Bulk Email Validation API — Email Checker & Fraud Risk Scoring

What does Email Risk Scorer do?

Email Risk Scorer is an email validation API on the Apify platform: give it one address or a bulk list (up to 500 per run) and it returns a fraud and spam risk score (0–1) for each one — in seconds, with a documented reason for every score. It catches disposable and temporary email addresses (against a continuously maintained blocklist), broken and misspelled domains (no MX record), role accounts (info@, support@, contact@), and uses an AI judgment layer to assess ambiguous addresses that rule-based checkers ignore. One tool, two jobs: a bulk email validation and email checker for list cleaning, and a fraud risk scorer for signup protection.

It is not an email sender and does not send messages to the addresses — it never touches the inbox, so it is safe to run on any list.

Why use Email Risk Scorer?

• Stop fake signups — block disposable and typo'd domains at signup before they pollute your SaaS database or trigger free-trial abuse
• Clean lists before campaigns — remove high-risk addresses before you hit Send, protecting your sender reputation and avoiding bounce-driven blacklisting
• Score lead quality — flag role accounts and high-risk domains in lead-gen data before your sales team dials
• Explainable results — every score ships with machine-readable reasons (disposable_email_domain, no_mx_record_or_dns_error, role_account, ai_judgment:0.85), so you can automate on them, not just read them
• Runs inside Apify — API access, scheduling, webhooks, and integrations with Zapier, Make, and Google Sheets. No separate vendor account, no CSV uploads to a third party.

Sample results

Every scored address comes back with a risk score, a risk level, and machine-readable reasons — straight from a real run's dataset:

Email	risk_score	risk	reasons
jane.doe@gmail.com	0.22	low	ai_judgment:0.22
info@stripe.com	0.30	low	role_account, ai_judgment:0.23
john.doe@gmial.com	0.85	high	no_mx_record_or_dns_error, ai_judgment:0.85
user@mailinator.com	1.0	high	disposable_email_domain
not-an-email@@	1.0	invalid_syntax	failed RFC5322 syntax check

Treat high as block-or-review and medium as flag; low is usually safe to keep. The reasons array is what makes the score automatable — for example, auto-block only disposable_email_domain and manually review the rest.

How to validate email addresses with Email Risk Scorer

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console or call it via the Apify API
2. Paste your email addresses into the emails input field (1–500 per run; split larger lists across runs)
3. Optionally enable checkMx for live DNS/MX verification and useAiJudgment for the AI layer on ambiguous cases
4. Run the Actor — results appear in the dataset, typically within seconds (the very first run may take a little longer while the container starts)
5. Download results as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML, or fetch them via the API/webhook

Bulk email validation for list cleaning

The emails field accepts up to 500 addresses per run, so a full list cleanup is a single bulk email validation run — paste the list, run once, and download the scored dataset. Split larger lists across runs; the one-time start fee applies once per run, which is why batching the whole list is the cheapest way to validate in bulk.

How much does email validation cost?

Email Risk Scorer uses pay-per-event pricing: $0.004 per scored email plus a $0.005 one-time actor start fee per run. You pay only for successfully scored emails — failed emails are never billed. Charged: every email that comes back with a risk score and reasons. Not charged: addresses that fail processing entirely — they return an error record with risk_score: null, so a transient failure never inflates your bill. There is no subscription, no monthly credits that expire, and no minimum commitment — a 500-email list cleanup costs about $2.01, and per-email pricing typically undercuts credit-based verification services — and you keep everything inside your existing Apify workflows.

Input

Field	Type	Description
emails	array	Email addresses to score (required)
checkMx	boolean	Verify DNS/MX records for each domain (default: true)
useAiJudgment	boolean	Enable the AI judgment layer for ambiguous addresses (default: true — works out of the box, no extra setup needed)

Output

Each result contains the verdict, the score, and the reasons:

{
    "email": "john.doe@gmial.com",
    "valid": true,
    "domain": "gmial.com",
    "mx": null,
    "risk_score": 0.85,
    "risk": "high",
    "reasons": ["no_mx_record_or_dns_error", "ai_judgment:0.85"]
}

Low-risk addresses look like this:

{
    "email": "jane.doe@gmail.com",
    "valid": true,
    "domain": "gmail.com",
    "mx": "alt2.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com",
    "risk_score": 0.22,
    "risk": "low",
    "reasons": ["ai_judgment:0.22"]
}

Field	Type	Meaning
valid	boolean	Passes the RFC5322 syntax check — syntax only; deliverability is what mx and reasons tell you
risk_score	number (0–1)	Composite fraud/spam risk
risk	string	low (<0.4), medium (0.4–0.7), high (≥0.7), or invalid_syntax when the address fails the syntax check
mx	string or null	Resolved mail exchanger for the domain; null when none is found or the DNS lookup fails
reasons	array	Machine-readable evidence for the score

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

Tips for accurate email risk scores

• Keep checkMx enabled — it is what catches typo'd and dead domains
• Treat high as "block or review" and medium as "flag"; role_account alone is often acceptable for B2B contacts
• Batch your list in one run — the $0.005 start fee applies once per run, so fill the 500-address batch instead of running small chunks
• Automate on reasons, not just risk: for example, auto-block only disposable_email_domain

Is it legal to check email addresses for risk?

Email validation uses public DNS records and syntax analysis — no login to the mailbox, no messages sent, no personal mailbox data accessed. Validate addresses you collected legitimately, and follow GDPR/CAN-SPAM rules for how you use the results.

Does it detect disposable and temporary emails?

Yes — disposable and temporary domains are checked against a continuously maintained blocklist, so new throwaway domains are caught without you updating anything.

Does the AI judgment layer work out of the box?

Yes — useAiJudgment defaults to on and needs no configuration; ambiguous addresses get an AI-assessed score out of the box.

Does it need proxies or logins?

No. The Actor runs DNS lookups and local analysis only. Runs complete in seconds and cost nothing in compute units beyond the platform minimum.

Can I bulk validate a full email list?

Yes — the emails input is an array, so you can bulk validate up to 500 addresses per run. For longer lists, split them across runs; every address gets its own risk score and machine-readable reasons in the same dataset.

Are failed emails charged?

No — you pay only for successfully scored emails. If an address cannot be processed, it comes back as an error record with risk_score: null and no charge event is emitted for it. A domain with no MX record is a different case: that is a scored result (no_mx_record_or_dns_error) and is billed, because you received a verdict. The one-time $0.005 start fee applies per run regardless of outcome, which is why batching up to 500 addresses per run keeps it negligible.

Can I try it before paying?

Yes — every Apify account, including the free plan, comes with monthly platform usage credits that pay for pay-per-event charges, so you can run a small batch of email risk scoring before committing to anything (the free plan requires no credit card). A 50-address test run costs about $0.21, comfortably inside the free plan's monthly credits.

Do you store, send, or expose my email addresses?

No messages are ever sent and no mailbox is accessed — scoring uses syntax checks, public DNS/MX records, and disposable-domain matching. An address with no clear rule-based signal may additionally be assessed by an AI risk-judgment API; nothing is ever delivered to the address. Results live only in your run's dataset, downloadable as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML.

How is this different from prepaid-credit email verifiers?

You pay per scored email — no subscription, no credit bundles that expire, no minimum. And instead of a bare valid/invalid verdict you get a 0–1 fraud/spam risk score with machine-readable reasons (disposable_email_domain, no_mx_record_or_dns_error, role_account, ai_judgment:*), so signup protection and list cleaning run on evidence instead of guesses.

FAQ, disclaimers, and support

• It scored a valid-looking address as high risk. Check the reasons array — the score is evidence-based, and the AI layer only activates for genuinely ambiguous cases
• Feedback and feature requests: open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab
• Programmatic access: see the API tab for endpoints and examples
• Disclaimer: risk scores are decision-support signals, not guarantees. Do not use them as the sole basis for denying service.

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