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.

Input	A list of email addresses
Output	One row per address
Ceiling	No fixed list size. The run's own time limit is the real one
Account needed	None, no API key and no mailbox
Price	$1.99 per 1,000 addresses checked, flat on every plan

✉️ 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": ["person@example.com", "info@example.com", "bad@@example.com"],
  "checkSmtp": false,
  "smtpTimeoutMs": 5000,
  "maxConcurrency": 10
}

Field	Default	What it is
emails	none	The list. The form starts with two example addresses in it. Duplicates are collapsed. Leave it empty and you get one free sample row showing the output shape.
checkSmtp	false	Try a short SMTP probe against the domain's first mail host. It never sends a message body. See below for what it can and cannot tell you.
smtpTimeoutMs	5000	Deadline per connection, capped at 8000, so one dead mail host cannot hold up a run.
maxConcurrency	10	How many addresses are checked at once, 1 to 25. Lower it if you want gentler DNS traffic.

📤 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": "person@example.com",
  "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"
}

Field	What it is
email	The address, lowercased and trimmed.
status	valid, risky, invalid or unknown.
confidence	A 0 to 100 score behind that status.
mailboxVerified	true only when a mail server accepted this exact recipient, false when one permanently refused it or the domain cannot receive mail at all, null when nobody could ask.
reason	mx_valid, no_mx_record, invalid_syntax, disposable_domain, role_account, smtp_recipient_accepted, smtp_recipient_rejected, dns_inconclusive or sample_only.
mxFound, mxRecords	Whether the domain has mail servers, and the list of them as {priority, exchange} sorted by priority. mxFound is null when DNS itself gave no answer.
isDisposable, isRoleAccount, isFreeProvider	Throwaway domain, shared inbox such as info@ or sales@, and free consumer provider.
smtp, smtpNote	null unless you switch the probe on. Otherwise the probe's status, code, stage and reason, plus a short note on how to read it.

🧾 Reading the output

Row	How to spot it	Charged
A completed check	ok: true and a status	yes
The sample row	_sample: true and reason: "sample_only"	no
A per-address failure	ok: false with an error	no
A diagnostic	errorCode of NO_RESULTS or INTERNAL_ERROR	no

What each status means:

Status	Meaning
valid	Syntax passed and the domain accepts mail. Keep it in the list.
risky	The domain is fine but something about the address is not. A shared inbox or a disposable provider.
invalid	Bad syntax, or the domain publishes no MX and says it takes no mail.
unknown	The check ran but DNS gave no usable answer, so reason is dns_inconclusive. This is a completed check and it is billed like any other.

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?

If you want	Use
To clean a list of addresses you already have	This one
Public LinkedIn profiles by keyword, title, company or school	LinkedIn Profile Search Scraper
The people who work at a given company	LinkedIn Company Employees Scraper
Contact addresses published on YouTube channels	YouTube Channel Email Scraper
Businesses with phone, website and address	Google Maps Scraper

❓ 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.