Header Lines (Gmail)

Reply-To :

The email address you send your response too.


From :

Displays the message sender; very easy to forge.


Content type :

Tells your browser or email client how to interpret the content of the email. Most common character sets are UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1.


MIME-Version :

Declares the email format standard in use. The MIME-Version is typically 1.0.


Subject :

The subject of the email contents.


To :

The intended recipients of the email; may show other addresses.


DKIM-Signature :

Domain Keys Identified Mail authenticates the domain the email was sent from and should protect against email spoofing and sender fraud.


Received :

The Received line lists each server that the email travels through before hitting your inbox. You read Received lines from bottom to top; the bottom-most line is the originator.


Authentication-Results :

Contains a record of the authentication checks carried out; can contain more than one authentication method.


Received-SPF :

The Sender Policy Framework (SPF) forms part of the email authentication process that stops sender address forgery.


Return-Path :

The location where non-send or bounce messages end up.


ARC-Authentication-Results :

The Authenticated Receive Chain is another authentication standard; ARC verifies the identities of the email intermediaries and servers that forward your message to its final destination.


ARC-Message-Signature :

The signature takes a snapshot of the message header information for validation; similar to DKIM.


ARC-Seal :

Seals the ARC authentication results and the message signature, verifying their contents; similar to DKIM.


X-Received :

Differs to Received in that it is considered non-standard; that is to say, it might not be a permanent address, such as a mail transfer agent or Gmail SMTP server.


X-Google-Smtp-Source :

Shows the email transferring using a Gmail SMTP server.


Delivered-To :

The final recipient of the email in this header.