Yahoo sender guidelines

Starting in 2024, email senders must meet specific requirements to send emails to Yahoo domains. This includes all Yahoo-managed inboxes, such as aol.com and yahoo.co.uk, alongside other international variations. Additionally, as of July 2025, Yahoo is handling AT&T mail routing, which includes numerous telecom domains. The most relevant email domains for marketers are: att.net, sbcglobal.net, bellsouth.net, pacbell.net, prodigy.net, and swbell.net. These guidelines help ensure the successful delivery of messages and reduce the risk of them being blocked or marked as spam for all Yahoo-related inboxes.

Requirements for all senders (any volume)

Set up SPF or DKIM email authentication for your sending domains
Ensure sending domains/IPs have valid forward and reverse DNS (PTR) records
Use a TLS connection for transmitting email
Keep spam rates below 0.3%
- While Yahoo does not have a public-facing platform such as Google Postmaster Tools, you can identify spam complaint rates from the insights reports within the Blueshift platform. It is important to note that Yahoo reviews this data differently when compared with Gmail (which views spam rates as a cumulative daily value). Yahoo can block or throttle incoming mail if there are sudden influxes in complaints that push your snapshot complaint rate over the 0.3% threshold. Yahoo also mentions that the spam rate is calculated based on messages delivered, which may vary from common views of complaint/send ratios.
Format messages according to the RFC 5322 standard

Requirements for high-volume senders (5,000+ messages/day)

Set up SPF and DKIM email authentication.
Set up DMARC email authentication (enforcement policy can be set to "none")
- Yahoo specifies that they strongly recommend the inclusion of "rua" tags in order to receive reports, but do not explicitly state it as a requirement.
The domain in the sender's From: header must align with either the SPF domain or the DKIM domain (required to pass DMARC).
Marketing messages must support one-click unsubscribe and include a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the message body.
- If not immediate, the sender must honor the unsubscribe within 2 days.

Yahoo – email delivery issues

If you are experiencing lower delivery rates due to soft bounces, Yahoo may be rejecting or deferring messages.

Common Yahoo error messages include:

4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from .181 temporarily deferred due to unexpected volume or user complaints - .1; see postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codes

[IPTS04] Messages from .*** temporarily deferred due to unexpected volume or user complaints - .1; see senders.yahooinc.com/error-codes

Additional considerations

Send emails that customers want

Confirm that you are only sending mail to subscribers who have explicitly signed up to that content stream — no cross-pollination or inferred consent.
No surprises with frequency or sending — if subscribers expect weekly or monthly mail, don't suddenly ramp things up to a daily cadence.
No purchasing of lists or sneak opt-ins using prefilled checkboxes on forms.

Keep IPs and domains separate by mail type

Keep your mail streams segregated, as each domain and IP carries its own reputation. Ensure that different streams have their own load, particularly marketing vs. transactional mail.
This segregation also extends to different promotional or marketing brands, as negative engagement from one mail stream can quickly affect reputation and damage deliverability.