Glossary Entry
What is TXT Record?
What TXT Record actually means, buzzwords removed — with the example that makes it land.
The short answer
A TXT record stores arbitrary text inside your DNS zone, and that is the machinery underneath domain verification, SPF policies and DKIM signing keys.
The rest of the page opens it up — the mechanics, why a site owner should care, and one concrete example of it at work.
By the Hosting & Domains team · Reviewed 18 August 2026
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People, if you get stuck
Only whoever controls a domain can write into its zone, which is what makes a TXT record usable as evidence of control. Every 'verify your domain' screen handing you a token to paste rests on that reasoning.
Mail authentication is published the same way. SPF's permitted-sender list, DKIM's public keys and DMARC's enforcement policy each live in a TXT record at a prescribed name.
A way to picture TXT Record
A frequency only the licence holder may transmit on. A service asks you to send a particular code, listens for it, and a clean signal proves the transmitter keys are yours.
Carry that picture with you and most documentation on the topic loses its mystery on a first read.
Where it touches your own site
These days, running a domain is largely a matter of TXT records. Deliverability and every third-party integration depend on them, and clearing out the ones you do not recognise is how verified services quietly disconnect themselves weeks later.
Nobody expects you to work at this layer daily. The aim is recognising it when it explains something — and that moment is exactly when this page pays for itself.
TXT Record out in the open
Getting onto a workspace product means pasting three TXT records one after another: verification token, SPF policy, DKIM key. Those three records establish control and authenticate outgoing mail in a single sitting.
Entirely unremarkable once you have seen it — which is the point: most hosting ideas are plain machinery behind an intimidating label.
Where it appears on this platform
You will meet it in the control panel and now and then in a support thread, usually already set correctly. If this one landed, the natural follow-ups are SPF, DKIM, DMARC and DNS.
A free SSL certificate comes with every plan and reissues itself before the old one lapses — the padlock is never yours to diarise.
Unexplained jargon slows everybody down
Sooner or later every confusing hosting term turns into a support ticket, so we defined the hundred commonest ones properly — once, in the same plain English we use with customers.
The rate you register at is the rate you renew at, so year two costs precisely what year one did — nothing lying in wait on the invoice.
- 100+ entries, plain English all the way
- Ordinary analogies, working examples
- Neighbouring ideas linked together
- Written by our own support engineers
Why Hosting & Domains
Standard on every plan
Jargon-free by design
Definitions written for people who run sites, not for other sysadmins — translation rather than restatement.
This term, properly landed
TXT Record defined, pictured by analogy and located in your own panel — recognise-level after a single read.
Analogies that hold
Every concept comes with a mental model that returns exactly when you need it.
Clear about how deep to go
Most of these are recognise-level rather than operate-level, and every entry says which it is.
The next step, drawn out
Carry on into SPF and DKIM — ideas rarely travel alone, so the neighbours are linked in.
Stakes made explicit
More than what a thing is: the moments it turns out to be the answer to a problem you have.
Quick Start
Order placed to site online
- 1
Find it in your own account
Open the control panel and find where this idea sits — a definition turns into understanding the moment it attaches to your own site.
- 2
Check the defaults as they stand
The platform ships sensible defaults for this — check rather than assume, and your setup becomes something you know instead of hope.
- 3
Chase the neighbouring terms
Hosting terms travel in groups — SPF, DKIM and DMARC finish this one's picture, each a two-minute read away.
Built In
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- The name's first year included when you order annually
- Webmail in the browser plus IMAP, POP and SMTP for any client
- Upgrades applied in place, with no migration when you change plan
- No set-up charge at any point, and no joining fee
- Staging copies for trying a change before it goes live
Frequently Asked
The questions that come up most
How many TXT records may a domain hold?
In practice as many as you need. Verification tokens and signing keys sit happily alongside each other as separate records. SPF is the exception: exactly one SPF-format record is allowed, and adding a second breaks both rather than extending the first.
Is it safe to delete TXT records I do not recognise?
Only the ones you can positively identify. Services re-check on their own schedules, so removing a token can un-verify something weeks later with nothing obvious to blame. Keep a note of what each record does, and delete from knowledge rather than guesswork.
If I cancel, what becomes of my site and files?
They remain yours. Download a full copy from the panel whenever you like, before or during cancellation. Names stay registered in your name for the term you paid for and can move to any registrar once the standard 60-day window has passed.
Is there a safe place to try changes?
Yes — plans with staging let you copy the live site, work on the copy, then publish it once it behaves. That turns 'hope the update works' into 'know it works' before a single customer meets it.
Keep reading
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
DKIM puts a cryptographic signature on outgoing mail, letting receivers confirm it came from your domain an…
SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
SPF is a DNS record naming the mail servers allowed to send for your domain, which gives receivers a way to…
How to Create an SPF Record
A walkthrough to follow with the panel open in the next tab.
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