# Email Verifier — Bulk SMTP & MX Validation, Catch-all (`bovi/email-verifier`) Actor Verify email deliverability without sending mail. Syntax, MX lookup, SMTP probe, catch-all detection, disposable & role-account flags. Score 0-100 per email. - **URL**: https://apify.com/bovi/email-verifier.md - **Developed by:** [Vitalii Bondarev](https://apify.com/bovi) (community) - **Categories:** Lead generation, Business - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $0.87 / 1,000 email-verifications This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Email Verifier — Bulk SMTP & MX Validation, Catch-all Detection Verify email deliverability in bulk without ever sending a single message. Feed it a list of email addresses and get back a score, status, and detailed flags for each one — whether you're cleaning a B2B lead list, validating a signup form, or scrubbing a cold-outreach database before you burn your sender reputation. ### What it does The actor runs each email through six verification layers in sequence: #### Layer 1 — Syntax Validates the address against a strict RFC-compliant regex. Catches typos, missing `@` signs, double-dots, overly long local-parts, and other malformed addresses before any network round-trip. Invalid syntax → `undeliverable` immediately. #### Layer 2 — Disposable domain detection Checks the email's domain against a bundled blocklist of ~300 known temporary/throwaway mail providers: Mailinator, YOPmail, Guerrilla Mail, 10MinuteMail, Trashmail, and hundreds more. Disposable emails are flagged with `is_disposable: true`. They may still be syntactically valid and even have MX records — you decide whether to reject them. #### Layer 3 — Role account detection Identifies generic role-based addresses that are unlikely to belong to an individual: `info@`, `support@`, `admin@`, `noreply@`, `sales@`, `webmaster@`, `postmaster@`, `abuse@`, and ~40 more patterns. Role accounts are flagged `is_role: true`. They deliver mail (often to a shared inbox), but bounce rates and engagement are typically low — useful signal for lead scoring. #### Layer 4 — MX lookup (DNS) Queries the domain's DNS for MX records via dnspython. If no MX record exists, falls back to an A-record check (some small domains skip MX). No MX + no A record → domain can't receive mail → `undeliverable`. The highest-priority MX host is returned in `mx_host`. #### Layer 5 — SMTP probe (no mail sent) Connects to the top MX host on port 25 and runs: ```` HELO verify.example.com MAIL FROM: RCPT TO: ```` The connection is closed immediately after reading the response code — no `DATA` command, no message ever delivered. Response codes: - `250` → mail server accepts the address → `deliverable` - `5xx` → permanent rejection → `undeliverable` - `4xx` → temporary failure / greylisting → `risky` #### Layer 6 — Catch-all detection After a `250` response, the actor sends a second RCPT to a randomly-generated non-existent address on the same domain (e.g. `xk7m2q9r4j@domain.com`). If that is also accepted, the domain is a catch-all — it accepts mail for any local-part regardless of whether the mailbox exists. Catch-all addresses get `is_catch_all: true` and `status: risky` because we can't confirm the specific mailbox exists. --- ### Output fields | Field | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | `email` | string | Normalized (lowercased) email address | | `status` | string | `deliverable` / `undeliverable` / `risky` / `unknown` | | `score` | integer | Deliverability confidence 0–100 | | `syntax_valid` | boolean | Passes RFC syntax check | | `is_disposable` | boolean | Known throwaway/temp-mail domain | | `is_role` | boolean | Generic role address (info@, support@, …) | | `mx_found` | boolean | Domain has a working mail server | | `mx_host` | string | Highest-priority MX hostname | | `smtp_code` | integer | Raw SMTP response code (null if unreachable) | | `smtp_message` | string | Raw SMTP response message | | `is_catch_all` | boolean | Domain accepts mail for any address (null = unknown) | | `checked_at` | string | ISO 8601 UTC timestamp | #### Status values - **deliverable** — syntax OK, MX found, SMTP accepted the address, domain is not catch-all - **undeliverable** — syntax invalid, no MX record, or SMTP permanently rejected the address - **risky** — domain is catch-all (can't confirm the specific mailbox) OR SMTP returned 4xx (greylisting) - **unknown** — SMTP unreachable (port-25 blocked or timeout) and domain is not a known big provider #### Score (0–100) | Score | Meaning | |---|---| | 100 | SMTP 250 + not catch-all → high confidence deliverable | | 80 | Known provider (Gmail/Outlook/…), MX found, port-25 unreachable → heuristic | | 60 | MX found, SMTP unreachable, unknown domain → can't confirm | | 35–40 | Catch-all or greylisting → deliverable but risky | | 0 | Syntax fail, no MX, or hard SMTP rejection | --- ### Port-25 limitation (important) **Many cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure) block outbound TCP port 25 by default.** Apify's cloud infrastructure may or may not have port-25 open depending on the instance type and region. When port-25 is blocked, the actor handles it gracefully: 1. The SMTP probe returns `smtp_code: null` and marks the connection as unreachable 2. For well-known providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, Proton, etc.) the actor falls back to a heuristic: if MX exists, status = `deliverable` at score 80 3. For all other domains: status = `unknown` at score 60 4. You can use `skipSmtp: true` to skip SMTP entirely and run MX-only mode The syntax, disposable, role, and MX layers work correctly regardless of port-25 access. On Apify infrastructure, port-25 availability may vary — test with `skipSmtp: false` first; if you see many `unknown` results, the port is likely blocked on that instance. --- ### Accuracy notes - **B2B domains**: SMTP probes work well; most corporate mail servers respond reliably - **Gmail / Microsoft 365**: Block SMTP probes from cloud IPs. The heuristic gives score 80 - **Catch-all domains**: Common in B2B (many companies accept all mail). `risky` is correct — the address format is valid but the mailbox may not exist - **Greylisting**: Some servers return `451` on first contact and accept on retry. The actor marks these `risky` (score 35); re-verify later or send anyway and watch bounce rates - **False negatives**: SMTP probing is not 100% reliable. Servers that accept `250` may still bounce silently later. Combined with catch-all detection this is rare but possible - **Rate limits**: Running at high concurrency against one domain may trigger rate-limiting. The default concurrency of 10 is conservative; reduce if you see many `risky` 4xx responses --- ### Pricing **Pay-per-result**: charged once per verified email (`email-verification` event). You are only charged for emails that complete the verification pipeline — not for errors. --- ### Example input ```json { "emails": [ "cto@openai.com", "noreply@github.com", "throwaway@mailinator.com", "test@nonexistent-xyz-domain.com", "info@stripe.com" ], "concurrency": 10, "smtpTimeoutSecs": 10, "skipSmtp": false } ```` Also accepts objects with an `email` key — useful when piping from a lead-gen actor: ```json { "emails": [ {"email": "cto@openai.com", "name": "Sam Altman"}, {"email": "info@stripe.com", "company": "Stripe"} ] } ``` # Actor input Schema ## `emails` (type: `array`): List of email addresses to verify. Each entry is either a plain email string (e.g. 'user@example.com') or an object with an 'email' key. Max 10,000 per run. ## `concurrency` (type: `integer`): Number of emails to verify in parallel. Higher = faster but may trigger rate-limits on target mail servers. Recommended: 5–20. ## `smtpTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`): Timeout for each SMTP connection attempt. Increase if many unknown results on slow mail servers. ## `skipSmtp` (type: `boolean`): Skip the SMTP verification step and rely on MX lookup only. Faster but less accurate — use when running from a network that blocks outbound port 25. ## Actor input object example ```json { "emails": [ "test@gmail.com", "info@example.com", "user@mailinator.com" ], "concurrency": 10, "smtpTimeoutSecs": 10, "skipSmtp": false } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): Dataset containing Email Verifier records (email, status, score, syntax\_valid, is\_disposable, is\_role, mx\_found, mx\_host, smtp\_code, is\_catch\_all, checked\_at). # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "emails": [ "test@gmail.com", "info@example.com", "user@mailinator.com" ] }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("bovi/email-verifier").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "emails": [ "test@gmail.com", "info@example.com", "user@mailinator.com", ] } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("bovi/email-verifier").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "emails": [ "test@gmail.com", "info@example.com", "user@mailinator.com" ] }' | apify call bovi/email-verifier --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=bovi/email-verifier", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Email Verifier — Bulk SMTP & MX Validation, Catch-all", "description": "Verify email deliverability without sending mail. Syntax, MX lookup, SMTP probe, catch-all detection, disposable & role-account flags. Score 0-100 per email.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "SWUJ3y6ejNnakdkXC" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/bovi~email-verifier/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-bovi-email-verifier", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/bovi~email-verifier/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-bovi-email-verifier", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/bovi~email-verifier/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-bovi-email-verifier", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "emails" ], "properties": { "emails": { "title": "Emails to verify", "type": "array", "description": "List of email addresses to verify. Each entry is either a plain email string (e.g. 'user@example.com') or an object with an 'email' key. Max 10,000 per run.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "concurrency": { "title": "Concurrency", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 50, "type": "integer", "description": "Number of emails to verify in parallel. Higher = faster but may trigger rate-limits on target mail servers. Recommended: 5–20.", "default": 10 }, "smtpTimeoutSecs": { "title": "SMTP timeout (seconds)", "minimum": 3, "maximum": 30, "type": "integer", "description": "Timeout for each SMTP connection attempt. Increase if many unknown results on slow mail servers.", "default": 10 }, "skipSmtp": { "title": "Skip SMTP probe", "type": "boolean", "description": "Skip the SMTP verification step and rely on MX lookup only. Faster but less accurate — use when running from a network that blocks outbound port 25.", "default": false } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```