Check your email

Test your server's outgoing email authentication and final SMTP connection. No receiving mailbox is required.

Get your results in three steps

Send a non-confidential test email to this address:

Read the intentional rejection in the SMTP console or your sending server's log. With an email app, check its delivery failure notification.
Open the result link from the SMTP reply, log or notification.

Delivery rejection is intentional, even when all checks pass. Your provider determines when and how the notification appears.

Linux servers: get the result in your console

The bounce mode is designed for servers that can send email but cannot receive it. No inbox is required: the result link is returned in the SMTP rejection and appears in your sending mail server's log.

1. Follow the sending server's log

sudo journalctl -f -t postfix/smtp

For Postfix with journal logging, use the command above. If your system writes traditional mail logs instead (common on Debian/Ubuntu), use:

sudo tail -F /var/log/mail.log

2. Send through your configured mail server

In another terminal, replace probe@your-domain.example with a sender address in the domain you want to test. The local sendmail-compatible interface must already be configured.

printf 'From: probe@your-domain.example\nTo: bounce@ratemymail.eu\nSubject: Mail server test\n\nNon-confidential test.\n' |
  /usr/sbin/sendmail -f probe@your-domain.example -i -t

Find the intentional 550 response in the log and open its result link. A rejected/bounced delivery is expected for this test, not a failed test run. The service does not need to deliver an email back to this server.

550 5.0.0 Intentional diagnostic rejection. Results: https://ratemymail.eu/r/…

Using your normal sending mail server also tests its DKIM signing and outbound routing. If it uses a relay, the report observes that relay's connecting IP. Start a new message for every new test; repeated delivery of the same message is acknowledged with 250.

For advanced users

check@ratemymail.eu: The message is accepted and then discarded. The result link is in the SMTP reply, which most email apps do not display.

No notification received?

Check your provider's delivery notifications and outgoing queue. Repeated deliveries of the same test message are acknowledged and discarded for seven days to stop retries. Send a new message for a new test.

Prefer a normal reply email?

reply@ratemymail.eu

Send your test to reply@ instead. We accept it and email the result link to the SMTP envelope sender. Automated messages receive no automatic reply. The recipient and link remain in the outgoing queue until handoff or report expiry; the mail relay can retry for up to 12 hours. Limits: six replies per address per hour.