What a CAN-SPAM Email Footer Needs (and What Gmail Adds on Top)
A CAN-SPAM email footer needs two things: your valid physical postal address and a clear, conspicuous way to opt out. Those are the parts of the law you can see in the message. The rest of CAN-SPAM is about how you behave: honest headers and subject lines, saying the email is an ad when it is one, and actually honouring opt-outs. On top of the law, Gmail and Yahoo require bulk senders of marketing mail to support one-click unsubscribe and show a visible unsubscribe link, and Canada's CASL wants a contact method too.
The free CAN-SPAM compliance checker reads a pasted email and flags a missing address, a missing opt-out, a fake "Re:" subject and a bare role-word From name. Here is what each footer item means.
What CAN-SPAM says the message must contain
The FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide (read 2 November 2026) lists seven requirements for commercial email. Two belong in the footer:
| Requirement | What the FTC guide says | In the footer |
|---|---|---|
| Tell recipients where you're located | The message must include your valid physical postal address | Street address, a registered P.O. box, or a registered private mailbox |
| Tell recipients how to opt out | A clear and conspicuous explanation of how to opt out of future email from you | An unsubscribe link, or a return address that processes opt-outs |
The other five are not footer items, but they are checked against the same email: no false or misleading header information, no deceptive subject line, identify the message as an ad, honour opt-outs promptly, and monitor anyone who sends on your behalf. The FTC is clear that the law covers business-to-business commercial email too; our post on CAN-SPAM and cold email walks through all seven for a cold sequence.
The footer, item by item
- A postal address you actually receive mail at. The guide allows "your current street address, a post office box you've registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you've registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations." A city name alone, or a website URL, is not an address.
- A visible opt-out. Plain words such as "Unsubscribe" or "Stop getting these emails", in text a reader can find. A grey 6px link at the bottom of a long image is the opposite of conspicuous.
- An opt-out that keeps working. The guide says the mechanism must be able to process requests for at least 30 days after you send. An unsubscribe link that expires after a week fails that.
- No hoops. You can't charge a fee, ask for more than an email address, or make the reader do more than reply or visit a single web page to opt out.
- Who it's from. The From name and the footer should identify your business. A From name of just "Info" or "Team" doesn't tell the reader who you are.
- An ad disclosure if it's an ad. CAN-SPAM doesn't prescribe wording, only that it's clear. The Act (15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(5)) drops the ad notice when the recipient gave prior affirmative consent, which is why opt-in newsletters rarely carry one; the address and opt-out are still required.
What Gmail and Yahoo add
CAN-SPAM is the legal floor. Mailbox providers set their own bar for whether mail reaches the inbox. Google's email sender guidelines say senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail must support one-click unsubscribe for marketing and promotional mail and include a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the message body. Google's sender guidelines FAQ recommends that you "fulfill unsubscribe requests within 48 hours", much faster than CAN-SPAM's ten business days.
One-click unsubscribe lives in the email headers, not the footer: a List-Unsubscribe header with an HTTPS link and a List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click header. Most email platforms add both for you. If you send from your own system, the List-Unsubscribe header generator builds them, and our post on one-click unsubscribe explains how the request is handled.
What Canada and the EU add
Canada's anti-spam law is stricter. The CRTC's CASL FAQ says every commercial electronic message must identify the sender, include a mailing address and one of a phone number, email address or web address, and have an unsubscribe mechanism. CASL also requires consent before you send, which no footer can show.
In the UK and EU, marketing email to individuals generally needs consent, with a narrow exception for existing customers who were given a chance to refuse. A compliant footer is still expected there, but it doesn't make an unconsented email lawful.
A footer you can adapt
You're getting this because you signed up at northwind.example.
Northwind Supply Co., PO Box 1234, Springfield, IL 62701, USA
Questions? hello@northwind.example
Unsubscribe from these emails
Replace the example business with yours, and make sure "Unsubscribe" is your platform's real unsubscribe merge tag, such as {{unsubscribe_url}} or *|UNSUB|*. Then paste a test send, not the template, into the CAN-SPAM checker: address merge tags are filled on send, so the template alone may look as if the address is missing.
A footer doesn't fix the list
A perfect footer won't help if the list behind it is full of closed mailboxes or past unsubscribes. Before a campaign:
- Merge every unsubscribe and complaint you have ever collected, from every tool, into one suppression file with the suppression list merger, and make sure your sending tool has it.
- Upload the list on the verify page. Every address gets a live mailbox check; valid, risky and invalid download as separate files.
- Send to the valid file. Risky addresses are unconfirmed, not bad: catch-all business domains and Microsoft's consumer domains (outlook.com, hotmail.com, live.com) often come back risky.
Where SimpleVerifier fits
The CAN-SPAM checker is free and runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. For the mailbox check, the first 100 checks are free with a Google sign-in on the verify page. Starter is $9 a month for 2,500 checks, and Pro is $39 a month with the first 100,000 checks a month at full speed, then slower, never cut off. See pricing. This post isn't legal advice; ask a lawyer about your own sends.
Common questions
Does CAN-SPAM require an unsubscribe link?
It requires a clear and conspicuous way to opt out. The FTC's guide says that can be a return email address or another easy internet-based way, so a link is the usual choice but a reply-to-unsubscribe can comply if every request is honoured.
Can I use a P.O. box in my email footer?
Yes. The FTC's guide says the address can be your street address, a post office box registered with the US Postal Service, or a private mailbox registered with a commercial mail receiving agency under Postal Service rules.
Do transactional emails need a CAN-SPAM footer?
Messages whose main purpose is transactional or relationship content, such as a receipt or an account notice, are exempt from most CAN-SPAM rules, though they still can't have false or misleading routing information. If a receipt also carries a promotion, the FTC's primary purpose test decides which rules apply.
Does the footer have to be at the bottom?
No. CAN-SPAM doesn't say where the address and opt-out go, only that the opt-out is clear and conspicuous. The bottom is simply where readers and filters look for them.
Check your list before you send
Real mailbox checks over SMTP, and nothing is sent to the address. Sign in with Google and your first 100 email checks are free, no card. Plans for bigger lists are on the pricing page.