What tools can help analyze email headers?

You copy the raw headers out of an email, paste them somewhere, and stare at a wall of text that makes no sense. Sound familiar? That's exactly what header analysis tools are for. They turn that wall of text into something a human can actually read.

Here are the tools worth knowing about:

• Review My Emails Email Header Analyzer: Our own free tool at reviewmyemails.com/tools/email-headers. Paste your headers and get a clean breakdown of routing, authentication results, and anything flagged as suspicious. No signup needed.
• Google Admin Toolbox Messageheader: Free from Google, available at toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/messageheader. Great for tracing timing issues across hops. It draws a visual timeline of the message route and shows where delays happened.
• MXToolbox Header Analyzer: Parses authentication results, routing path, and color-codes anything that looks off. Good when you want a quick visual cue of what's broken.
• Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer: Useful if you're working in Microsoft 365 or Exchange environments. It combines header analysis with other mail flow diagnostics in one place.

All of them follow the same basic pattern. You export the raw headers from your email client, paste them into the tool, and review the output. The tools don't change anything. They just make the problems visible so you know what you're actually dealing with.

What you're usually looking for: authentication results (did SPF, DKIM, and DMARC pass?), routing hops (where did the message travel?), and timing gaps (where did it slow down?). If you're not sure what those fields mean for your specific problem, that's a good place to start.

If you're stuck on what you're seeing, our SOS hotline is free. Sometimes you just need a second pair of eyes on a tricky header.