# Cloudflare Email Routing: mail on your domain, no server

> Cloudflare Email Routing forwards mail from an address on your domain to a personal inbox for free, with no mail server and no own SMTP.

## What Cloudflare Email Routing is

Email Routing accepts mail sent to an address like info@example.com and forwards it to a regular mailbox — Gmail, corporate mail, or any other address. No mail server is needed on your side; Cloudflare's infrastructure handles the mail.

The service solves a common task for site owners: an address on your own domain is needed for contact forms and business cards, but deploying Postfix or paying for a mail plan just for a few addresses isn't worth it.

## How Email Routing differs from a full mail server

Email Routing is forwarding, not storing and sending mail on your own behalf in the general case.

| Capability | Email Routing | Mail server or SMTP hosting |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Receiving mail at a domain address | Yes, free | Yes, needs setup and a plan |
| Storing mail on your side | No, forwarding only | Yes, has its own inbox and folders |
| Sending mail from a domain address | Only through Email Workers | Yes, full SMTP |

## How to enable Email Routing and connect a domain

The section is in the Dashboard under Email → Email Routing. The domain must already be managed through Cloudflare, as described in the article on [connecting a site to Cloudflare](https://www.zevshost.net/en/kb/cloudflare-add-site/). Once enabled, the service adds the needed MX and TXT records to the DNS zone itself.

```
example.com.  MX   10 route1.mx.cloudflare.net.
example.com.  MX   65 route2.mx.cloudflare.net.
example.com.  TXT  "v=spf1 include:_spf.mx.cloudflare.net ~all"
```

If the zone already had MX records from a previous mail provider, remove them — two sets of MX records at once cause some mail to be lost. Working with zone records is covered in the article on [DNS records and Proxy mode](https://www.zevshost.net/en/kb/cloudflare-dns-management/).

## Forwarding rules: specific addresses and catch-all

Forwarding rules are set up under Routing rules and work following one of these patterns:

- a separate address per rule: info@example.com forwards to a personal mailbox
- a catch-all rule: all mail to non-existent domain addresses goes to one mailbox
- an address for verification before activation: Cloudflare sends a confirmation code to the target mailbox
- several rules pointing to the same target address for different departments

## Sending mail through Email Workers

When you need more than forwarding — processing a message with code, for example parsing the subject and routing by rules the interface doesn't offer — connect a Worker with an email handler.

```
export default {
  async email(message, env, ctx) {
    const subject = message.headers.get("subject") || "";
    if (subject.includes("invoice")) {
      await message.forward("billing@example.com");
    } else {
      await message.forward("info@example.com");
    }
  },
};
```

For more on how such functions are written and deployed, see the article on [Cloudflare Workers](https://www.zevshost.net/en/kb/cloudflare-workers/).

## Limits and what to watch for

Before moving domain mail over, keep these service quirks in mind:

- sending mail directly from a domain address through a regular SMTP client is not supported
- the target mailbox is verified once and must be a real, working address
- changing MX records can cause a delivery pause until senders' DNS caches update
- sending transactional mail from a site needs a separate SMTP provider, not Email Routing

## Summary: connection checklist

Email Routing solves the need for an address on a domain where a full mailbox with storage and sending isn't required.

1. enable Email Routing in the Dashboard and verify the target address
2. remove old MX records if the domain was previously served by another mail provider
3. set up a rule for each needed address or a catch-all for everything else
4. connect an Email Worker if conditional forwarding is needed
5. pick a separate SMTP service for sending mail from the site

## Frequently asked questions

### Can mail be sent from the domain address through Email Routing, or does it only forward incoming mail?

Email Routing only receives and forwards mail to a regular mailbox — sending directly from the domain address through a standard SMTP client is not supported. To send mail from the domain itself, connect an Email Worker with handling code, or use a separate SMTP service for things like transactional mail from a site or a contact form.

### After enabling Email Routing, mail stops arriving — what is the most likely cause?

The most common cause is old MX records from a previous mail provider still sitting in the DNS zone alongside the Email Routing records — two sets of MX records at once cause some mail to be lost. Check the zone, remove the old records, and allow time for senders' DNS caches to refresh before assuming the setup is broken.

### Can Email Routing be turned off later without losing the domain's mail entirely?

Yes, the service can be turned off at any time in the same Dashboard section where it was enabled. After disabling it, remove the automatically added MX and TXT records by hand or replace them with a new mail provider's records — otherwise the domain is left without working mail until the zone matches the new setup.

### Can forwarded mail land in an ordinary Gmail inbox?

Yes, the target address can be an ordinary Gmail mailbox or any other provider — there is no technical restriction on which service you use. The only requirement is that the address is verified once with a code from Cloudflare and must be a real, working mailbox, otherwise the forwarding rule never activates and mail keeps getting lost.

---

Source: https://www.zevshost.net/en/kb/cloudflare-email-routing/