Effective August 2026, Fastmail customers can opt to have their data stored in the European Union, encrypted at rest on Fastmail-owned secure servers in Amsterdam.
At launch, existing customers with a billing address in Europe (including EU-neighboring countries such as the UK, Switzerland, Norway) were automatically set to use EU servers, and all other customers continue to use US servers. New customers are prompted to choose a region at signup.
All customers, including trial users, have the option to choose EU or US servers, regardless of where you are located.
What each region means for your data
EU servers
If you choose the EU option for your data residency, the primary copy of your data will be stored on our Amsterdam servers. A resilient replica of your data will be stored on our US servers.
If you are using an email address at a custom domain with Fastmail’s nameservers, or one of Fastmail’s EU region domains, incoming mail will arrive through EU servers.
The web interface, desktop app, and mobile app will connect to EU servers.
If our EU servers ever become unavailable, connections will fall back to one of our US locations so you can still have access to your data.
Backups, logs, and debug systems are all based in the US.
US servers
If you choose the US option for your data residency, the primary copy of your data will be stored on our US servers. A resilient replica of your data will be stored on US servers at a geographically separate secondary site.
If you are using an email address at a custom domain with Fastmail’s nameservers, or one of Fastmail’s US region domains, incoming mail will arrive through US servers.
The web interface, desktop app, and mobile app will connect to US servers.
If a US server location ever becomes unavailable, connections fall back to our other US location so you can still have access to your data.
How to switch regions
You can change the primary data storage location by following these steps:
- Go to Settings → Users & Sharing → Team settings.
- In the Data residency section, select Change data residency.
- Choose US or EU, then select Save.
For multi-user accounts, this setting affects all users, and only an admin can make this change.
Once you have selected a new location for your data, your account will be added to the queue for migration to the other servers. During the migration, your Fastmail account may become temporarily unavailable, and the Fastmail web interface will show a loading screen. This will likely last a few minutes, depending on the size of the account.
Do I need to update my mail clients?
You will not need to make any updates to mail clients or other third-party apps. Your mail clients/apps should continue working without any changes.
If you prefer to use regional servers for your mail client, you are welcome to do so.
Our EU regional servers are:
eu-smtp.fastmail.comeu-imap.fastmail.comeu-pop.fastmail.comeu-caldav.fastmail.comeu-carddav.fastmail.comeu-myfiles.fastmail.com
Our US regional servers are:
us-smtp.fastmail.comus-imap.fastmail.comus-pop.fastmail.comus-caldav.fastmail.comus-carddav.fastmail.comus-myfiles.fastmail.com
If the servers you're looking for are not listed above, or if you experience any issues while trying to update your mail client's servers, please contact our support team for assistance.
Do I need to update my custom domains?
You will not need to make any updates to your custom domains. Your domains should continue working without any changes.
If you have a custom domain where the nameservers are hosted with Fastmail, the domain's MX records will be automatically updated to point to the US or EU MX servers, based on the region set for your account.
If you have a custom domain where the nameservers are hosted elsewhere, the domain's MX records will not be automatically updated. You are not required to make any changes, and your mail will work reliably regardless of the region where your data is stored. If you prefer to use our regional MX servers for your domain, you are welcome to do so.
Our EU MX servers are:
-
eu1-smtp.messagingengine.com(first, priority = 10) -
eu2-smtp.messagingengine.com(second, priority = 20)
Our US MX servers are:
-
us1-smtp.messagingengine.com(first, priority = 10) -
us2-smtp.messagingengine.com(second, priority = 20)
If you choose to update your MX records, please make sure that these are the only two MX records set for the domain, as having extra MX records can lead to conflicts that prevent mail from getting routed correctly.
If you experience any issues after updating your domain's DNS, please contact our support team for assistance.
Data transparency
Fastmail is an Australian company, subject to Australian law. Whether your data is stored in the US or EU, we will respond the same way to lawful requests from relevant authorities. For more information on how Fastmail responds to law enforcement, please see the "Law enforcement" section of our Fastmail privacy help page, or you can read our Data Transparency Report here.
We prioritize keeping your data safe and available to you. Please note that if you choose the EU region for your data residency, a live copy of your data is still replicated to the US. If your home location is down, you will temporarily connect to one of our other server locations so you can continue to access your data. Backups, logs, and debug systems are located in the US.