Cloudflare: Set up G Suite MX records

Tip! Changing MX records is required only for G Suite customers who want to use Gmail. You can continue to use your current email provider.

You’re now ready to set up Gmail as your business email for your domain (and, if you haven’t already, verify your domain).

To do this, you need to sign in to your domain host and direct the email for your domain to the G Suite servers. It’s like registering your new address with the post office when you move so that your mail gets delivered to the right place. We’ll walk you through the steps.

Before you begin

  • Verify that you own your domain.

    Or, you can verify now with an MX record. We’ll show you how while you're setting up the MX records.

  • Create user accounts in G Suite for your team.

    If your team members already use email with your domain (their email address ends with your domain), you have to create their user accounts in G Suite before you change any MX record settings. Otherwise, they won't be able to send or receive messages with their business address in Gmail.

Change your MX records to start using G Suite

Step 1: Sign in to your domain host

  1. Leave the Google Admin console setup instructions open.
  2. Open a new tab or browser window and go to the Cloudflare site.
  3. In the Cloudflare site, click Log In at the upper right.
  4. Under Log in to Cloudflare, enter the email address and password you created when you purchased your domain from Cloudflare.
  5. Click Log In.

    If you don’t know your account information, you can recover your Cloudflare password or contact Cloudflare support.

Step 2: Go to your DNS records

  1. From the Cloudflare Home tab, click your domain name.
  2. At the top of the page, click DNS.

    The DNS icon is selected.

Step 3: Delete existing MX records

Skip this step if your domain doesn't have any MX records.

First, delete the current MX records that send mail to your old email provider. After that you'll add new MX records for G Suite.

  1. Next to an existing MX record, click Remove "" .

    An MX record to be deleted is shown.

  2. In the pop-up, click Delete to confirm the removal of the MX record.

    We’ll add new ones in the next step.

  3. Repeat the 2 preceding steps until all of your old MX records have been deleted.

Step 4: Add the G Suite MX records

To direct your email to your G Suite account, you have to add new MX records to your domain. These are the records that you need to add:
MX server address Priority
ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM 1
ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM 5
ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM 5
ALT3.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM 10
ALT4.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM 10
Important: Some registrars require you to add a period after the .COM in the MX server address.
  1. Click +Add record.

    The DNS record fields open.

  2. From the Type field, click MX.
  3. In the Name field, enter @.
  4. In the Mail Server field, enter ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.

    All fields of the MX record are complete.

  5. In the Priority field, enter 1.
  6. In the TTL field, leave the default value of Auto.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Repeat steps 1–7, entering the remaining (MX server address values) from the table above and setting the Priority values.

    All MX records are shown in a table.

  9. If you need to verify your domain:
    1. In the Type field, click MX.
    2. In the Name field, enter @.
    3. In the Mail server field, paste the MX verification record you copied from the G Suite setup wizard.
    4. In the Priority field, enter 15.
    5. In the TTL field, leave the default value of Auto.

      All fields of the MX verification record are complete.

    6. Click Save.

Step 5: Tell Google to find your new MX records

  1. Open the setup tool in the Admin console. 

  2. In the Gmail section, click Activate.

    A red circle highlights the "Activate." option in the Gmail section.

  3. Verify that you've created all existing email addresses and are ready for Gmail to start receiving all email for your domain. Click Continue.

  4. On the next page, scroll to the bottom and click Activate Gmail.

    A red circle highlights the Activate Gmail button on the bottom right of the MX records table.

Note:

  • The records can take several hours to update, so you might not immediately get new email messages in Gmail. Until then, you'll continue to receive messages at your old email provider.
  • If you see the MX records setup validation in progress message in the Admin console for more than a few hours, make sure you entered the MX address records and priorities correctly in the DNS records stored with your host.
  • If you still need help changing your MX records, contact G Suite support.

Google, G Suite, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. All other company and product names are trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.
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