Email verification FAQ

Yes, our email verification tool is completely free for occasional manual checks. We sustain the service through non-intrusive advertising to ensure high-quality technical verification remains accessible to everyone without a subscription.

No. We never send an actual email message to the address you are verifying. Our system uses technical signals and SMTP handshake simulations to check deliverability silently. Learn more in our guide: What Is Email Verification?

No. While we use industry-standard SMTP probing, some mail servers use anti-verification protections or catch-all configurations that can obscure the final result. We prioritize honesty by labeling uncertain results as "risky" or "unknown" rather than inventing certainty.

A "Valid" (or Deliverable) status means the email address is correctly formatted, the domain exists, and the mail server explicitly accepted the specific address during our check. For a deeper look, see: Email Validation vs Email Verification.

A "Risky" status typically identifies catch-all domains. These servers are configured to accept mail for any username, so we cannot guarantee a specific person is at the other end. Use these with caution.

An "Unknown" result occurs when the mail server refuses to give a clear answer, often due to temporary security measures like greylisting or connection timeouts. Read more about this in our article: Why Email Verification Returns Unknown.

Major providers like Google and Microsoft employ aggressive rate-limiting and anti-abuse technologies that can temporarily block verification probes. You can find more details here: Gmail Limitations and Outlook Limitations.

A catch-all domain is a server configuration that accepts all emails sent to that domain, even if the specific mailbox does not exist. This makes it difficult to verify individual addresses with 100% certainty. Learn more: What Is a Catch-All Email Domain?

Verification helps reduce bounces, but it does not grant permission to send unsolicited mail. You should only contact individuals who have given proper consent and ensure you are complying with anti-spam laws like CAN-SPAM or GDPR.

We strongly discourage the use of scraped lists. Verification can catch some bad data, but scraped lists often contain spam traps and abandoned accounts that can destroy your sender reputation even if they appear "valid."

We do not sell, rent, or trade the email addresses you enter into our checker. Technical logs are kept temporarily for security and system health monitoring as outlined in our Privacy Policy.

Advertisements allow us to pay for the high-performance servers and infrastructure required to run our verification engine while keeping the tool free for our users.

MX (Mail Exchanger) records are DNS entries that tell the internet which mail servers are responsible for accepting email for a domain. If a domain has no MX records, it cannot receive email. Read more: What Are MX Records?

SMTP verification is a method of checking an email address by initiating a technical "handshake" with the mail server to see if it accepts the recipient, without actually sending a message. Learn the technical details: SMTP Email Verification Explained.

Reducing bounce rates requires a combination of real-time verification, regular list hygiene, and using double opt-in for new signups. See our full guide: How to Reduce Email Bounce Rate.