Email Verifier

Email Verifier: clean a bulk list, with MX, disposable and role checks

Paste a list of addresses and each one comes back as a row: a status, a 0 to 100 score, and the reason behind it. Whether the domain can actually receive mail, whether it is a throwaway, whether the address is a shared inbox like info@, and whether the domain is a free consumer provider.

Here is the part that decides whether this is the right tool. It never sends mail, so it cannot prove a mailbox exists. Nothing that does not send mail can. valid here means the syntax passed and the domain accepts mail, which is the check you run before a send so bounces do not wreck your sender reputation. It is not a deliverability guarantee.

✉️ What Email Verifier does

Each address goes through the same passes. The syntax is checked. The domain is looked up in public DNS for MX records, over DNS-over-HTTPS so the answer is the same wherever the run happens. The domain is matched against a built-in list of disposable providers, the local part against a list of role names, and the domain against the free consumer providers.

A domain that can receive mail says so in public DNS with an MX record, and a domain that has sworn off mail says that too, with a null MX. Both answers are useful, and both are in the row.

Duplicate addresses are lowercased and collapsed before anything is checked, so the same address in your list twice is one row and one charge.

There is also a bounded SMTP probe you can switch on. Read the section on it before you rely on it.

📥 What you give it

{
  "emails": ["[email protected]", "[email protected]", "bad@@example.com"],
  "checkSmtp": false,
  "smtpTimeoutMs": 5000,
  "maxConcurrency": 10
}

📤 What you get back

A real row from a recent run. example.com publishes a null MX, which is a domain stating in public that it accepts no mail, so the address is invalid with high confidence:

{
  "ok": true,
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "status": "invalid",
  "confidence": 98,
  "mailboxVerified": false,
  "syntaxValid": true,
  "domain": "example.com",
  "mxFound": false,
  "mxRecords": [],
  "isDisposable": false,
  "isRoleAccount": false,
  "isFreeProvider": false,
  "smtp": null,
  "smtpNote": null,
  "reason": "no_mx_record"
}

🧾 Reading the output

What each status means:

The Console's overview table leaves out reason, mailboxVerified and isFreeProvider, which is exactly what you need to tell one unknown from another. Read the JSON for those.

▶️ How to run it

1. Open Email Verifier and click Try for free. 2. Paste your addresses into Email addresses, one per line. 3. Leave Attempt bounded SMTP probe off for a first run. 4. Click Start. 5. Download the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read it from the Apify API.

💰 How much does it cost?

$1.99 per 1,000 addresses checked. Flat on every Apify plan, no volume tiers.

One charge per completed check. The sample row, per-address failure rows and diagnostic rows are not billed, and a duplicate address collapsed into one row is billed once. Two cases that do count as completed checks and are billed: an address that fails on syntax, and an unknown row where DNS gave no answer.

💡 What people use it for

• Cleaning a list before a send, so hard bounces do not damage the sending domain.
• Splitting a signup list into personal and shared inboxes, using isRoleAccount.
• Dropping throwaway signups, using isDisposable.
• Checking a purchased or scraped list before deciding whether it was worth the money.
• Running new signups through on a schedule and flagging the ones whose domain has no mail server.

🚧 What it does not do

• It never sends mail, so it cannot confirm a mailbox exists or predict a bounce.
• The SMTP probe does not connect from here. Apify's runners block outbound port 25, measured

across eight mail hosts, so in the cloud mailboxVerified comes back null on every row. Run the actor on your own machine and the probe behaves normally. Big providers refuse to confirm or deny a recipient anyway.

• Catch-all domains look the same as working mailboxes. There is no way to tell them apart

without sending.

• The disposable list is built in and holds 16 domains. It catches the common services, not

every throwaway on the internet.

• No cap on the list size in the input, but results are all worked out before the first row is

written and a run stops at its time limit, which is 5 minutes by default. Split very long lists, or raise the limit before you start.

• 25 concurrent checks is the ceiling.
• It is a list-cleaning signal, not consent. Only run addresses you are allowed to process.

🧭 Which lead tool do you need?

❓ Questions people ask

Does it prove the person's inbox exists? No, and neither does anything else that does not send mail. valid means the domain accepts mail and the address is worth keeping.

Why is mailboxVerified always null? Outbound port 25 is blocked on Apify's runners, so the probe never connects in the cloud.

Why is a good address marked risky? Usually because it is a role account. info@ and sales@ are real addresses, and they are also where cold email goes to die.

Am I billed for an address with a typo in it? Yes. Checking it and finding it malformed is a completed check.

Do duplicates cost twice? No. They are collapsed before anything is checked.

Is this legal? Verifying addresses you hold is ordinary list hygiene, but an email address is personal data and data-protection law covers it, so have a reason for holding the list. Apify's write-up on scraping and the law is a good start, and we are not lawyers.

🆘 If something breaks

Open the Issues tab on the actor page. Send the run ID and one address that behaved oddly. The reason field usually explains the verdict on its own.