Skip to content
notspoofed.comSPF · DKIM · DMARC

554: the transaction failed

By · Published

Hard bounceYour sending reputation

The error

554 5.7.1 Transaction failed

554 Message not allowed

What it means

A catch-all permanent failure, most often used for content and reputation rejections. The text carries the reason.

The receiver is refusing your mail because of how your sending IP or domain behaves, not because of this particular message.

Why it happens

Where 550 tends to mean "I will not take this recipient", 554 tends to mean "I will not take this transaction at all" — the refusal is about the message or the sender rather than the address. Content scanners and blocklist integrations overwhelmingly use it, which is why the reason text matters more here than the number.

How to fix it

  1. Read the accompanying text — 554 alone identifies nothing.
  2. If it names a blocklist, check your sending IP against it and request delisting.
  3. If it mentions content or spam, look at links and attachments in the message.

Related guides

  • 550 5.7.1: refused on policy grounds — The receiver refused to deliver the message for policy reasons. 5.7.1 is the most overloaded code in email — it covers authentication failures, relaying denials, blocklists, content rules and DMARC rejections.
  • Gmail 550 5.7.25: the sending IP has no PTR record — Gmail blocked the message because the IP it arrived from has no reverse DNS record, or the record it has does not resolve back to that same IP.
  • Microsoft 5.7.606: banned sending IP — Microsoft has blocklisted the IP you are sending from. The codes 5.7.606 through 5.7.649 all mean the same thing; the varying number identifies which internal list caught it.