Why Do My Emails Show Via Or On Behalf Of In Gmail And How Do You Fix It

If you have ever sent an email from your business address and noticed that the recipient sees something like "via sendgrid.net" or "on behalf of yourdomain.com" appearing next to your name in Gmail, you are not alone. It is one of those issues that appears minor on the surface but can have a surprisingly significant impact on how professional your communications appear, and in some cases, it can affect how much trust your recipients place in your emails. Understanding why this happens, and more importantly how to resolve it, is something every business owner and marketer dealing with email should take the time to get right.

What Does Via or On Behalf Of Actually Mean?

When Gmail displays "via" or "on behalf of" next to a sender's name, it is essentially flagging that the email was sent using a different infrastructure or account than the one that appears to own the sending address. Gmail is being transparent with the recipient, letting them know that the email did not originate directly from the domain or mail server it is claiming to be from.

The "via" label typically appears when an email is sent through a third-party service, such as a marketing platform or CRM, and the SPF (Sender Policy Framework) record on your domain does not include that sending service. The "on behalf of" label, on the other hand, usually appears when you are sending from one email address but the underlying sending account belongs to another address entirely. Both scenarios communicate the same thing to your recipient: something does not quite align between who the email says it is from and how it was actually delivered.

Why This Matters More Than You Might Think

First impressions in email are just as important as they are in person. When someone receives an email and immediately sees "via mailchimp.com" or "on behalf of gmail.com" sitting next to a business name, it raises questions before the email has even been opened properly. For customers, it can look amateurish. For prospects, it can look suspicious. And in an era where phishing and email fraud are genuine concerns for recipients, anything that makes your email look slightly off-brand or misaligned is working against you.

Beyond perception, these labels can also be a signal that your email authentication is not fully configured, which means your emails could be more vulnerable to landing in spam folders or being flagged by security filters. Deliverability and trust go hand in hand when it comes to email, and getting your configuration right addresses both at once.

The Root Cause: Email Authentication and Sending Infrastructure

To fix this properly, you need to understand the three pillars of email authentication: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These are DNS-based records that tell receiving mail servers who is authorised to send email on behalf of your domain.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a DNS record that lists all the IP addresses and mail servers that are permitted to send email from your domain. If you are sending through a third-party platform and that platform is not listed in your SPF record, Gmail will flag it with the "via" label because it cannot verify the sender's legitimacy from your domain's perspective.

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a cryptographic signature to your emails that allows receiving servers to verify that the email genuinely came from your domain and has not been tampered with in transit. If the DKIM signature is signed by the sending platform's domain rather than your own, this can contribute to the "via" label appearing.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) sits on top of SPF and DKIM, providing a policy that tells receiving servers what to do when an email fails authentication checks. Without a proper DMARC record, you have less control over how your domain is used and perceived by email providers.

Fixing the Via Label: Aligning Your SPF Record

If you are using a third-party service to send emails, whether that is Mailchimp, HubSpot, SendGrid, or any other platform, you need to add that service's sending servers to your domain's SPF record. Each platform will provide you with the specific SPF include statement you need to add, and this is usually found in their documentation or account settings area under domain authentication.

Your SPF record lives in your domain's DNS settings, which you access through your domain registrar or hosting provider. A typical SPF record might look something like this: v=spf1 include:sendgrid.net include:servers.mcsv.net ~all. Every sending service you use needs to be included in this record, otherwise Gmail will know that emails from those services are not officially authorised by your domain.

Important to note: SPF records have a lookup limit of ten DNS lookups. If you are using multiple platforms, you may need to flatten your SPF record to stay within this limit, otherwise the record itself can break. Tools like MXToolbox can help you check and analyse your current SPF record.

Fixing the Via Label: Setting Up DKIM with Your Own Domain

The more robust fix, and the one that truly resolves the "via" issue in Gmail, is to configure DKIM signing through your own domain rather than relying on the sending platform's default DKIM signature. Most reputable email platforms support custom DKIM configuration, and the process generally involves generating a DKIM key within the platform's settings, then adding the corresponding DNS records to your domain.

Once the DKIM record is published and verified, emails sent through that platform will be cryptographically signed with your own domain, rather than the platform's. Gmail will then see a properly aligned sender, and the "via" label will no longer appear. This is the configuration that professional email sending really should be built on, regardless of the platform you are using.

Fixing the On Behalf Of Label: Using Gmail Properly With Custom Domains

The "on behalf of" label usually surfaces when people use Gmail's "Send mail as" feature to send from a custom domain address whilst the underlying sending account is their standard Gmail address. If you have set up your business email address within a personal Gmail account and are sending through Gmail's SMTP rather than your actual domain's mail server, this is what causes the label to appear.

The proper fix here is to send email through your domain's own outgoing mail server, or through a dedicated email hosting provider such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. When you do this, the sending infrastructure aligns with the domain in the from address, and Gmail has no reason to flag any discrepancy. If you are running a business and sending any volume of professional email, having a proper email hosting solution in place is not optional, it is foundational.

Verifying Everything Is Working

Once you have made changes to your SPF and DKIM records, it is worth verifying that everything has propagated correctly and is working as intended. DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to propagate fully, so give it time before drawing conclusions. You can use tools like Google's Admin Toolbox or MXToolbox to check your DNS records and confirm that your SPF and DKIM are configured correctly.

Sending a test email to a Gmail account and then viewing the full headers of that email is also a reliable way to confirm alignment. In Gmail, you can view message headers by clicking the three-dot menu within an open email and selecting "Show original". This gives you a complete breakdown of how the email was authenticated, including whether SPF and DKIM passed, and whether DMARC alignment was achieved.

Getting This Right Is Worth the Effort

Addressing the "via" or "on behalf of" label in Gmail is not a complicated technical task, but it does require a clear understanding of what is causing it and a methodical approach to fixing it. Whether you are sending marketing emails through a platform, transactional emails through your website, or day-to-day business correspondence, proper email authentication protects your brand, improves deliverability, and ensures that every email you send arrives looking exactly as professional as you intend it to. Taking the time to configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC correctly is one of those foundational steps that pays dividends across everything your business does by email.