Say goodbye to Gmail's insight into your domain reputation

V2 of Postmaster Tools is starting to roll out, with V1 set to deprecate by the end of 2025.

Google is making a significant change to Postmaster Tools that will impact how we monitor Gmail deliverability. The Domain Reputation and IP Reputation dashboards—long-standing tools that email marketers have relied on to quickly gauge whether Gmail trusts their sending practices—are being retired as part of Google's move to a new v2 interface.

Starting September 30, 2025, the old Postmaster Tools web interface (v1) will be deprecated and automatically redirect users to the updated v2 interface. While most dashboards are making the transition, Domain and IP Reputation dashboards have been permanently retired. Google has promised to introduce new dashboards to provide "even more useful and actionable information," but details on what those will look like remain sparse.

For many email marketers, this feels like losing a trusted diagnostic tool. But here's the thing: this change might actually push us toward better deliverability practices.

A brief history lesson: What are Google Postmaster Tools?

Google Postmaster Tools launched in 2015 as a free resource for high-volume senders to monitor their email performance with Gmail. The platform provided visibility into metrics that were previously opaque: spam complaint rates, authentication status, delivery errors, and yes—domain and IP reputation scores.

Yes, you are reading that right. Spam complaints from Gmail users don’t actually get reported to your ESP or marketing automation platform. Meaning whatever spam complain rate you see in your marketing automation platform, is probably a bit larger in reality.

These reputation dashboards provided by Postmaster Tools became particularly valuable because they offered a quick health check. A "high" or "medium" reputation score was reassuring. A "low" or "bad" score was a clear signal that something needed immediate attention. They weren't perfect, and they didn't tell the whole story, but they were accessible and easy to understand.

For years, these dashboards have been part of the standard toolkit for troubleshooting deliverability issues. Email marketers would screenshot reputation scores for stakeholders, use them to diagnose sudden delivery drops, and reference them when building sender trust with new domains.

Just like all good things, it’s time to say goodbye

Losing these dashboards means we're losing a convenient shortcut—but not the underlying truth about what makes email deliverable.

Gmail's reputation scores were always a lagging indicator. They reflected past behaviour, not real-time performance. They also didn't provide much actionable guidance. If your reputation dropped, the dashboard didn't tell you why or how to fix it. It just confirmed that something was wrong.

The reality is that domain and IP reputation were never the full picture. They were one signal among many that Gmail uses to determine whether your emails land in the inbox, get filtered to spam, or get blocked entirely. Gmail's algorithms consider engagement patterns, authentication protocols, spam complaint rates, delivery errors, and user behavior—none of which will disappear with this update.

What we're really losing is the ability to point to a single score and say, "See? We're doing fine." Or conversely, "This is the problem." But that was always an oversimplification.

What actually matters for deliverability

Here's what hasn't changed, and what never will: deliverability is earned through relationships with your subscribers. The amount of times I have to tell people to not send emails out to people that they ‘acquired through this really cool data scraping tool’ or ‘I don’t need an unsubscribe because I’m a non-profit’ (WHAT???)—and then later complain that they are landing in the spam folder… I will soon combust.

If you want your emails to reach the inbox consistently, focus on these fundamentals:

Consent is non-negotiable. Send email only to people who have explicitly opted in to hear from you. No purchased lists. No "soft" opt-ins. No assumptions. Recipients mark your emails as spam when they don't remember signing up for your emails, and your reputation will be impacted.

Engagement signals matter more than reputation scores. Are people opening your emails? Clicking on links? Marking you as important? Or are they ignoring you, deleting without reading, or worse—reporting you as spam? Gmail watches all of this. If your engagement is strong, your deliverability will follow. If it's weak, no reputation score will save you.

Let people leave when they're ready. Make it easy for subscribers to opt out when your content is no longer relevant to them. A prominent, functional unsubscribe link isn't just a legal requirement—it's a trust signal. People who don't want your emails will either unsubscribe or mark you as spam. One of those options hurts your deliverability. The other doesn't.

Monitor what you can still see. Even without reputation dashboards, Postmaster Tools will still show spam rates, delivery errors, authentication results, and the new Compliance Status dashboard. Google's v2 interface maintains all the dashboards from v1 except for Domain and IP Reputation, and they've indicated more useful endpoints are coming. Combined with your own open rates and delivery analysis, you'll still have plenty of data to spot issues and course-correct.

The Bottom Line

Google's decision to retire Domain and IP Reputation dashboards is inconvenient, yes. But it's also an opportunity to stop relying on vanity metrics and start focusing on what actually drives inbox placement: sending valuable, relevant emails to people who want them.

The fundamentals of email deliverability haven't changed. Build your list with consent. Send content people care about. Make it easy to unsubscribe. Pay attention to engagement. Authenticate your emails properly.

Do those things well, and you won't need a reputation score to tell you you're doing it right. Your subscribers will tell you instead—by opening, clicking, and sticking around.

And that's the only reputation that really matters.