Free tool
Free email verifier
This free email verifier checks whether an email address exists before you send to it. It asks the address's own mail server whether the mailbox is there, and stops before any email is sent. 10 free checks a day, no sign-up.
How it works
How does the free email verifier check an address?
The free email verifier checks an address in four steps: its format, the domain's mail servers, the mailbox, and the server's answer. Format and mail servers are checked without contacting anyone. The mailbox check asks the mail server directly and stops before a message is sent, so the person never receives an email.
Check the format
The address has to look like one: a name, an @ and a real domain, with no spaces. A typo like a missing dot is caught here.
Find the mail servers
The domain's MX records say which servers take its email. A domain with none can't receive email at all, so the address is invalid.
Ask about the mailbox
The verifier connects to the mail server and asks whether it accepts mail for this address, as a sending server would in the SMTP conversation. It disconnects before sending anything.
Read the answer
Yes, no, or accepts everything. The answer becomes Valid, Invalid, Catch-all, Risky or Unknown, with what it means for sending.
Results
What each email verification result means.
Bounces hurt your sender reputation, so the advice errs on the side of not sending.
| Result | What the mail server said | Send to it? |
|---|---|---|
| Valid | The mailbox exists and accepts mail | Yes |
| Invalid | There's no such mailbox, or the domain takes no email | No: it will bounce |
| Catch-all | The domain accepts every address, so this one can't be confirmed | With care: it may bounce later |
| Risky | The mailbox exists but may not take mail, for example because it's full or switched off | With care |
| Unknown | No clear answer: the server delayed or blocked the check | Try again later |
Also checked
What else the email checker looks at.
Disposable addresses
Throwaway inboxes from temporary email services, which stop working within hours.
Role addresses
info@, sales@ and support@ reach a team or a shared inbox, not one person.
Free mailbox providers
Gmail, Outlook.com and the like, as opposed to a company's own domain.
Who hosts the mail
Google or Microsoft, where the domain's mail servers say so.
No email sent
The check ends before a message is sent, so the person never hears from you.
Nothing kept
The address is checked and forgotten. Logs keep only the domain and the result.
Why verify
Verify email addresses before they bounce.
Every email that bounces tells Gmail, Outlook and other mailbox providers that you're sending to addresses you didn't check. Enough of them and your next campaign goes to spam, or isn't delivered at all. Google's email sender guidelines judge senders on how their mail is received, and ask bulk senders to keep the spam rate shown in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%.
Verifying an address before you send costs nothing and catches typos, people who've left a company, and domains that no longer take email. MagpieCRM holds back the rest of a send when more than 2% of a first batch of unconfirmed addresses bounces, for the same reason.
- Catch typos before they bounce
- Drop addresses for people who've left a company
- Spot disposable and role addresses on sign-up forms
- Keep your bounce rate, and your sender reputation, healthy
- Check a work email before you reach out to a prospect
Not yet
What it doesn't do yet.
MagpieCRM is early access software, at version 0.9.41. So you know before you start:
- Checking a list of addresses at once: this tool checks one at a time, up to 10 a day.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is this email verifier free?
Yes. You can check 10 email addresses a day for free, without signing up or giving your own email. It checks one address at a time. To find and verify work emails in bulk, MagpieCRM does it as part of prospect search.
How do you check if an email address exists without sending an email?
The verifier looks up the domain's mail servers, connects to one, and starts delivering a message to the address, as any mail server would. The server says whether it will accept mail for that mailbox, and the verifier stops right there, before any message is sent. The person never receives anything.
What does catch-all mean?
A catch-all domain accepts mail for every address, whether or not the mailbox exists, so its mail server never says no. The verifier can't tell whether a mailbox exists there. Mail to a made-up address at a catch-all domain is often accepted and then bounced or thrown away later.
Why does the result say unknown?
Some mail servers don't give a clear answer: they delay the check, block verification, or are down. Unknown means the address couldn't be checked right now, not that it's bad. Trying again later sometimes gets an answer.
Do you store the email addresses I check?
No. The address is checked and forgotten. MagpieCRM's logs keep the domain and the result, never the address, and your IP address is held in memory for a day only to count your free checks.
How accurate is email verification?
When a mail server gives a clear answer, the result is what the server itself says about the mailbox, which is as accurate as verification gets. It can't predict a mailbox that is deleted next week, and it can't see past catch-all domains or servers that won't answer. Those come back as catch-all or unknown rather than as a guess.
Can I verify a list of email addresses?
Not with this free tool, which checks one at a time. In MagpieCRM, every work email found through prospect search is verified with the company's mail server before it's saved, and people whose email can't be verified are left out of results.
Keep exploring
Related
Find and email your next customers this week.
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