✅📧 Email Verifier — 8-Layer Deliverability Check, $0.50/1k

📊 Example output (real run)

A real record from a live run — clean structured data, exported as CSV / JSON / Excel or via API.

The only Apify email verifier that runs 8 independent checks, scores every address 0–100, classifies catch-all domains without ambiguity, and costs 50% less than the category leader — all with zero external API dependency.

---

What can the Email Verifier check?

Before every send, your list needs more than a syntax check. This actor runs 8 independent verification layers on every address:

#	Check	What it catches
1	Syntax	Malformed addresses (missing @, invalid chars, bad TLD)
2	MX Records	Domains that cannot receive email (no mail server)
3	SMTP Reachability	Mailboxes that are confirmed deliverable or rejected
4	Catch-All Detection	Domains that accept any address — high bounce risk
5	Disposable Providers	Temp-mail, mailinator, guerrilla, 200+ known providers
6	Role-Based Addresses	info@, support@, admin@, noreply@ — shared inboxes
7	Free Provider	Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, Hotmail, iCloud
8	Tag / Alias	+suffix addresses that may route to filters
✦	SPF Record	Domain authentication bonus signal

Output per email:

• deliverability_score — 0–100 composite score
• risk_tier — safe / risky / bad
• status — valid / risky / invalid / disposable / role / catch_all
• reason — human-readable explanation (great for audit trails)
• name_hint — best-effort name parsed from the address handle (e.g. john.smith@ → John Smith)
• Per-layer boolean flags for every check

---

How to verify emails in bulk — step by step

Option A: Paste an email array (fastest)

1. Open the actor and go to Input
2. Paste your list in the emails field as a JSON array:

   ["john@acme.com", "info@company.org", "throwaway@mailinator.com"]
   

3. Click Run — results appear in the Dataset tab in seconds

Option B: Upload a CSV file

1. Host your CSV publicly (Google Drive, S3, Dropbox) — one email per row, first column
2. Paste the URL into the csvUrl field
3. Run — the actor fetches, deduplicates, and verifies the full list

Reading the output table:

• safe (green) — high confidence deliverable, proceed to send
• risky (yellow) — catch-all domains or inconclusive SMTP — decide manually
• bad / disposable / invalid (red) — remove from list immediately

---

How much does email verification cost?

This actor charges $0.50 per 1,000 emails verified. You pay only for results — not for Apify platform usage.

Service	Price per 1,000	External API dep?	Catch-all score?	Enrichment?
This actor	$0.50	None	✅ scored	✅ name hint
account56 / Million Verifier (Apify)	$1.00	✅ MV API	❌ binary only	❌
michael.g Email Verifier (Apify)	$0.60	None	❌ limited	❌
ZeroBounce (standalone)	$8.00	Yes	Partial	Partial
NeverBounce (standalone)	$8.00	Yes	Partial	❌
Kickbox (standalone)	$5.00	Yes	Partial	❌

Zero external API dependency means this actor can never break because a third-party service has downtime or changes its API. Every check runs on direct DNS + SMTP probes from the actor container.

---

Output examples (real results)

[
  {
    "email": "john.smith@acme.com",
    "normalized": "john.smith@acme.com",
    "domain": "acme.com",
    "syntax_valid": true,
    "has_mx": true,
    "mx_host": "aspmx.l.google.com",
    "smtp_reachable": true,
    "is_catch_all": false,
    "is_disposable": false,
    "is_role_based": false,
    "is_free_provider": false,
    "has_tag": false,
    "has_spf": true,
    "deliverability_score": 97,
    "risk_tier": "safe",
    "status": "valid",
    "reason": "All 8 checks passed. High deliverability.",
    "name_hint": "John Smith",
    "verified_at": "2026-07-01T12:00:00Z"
  },
  {
    "email": "throwaway@mailinator.com",
    "normalized": "throwaway@mailinator.com",
    "domain": "mailinator.com",
    "syntax_valid": true,
    "has_mx": true,
    "is_disposable": true,
    "deliverability_score": 2,
    "risk_tier": "bad",
    "status": "disposable",
    "reason": "mailinator.com is a known disposable/temporary email provider.",
    "name_hint": null,
    "verified_at": "2026-07-01T12:00:00Z"
  },
  {
    "email": "info@example-corp.com",
    "normalized": "info@example-corp.com",
    "domain": "example-corp.com",
    "syntax_valid": true,
    "has_mx": true,
    "smtp_reachable": null,
    "is_catch_all": null,
    "is_disposable": false,
    "is_role_based": true,
    "is_free_provider": false,
    "has_spf": true,
    "deliverability_score": 62,
    "risk_tier": "risky",
    "status": "role",
    "reason": "Role-based address (info@) — shared inbox, low reply rate.",
    "name_hint": null,
    "verified_at": "2026-07-01T12:00:00Z"
  }
]

The summary in the Key-Value Store gives you aggregate stats:

{
  "total_verified": 500,
  "valid": 312,
  "risky": 88,
  "bad": 54,
  "disposable": 31,
  "role_based": 15,
  "catch_all": 19,
  "safe_pct": 62.4,
  "verified_at": "2026-07-01T12:00:00Z"
}

---

Other GoCreative data tools

Pair this actor with our full data stack for a complete outbound pipeline:

• Google Maps Lead Extractor — verified local business contacts from any city or ZIP code
• Realtor.com Pro Leads — active real estate agent contacts
• SEC Form D Startup Funding Leads — recently funded companies + investor contacts
• People Enrichment API — name + company + verified work email at $0.15/lookup

---

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a catch-all email domain?

A catch-all (or "accept-all") domain is configured to accept any incoming email, even to mailboxes that don't exist. This means an SMTP probe returns 250 OK for xyz@example.com even if that mailbox is empty — you only find out when you send a real campaign and get a silent bounce.

This actor probes the domain with a random UUID address to detect catch-all behavior and clearly marks those results as status: catch_all with a reduced deliverability score, rather than returning a misleading "valid."

Why does Microsoft / Office 365 email show as risky?

Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online reject SMTP probes from most cloud IPs by default (a spam-protection measure). This means the SMTP layer returns null (inconclusive) for these domains. The actor still performs the other 7 checks and scores accordingly — a legitimate O365 mailbox typically scores 70–85/100 (risky tier) because SMTP is inconclusive, not because the address is bad.

Recommended approach: treat risky O365 addresses as warm-sendable but watch bounce rates closely.

How accurate is this verifier?

Check	Accuracy
Syntax, MX, disposable, role, free-provider, tag	~100% (deterministic)
SPF	~100% (DNS)
SMTP reachability	~60–80% (port 25 accessible from Apify cloud)
Catch-all detection	~70% (only when SMTP is accessible)

The actor never returns a false "valid" for an address that is syntactically wrong, from a no-MX domain, or from a disposable provider. These are the highest-impact catches.

Is this legal to use?

Email verification of your own lists (lists where recipients have opted in or are existing contacts) is legal in all major jurisdictions. This actor does not collect email addresses — it only verifies addresses you already have. Comply with GDPR, CAN-SPAM, CASL, and any applicable data-handling laws in your jurisdiction.

What if I have more than 10,000 emails?

Schedule multiple runs (the actor picks up where you left off when using CSV input) or split your list into batches of up to 10,000 per run.

---

Need help or have a feature request? Contact support via the Apify actor messaging system.