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Email sending FAQ

Quick answers to the questions almost everyone asks when they start sending email through Bird. Each answer links to the full article if you want the details.

Can I send email before verifying a domain?

Yes. Every new workspace can send immediately from Bird's shared onboarding domain — no DNS records, no verification, no waiting. There's a catch that's actually a feature: messages from the shared domain are only delivered to verified members of your workspace (you and your teammates), and there's a daily recipient cap. That's enough to prove your integration works end to end on day one; it's deliberately not enough for production.
One exception: the mail sandbox addresses (like delivered@ and bounce@ at messagebird.dev) always work, so you can simulate deliveries and bounces without inviting anyone.
See Sending from the shared domain for the full rules, or jump straight to the Send your first email quickstart.

What is the onboarding domain, and what are its limits?

The shared onboarding domain is messagebird.dev — a Bird-owned domain that every workspace can send from out of the box (messages come from onboarding@messagebird.dev). Its guardrails, all by design:
  • Recipients must be verified members of your workspace. Sends to anyone else are rejected with a clear error.
  • A daily recipient cap — by default 50 recipients per organization per day, resetting daily.
  • Sandbox addresses are exempt from the members-only rule, but still count toward the cap.
It never goes away: even after you verify your own domain, the shared domain stays available as a known-good test sender. Full details in Sending from the shared domain.

Can I use a Gmail, Yahoo, or other free-email address as my From address?

No. You can only send from domains you've verified in Bird, and you can't verify gmail.com — you don't own it. Even setting that aside, it wouldn't work: free-mail providers publish strict DMARC policies, so mail claiming to be from you@gmail.com but sent through Bird would fail authentication and be rejected or junked by recipients. Gmail and Yahoo's own bulk-sender rules require exactly this kind of authentication.
The fix is to send from a domain you own — you@yourcompany.com — which you verify once and control completely. See Gmail & Yahoo sender requirements for why the rules exist, and the Sending domains guide for how to set your domain up.

How do I set up my own sending domain?

Register the domain in Bird, publish the DNS records it gives you (DKIM, return-path, and DMARC), and wait for verification — usually minutes once the DNS records are live. The Sending domains guide walks through the whole lifecycle, and there are step-by-step walkthroughs per DNS provider if you want exact clicks for Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Route 53, and others.

Where do I start as a developer?

The Send your first email quickstart takes you from API key to a delivered message in a few minutes, using the shared onboarding domain so there's nothing to configure first.

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