirely.

What is Compliance status based on? The requirements in Google's Email sender guidelines: SPF/DKIM/DMARC with alignment, one-click unsubscribe headers on marketing mail, and the user-reported spam rate thresholds.

Sending at volume and need these dashboards watched every day? Managed Mailing Ops runs sending infrastructure, pacing and monitoring as an ongoing service, with Postmaster, SNDS and CFL data reviewed daily. Talk to us →

Continue with these guides

• Managed mailing ops
• Email sender requirements
• Emails going to spam all of a sudden
• List revival playbook

Sources

• Google, Learn about the deprecation of the old Postmaster Tools interface. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/16594218
• Google, Get started with Postmaster Tools: personal Gmail scope, low-volume data gaps, verification timing. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/9981691
• Google, Postmaster Tools dashboards. https://support.google.com/a/answer/14668346
• Google, Email sender guidelines and FAQ: requirements mirrored by Compliance status, spam-rate thresholds, mitigation rule. https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126 and https://support.google.com/a/answer/14229414
• Google, Gmail API release notes: v2beta (2 December 2025), v2 GA (3 February 2026), compliance status verdict preview (13 May 2026). https://developers.google.com/workspace/gmail/release-notes
• Google, Migrate to Postmaster Tools API v2. https://developers.google.com/workspace/gmail/postmaster/guides/migration-v2
• Vendor observations on the web interface switch and compliance-data lag: Moosend, Prospeo, Warmy, Suped (2025–2026). Not Google documentation.