Add MX Records in OVH | MX Record Checker

OVH (now OVHcloud) is one of the largest hosting and domain registration providers in Europe, widely used by small businesses across France, Germany, the UK, and beyond. If your domain is registered or hosted with OVH, this guide walks you through adding MX records for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or any other email provider.

OVH has its own built-in email product called MX Plan, which adds a layer of complexity when switching to an external email provider. This guide covers that transition as well.

Before You Start

You will need:

Your OVH account login credentials (at ovh.com or the regional equivalent for your country)
The MX record values from your email provider (each record includes a mail server hostname and a priority number)
About 10-15 minutes

If you are currently using OVH's included email service (MX Plan), be aware that changing MX records will redirect all email away from OVH's mail servers. Messages will stop arriving in your OVH mailbox once the new records propagate. Make sure you have migrated or backed up any important email before switching.

Understanding OVH's MX Plan

Most OVH hosting plans and domain registrations include MX Plan, a basic email service. When MX Plan is active, OVH automatically configures MX records pointing to their own mail servers. These default records typically look like:

yourdomain.com  MX  1  mx0.mail.ovh.net
yourdomain.com  MX  5  mx1.mail.ovh.net
yourdomain.com  MX  50 mx2.mail.ovh.net
yourdomain.com  MX  100 mx3.mail.ovh.net

OVH uses multiple MX records at different priorities for redundancy. If you are switching to an external email provider, all of these need to be replaced.

You do not need to cancel your MX Plan subscription to use external MX records. Changing the MX records simply tells the internet to deliver email elsewhere. The MX Plan service will still exist on your account, but it will not receive any email because nothing is pointing to it anymore.

Accessing DNS Management in OVH

Log into OVH at your regional control panel (ovh.com, ovh.co.uk, ovh.de, etc.)
Navigate to Web Cloud (or Domains depending on your interface version)
Select your domain name from the list
Click on the DNS Zone tab

You will see a full list of DNS records for your domain. MX records are listed with "MX" in the Type column. You should see OVH's default MX Plan records if you have not changed them before.

Step 1: Remove OVH's Default MX Records

Before adding your email provider's records, remove OVH's default MX records:

In the DNS Zone tab, locate all existing MX records
Click the three dots (or the edit icon) next to each MX record
Select Delete and confirm
Repeat for every MX record in the list

Make sure you remove all of them. OVH typically has four default MX records (mx0 through mx3). Leaving any behind will cause email to split between OVH and your new provider.

Step 2: Add New MX Records

With the old records removed:

In the DNS Zone tab, click Add an entry (or Add a record)
Select MX as the record type
Fill in the fields:
- Subdomain: Leave empty for the root domain (yourdomain.com), or enter a subdomain name if applicable
- TTL: Leave the default or set to 3600 (1 hour)
- Priority: Enter the priority number from your email provider
- Target: Enter the mail server hostname from your email provider (make sure it ends with a dot, e.g., aspmx.l.google.com., because OVH requires the trailing dot for fully qualified domain names)
Click Next and then Confirm
Repeat for each MX record your email provider requires

Important: The Trailing Dot

OVH's DNS zone editor requires fully qualified domain names to end with a trailing dot. When entering mail server hostnames, add a period at the end:

Correct: aspmx.l.google.com.
Incorrect: aspmx.l.google.com

If you forget the trailing dot, OVH may append your domain name to the value, resulting in something like aspmx.l.google.com.yourdomain.com, which is wrong and will break email delivery. This is the most common mistake people make with OVH DNS records.

Adding Google Workspace MX Records in OVH

Add these five MX records, remembering the trailing dot on each hostname:

Priority: 1    Target: aspmx.l.google.com.
Priority: 5    Target: alt1.aspmx.l.google.com.
Priority: 5    Target: alt2.aspmx.l.google.com.
Priority: 10   Target: alt3.aspmx.l.google.com.
Priority: 10   Target: alt4.aspmx.l.google.com.

After adding all five, verify them in the DNS Zone list. Each record should show the correct hostname and priority.

Adding Microsoft 365 MX Records in OVH

Microsoft 365 uses a single MX record unique to your domain:

Priority: 0    Target: yourdomain-com.mail.protection.outlook.com.

Replace yourdomain-com with your domain name using hyphens instead of dots. For example, mybusiness.com becomes mybusiness-com. Do not forget the trailing dot at the end.

Find your exact MX record value in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Settings > Domains.

Adding Other Provider MX Records in OVH

Here are values for other common email providers. Remember to add the trailing dot to each hostname in OVH:

Zoho Mail:

Priority: 10   Target: mx.zoho.com.
Priority: 20   Target: mx2.zoho.com.
Priority: 50   Target: mx3.zoho.com.

ProtonMail:

Priority: 10   Target: mail.protonmail.ch.
Priority: 20   Target: mailsec.protonmail.ch.

Fastmail:

Priority: 10   Target: in1-smtp.messagingengine.com.
Priority: 20   Target: in2-smtp.messagingengine.com.

Always verify the current values in your email provider's documentation, as these can change.

Step 3: Verify Your MX Records

After saving your changes in OVH, verify that the records are publishing correctly. Go to mxrecordchecker.com and enter your domain name. Check that:

All the MX records you added are visible
The mail server hostnames are exactly correct
The priority numbers match your email provider's specifications
There are no leftover OVH MX Plan records

OVH DNS changes typically propagate within a few minutes to a few hours. If your new records do not appear right away, wait 30 minutes and check again. OVH's DNS zone operates on a refresh cycle, so changes are not always instant.

Once the records appear correctly in the checker, send a test email from an external account to your domain and confirm it arrives at your new email provider.

OVH-Specific Issues and Troubleshooting

DNS Zone Refresh Delay

OVH's DNS zone updates are not always instantaneous. After making changes, OVH may take a few minutes to push the new records to their nameservers. If mxrecordchecker.com does not show your changes after an hour, go back to the DNS Zone tab and verify the records are actually listed there.

The Trailing Dot Problem

As mentioned earlier, OVH requires a trailing dot on fully qualified hostnames in MX records. If you see your domain appended to the end of the mail server hostname in the DNS Zone list (e.g., aspmx.l.google.com.yourdomain.com), the trailing dot was missing. Delete the incorrect record and re-add it with the dot.

OVH Nameservers vs. External DNS

This guide assumes your domain is using OVH's nameservers (the default when you register or transfer a domain to OVH). If you have changed your nameservers to Cloudflare, AWS Route 53, or another DNS provider, you need to add MX records at that provider instead. Changes in OVH's DNS Zone will have no effect if OVH's nameservers are not active for your domain.

Check your nameserver settings in OVH under the DNS Servers tab for your domain.

MX Plan Still Showing as Active

After changing your MX records to an external provider, OVH's control panel may still show MX Plan as active. This is normal. MX Plan is a service tied to your hosting plan, not to your DNS records. It will not interfere with your external email provider as long as the MX records point elsewhere.

"Target Is Not Valid" Error

If OVH gives an error when you try to save an MX record, check that:

The target hostname ends with a trailing dot
The priority is a number (not text)
The target does not include http:// or any protocol prefix
The target is a hostname, not an IP address

Email Arriving at OVH Despite New MX Records

If some email still arrives at your OVH mailbox after switching, DNS caching is the cause. Some DNS resolvers around the internet still have the old MX records cached. This resolves itself as the old TTL expires, usually within a few hours. In rare cases it can take up to 48 hours.

After Setup: Additional Email Records

MX records handle where email is delivered. For complete email setup, you also need authentication records to protect your outbound email:

SPF record: Authorizes which servers can send email from your domain. Add this as a TXT record in OVH's DNS Zone. Check yours at spfrecordcheck.com.
DKIM record: Verifies that emails are genuine and unmodified. Your email provider generates the values for you.
DMARC record: Tells receiving servers what to do with email that fails authentication. Verify at dmarcrecordchecker.com.

These records are added the same way as MX records, through the DNS Zone tab in OVH's control panel. Select TXT or CNAME as the record type instead of MX, and enter the values from your email provider.

How to Add MX Records in OVH - Step-by-Step Guide