What is the timeline and impact of Google's new email sending requirements starting February 2024?
Michael Ko
Co-founder & CEO, Suped
Published 7 Jul 2025
Updated 17 Aug 2025
7 min read
The email landscape underwent a significant shift starting in February 2024, with Google and Yahoo introducing stricter requirements for email senders. These changes are designed to enhance email security, reduce spam, and improve the overall user experience across their platforms. While the official enforcement began in February, the timeline includes a phased rollout with varying impacts.
For many, understanding the nuances of these requirements, particularly the distinction between the February soft enforcement and later stricter actions, has been a key concern. We will break down the timeline, specific rules, and what this means for your email deliverability moving forward.
Beginning February 1, 2024, all email senders, regardless of volume, were expected to meet fundamental authentication standards. This initial phase focused on ensuring a baseline level of trust and verifiability for incoming emails, aiming to curb widespread spoofing and phishing attempts. These requirements are foundational for maintaining good sender reputation and ensuring messages reach the inbox.
Specifically, every sender needs to have a valid Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) signature for their sending domains. These protocols confirm that an email originates from an authorized server and has not been tampered with in transit. Without these in place, emails risk being flagged as suspicious or outright rejected, even if you send a low volume of mail. You can learn more about these requirements in our guide, What are the new email authentication and unsubscribe requirements.
Another crucial aspect for all senders is maintaining a low spam complaint rate. Google specified a clear threshold of keeping reported spam rates below 0.1%. Exceeding this benchmark signals to mailbox providers that your emails are unwanted, leading to potential blocklisting (or blacklisting) and significant deliverability issues. This emphasizes the need for good list hygiene and sending relevant content.
Universal email requirements (since Feb 2024)
All email senders must adhere to these foundational guidelines:
TLS Encryption: All emails should be sent over a TLS encrypted connection, although this has been a best practice for a long time. You can learn more about TLS requirements here.
Specific requirements for bulk senders
For senders dispatching 5,000 or more messages per day to Gmail addresses, the requirements became more stringent. These bulk senders, often including marketing platforms, transactional email services, and large organizations, are now subject to additional rules designed to protect recipients from large-scale abuse and unwanted mail. If you're unsure if you qualify as a bulk sender, it's safer to assume you do and implement these measures.
A primary new rule for bulk senders is the mandatory implementation of a DMARC policy. DMARC builds upon SPF and DKIM, providing a framework for domain owners to specify how recipient mail servers should handle emails that fail SPF or DKIM authentication. This gives domain owners greater control over their brand's email security and helps prevent unauthorized use of their domain. A good starting point for compliance involves publishing a DMARC record at `p=none` to monitor results without affecting deliverability. Check out what DMARC, DKIM, and SPF updates are needed.
Furthermore, bulk senders must offer a one-click unsubscribe option in their marketing messages. This aims to simplify the unsubscribe process for recipients, reducing frustration and the likelihood of them marking legitimate emails as spam. This requirement is especially critical for those engaged in email marketing campaigns, as it directly impacts subscriber engagement and overall sender reputation. The goal is to make unsubscribing as easy as possible, fostering a healthier email ecosystem.
If you are a bulk sender, these are critical steps to take immediately:
DMARC Policy: Publish a DMARC policy for your sending domain. Start with a relaxed policy like p=none to begin monitoring.
One-click unsubscribe: Implement this feature prominently in all marketing emails. This is a must for user experience.
Understanding the enforcement timeline
The timeline for Google's new requirements has been structured to give senders a grace period for compliance. While February 1, 2024, marked the official start, it was primarily a period of soft enforcement. During this initial phase, non-compliant bulk senders began to see temporary errors on a small percentage of their emails. These errors, often with specific codes like 5.7.26, served as warnings, indicating areas that needed immediate attention to avoid future problems.
The stricter enforcement commenced in April 2024. From this point, non-compliant emails from bulk senders faced increased rejection rates. This means a higher percentage of messages that fail to meet the authentication and compliance standards were outright rejected by Gmail and Yahoo Mail, never reaching the intended recipients. This escalation highlights the importance of addressing compliance issues promptly rather than waiting for penalties to occur. You can delve deeper into this topic by reviewing how enforcement is handled.
It's important to note that the one-click unsubscribe requirement for bulk senders had a slightly later full enforcement date, extending into June 2024. While best practice encouraged immediate implementation, this specific measure allowed a bit more time for senders to adjust their systems and ensure seamless integration of the unsubscribe mechanism. However, for deliverability, proactive implementation was always the recommended approach.
Temporary errors on a small percentage of non-compliant emails.No outright rejections yet for authentication failures.
April 2024
Continuation of all previous requirements.
Increased rejection rate for non-compliant emails from bulk senders.Deliverability severely impacted for unauthenticated mail.
June 2024
Strict enforcement of one-click unsubscribe for bulk senders.
Non-compliant emails may be rejected or heavily filtered by receivers.
The impact on email deliverability and reputation
The direct impact of not complying with these new requirements is clear: your emails are highly likely to end up in spam folders, or worse, be rejected entirely. This isn't just a minor inconvenience, it can severely cripple your email communication strategy, whether for marketing, transactional, or internal purposes. Undelivered emails mean missed opportunities, frustrated customers, and a significant blow to your outreach efforts. Understanding why your emails might be going to spam is the first step to fixing it.
Beyond immediate delivery failures, non-compliance can inflict long-term damage on your sender reputation. When mailbox providers like Google and Yahoo see a pattern of unauthenticated or high-spam-rate emails coming from your domain, they begin to assign a poor reputation score. This can lead to your domain or IP address being placed on various blocklists (or blacklists), making it even harder for your emails to reach the inbox in the future, even if you eventually fix your authentication. Recovery from a tarnished reputation can be a lengthy process, often taking months.
Compliant sender
Deliverability: Emails are more likely to reach the inbox.
Reputation: Builds a strong, positive sender reputation over time.
Trust: Establishes trust with mailbox providers and recipients.
Engagement: Higher open and click-through rates due to better inbox placement.
Non-compliant sender
Deliverability: Emails often go to spam or are rejected outright.
Reputation: Damages sender reputation, leading to blocklistings.
Trust: Diminishes trust, making future email efforts challenging.
Engagement: Low inbox placement results in poor campaign performance.
The February 2024 implementation should be viewed as a definitive call to action. Proactive compliance is not merely about avoiding penalties, it's about safeguarding your email program's long-term health and effectiveness. Waiting until April, or later, to address these requirements can mean a significant decline in your email deliverability, necessitating a much more arduous recovery process. It's much easier to implement the changes correctly from the start than to try and regain a lost domain reputation.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Implement DMARC with a relaxed `p=none` policy initially to gather crucial data.
Ensure all your sending domains are thoroughly authenticated with SPF and DKIM records.
Continuously monitor your spam complaint rates to stay below the critical 0.1% threshold.
Provide a clear and easily discoverable one-click unsubscribe option in all your marketing emails.
Regularly audit and clean your email lists to remove inactive or invalid addresses, preventing bounces.
Common pitfalls
Delaying the implementation of required authentication protocols, hoping for extended grace periods.
Neglecting to analyze DMARC reports, thus missing critical insights into email authentication failures.
Failing to implement the mandatory one-click unsubscribe feature, which can lead to increased spam complaints.
Not consistently tracking and addressing high spam rates, allowing deliverability issues to worsen over time.
Relying on generic email addresses or unbranded domains for bulk sending, hindering long-term reputation building.
Expert tips
Start with a `p=none` DMARC policy to observe authentication outcomes without immediately impacting delivery.
Actively use Google Postmaster Tools for invaluable insights into your domain's sending performance and reputation metrics.
Prioritize resolving any issues preventing DNS access immediately, as it's fundamental for updating authentication records.
Educate both your marketing and technical teams about the new requirements to ensure a cohesive and compliant email strategy.
Thoroughly test your email authentication setup and unsubscribe process well in advance of official enforcement deadlines.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says: You should not wait until the deadline to fix problems because issues are bound to arise.
February 1, 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says: Being unable to access DNS to add DMARC is a much larger and more pressing issue than the compliance deadlines themselves.
February 2, 2024 - Email Geeks
Proactive compliance is essential
The new email sending requirements from Google and Yahoo, phased in starting February 2024, represent a significant evolution in email deliverability. They underscore the critical importance of email authentication, maintaining low spam rates, and prioritizing recipient experience through features like one-click unsubscribe. The clear progression from soft enforcement to strict rejections in April and beyond emphasizes that proactive compliance is not optional, but essential for anyone sending email.
By adhering to these guidelines, senders can ensure their emails continue to reach the inbox, protect their sender reputation, and contribute to a more secure and trustworthy email environment for everyone. Ignoring these updates risks significant deliverability issues and long-term damage to your email program.
Gmail addresses, the requirements became more stringent. These bulk senders, often including marketing platforms, transactional email services, and large organizations, are now subject to additional rules designed to protect recipients from large-scale abuse and unwanted mail. If you're unsure if you qualify as a bulk sender, it's safer to assume you do and implement these measures.
Gmail and 
Yahoo Mail, never reaching the intended recipients. This escalation highlights the importance of addressing compliance issues promptly rather than waiting for penalties to occur. You can delve deeper into this topic by reviewing how enforcement is handled.
