CPANEL TUTORIALS & GUIDES

How to set the Default Email Address in cPanel

cPanel Default Address controls how a domain handles email sent to invalid or nonexistent addresses. Route unmatched messages to a designated inbox, forward them to another account, return an error to the sender, or discard them to reduce unwanted mail and improve email management.

Updated: June 20, 2026
By: RSH Web Editorial Staff

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cPanel - Email - Default Address

The default email address is the email account associated with a cPanel's username after creating a new hosting account. This also referred to as a "Catch-All" email address

Creating a Catch-All email address in cPanel

The default email address will "catch" any email that is sent to your domain name

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To set up or update a default address for your domain, perform the following steps:

1) From the cPanel Home page, select Default Address under Email.
2) From the Send all unrouted email for the following domain menu, select the domain for which you wish to set or update a default address.

Select one of the following settings

Discard the email while your server processes it by SMTP time with an error message
Select this setting to send an error message to the sender.
Then, enter an error message in the Failure Message (seen by sender) text box.

Forward to Email Address - Select this setting to forward mail to another address. Then, enter the email address or your cPanel account’s username in the Forward to Email Address text box.

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Click Advanced Options to view the following additional settings:

  • • Forward to your system account - Select this setting to forward mail to the system account.
  • • Pipe to a Program - Select this setting to forward messages to a program at the path that you define in the available text box.

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