100 free credits — no card required

Email validation & verification with
≥97% accuracy.

MailChecked is an email validation and verification service that confirms real inbox deliverability — verify single addresses in the dashboard, clean bulk CSV lists, or integrate via REST API — without trashing your sender reputation. Pay only for what you use, no subscription, credits never expire.

No subscription Credits never expire False-positive refund GDPR-friendly
≥97%
Verified accuracy
$0.0005
Per email at scale
<800ms
Typical single-check
14
Validation stages

An email verifier built for senders who care about deliverability

Every email validation check runs through 14 layered stages — syntax checking, MX record lookup, provider-aware SMTP probing, catch-all detection, disposable and role-based email detection, historical bounce data, and reputation-aware throttling.

Real SMTP email verification

EHLO → STARTTLS → MAIL → RCPT against the actual MX server, with greylist and tarpit handling. No guessing, no syntax-only checks.

Provider-aware checks

Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, Zoho, and Google Workspace get bespoke verification strategies. Consumer giants are never RCPT-probed — we use Gravatar and historical signals to protect your IP reputation.

Reputation-aware throttling

Per-IP, per-provider, per-domain token buckets keep our outbound clean. We slow down before mailbox providers do — your bulk verification job never poisons our IPs (or yours).

Historical bounce database

Every email validation result feeds a long-memory cache and a customer bounce-feedback loop. Repeat checks are instant — and free for invalid addresses you've already paid for.

Bulk email verification + REST API

Single-shot REST endpoint, async bulk CSV uploads, or paste-a-list in the dashboard. Validate one address or a million — same engine, same accuracy, same price per email.

Pay-as-you-go pricing

Top up from $5. Credits never expire and there's no monthly subscription. We refund false positives automatically — no quota, no questions, no chargeback dance.

One email validator for every send

Whether you're a B2B sales team running cold email, a SaaS protecting a signup form, or a marketing team cleaning a 500k mailing list before the next campaign, the verdict is the same engine.

Cold email & outbound sales

Verify lead lists from Apollo, ZoomInfo, or scraped sources before you hit send. Drop bounces below 2% and protect your sender reputation across Gmail, Outlook, and Workspace.

Signup form validation

Real-time email verification at the signup form. Catch typos (gnail.com, yaho.com), block disposable domains, and stop fake accounts before they hit your database — with sub-second API latency.

Transactional & password reset

Confirm an address is real before sending a verification link, password reset, or invoice. Cuts support load and prevents fraudulent signups that exhaust your email-sending quota.

Email list cleaning

Re-scrub your Mailchimp, HubSpot, or Klaviyo list before the next campaign. Bulk CSV in, bulk CSV out, with verdicts you can filter on. Removes invalid, disposable, and known-bouncing addresses.

Lead form deliverability

Validate B2B work emails as they're submitted. Detect role-based addresses (info@, support@) so your CRM tags them differently and your SDRs don't waste time on shared inboxes.

Compliance & data hygiene

GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and CASL all expect you to keep mailing data clean. Quarterly bulk re-validation removes dead addresses, lowers bounce-related compliance risk, and shrinks your ESP bill.

14 email validation stages, not 3

Cheap email checkers stop at syntax and MX lookup. Every MailChecked verification passes through a full decision pipeline — DNS, SMTP, provider routing, catch-all detection, historical bounce data, and reputation scoring — before emitting a verdict.

01

Syntax normalisation

RFC 5321/5322 parse, Unicode handling, alias stripping

02

Disposable & role filter

10k+ known disposable domains; role prefix detection

03

MX record resolution

Live DNS, failover, priority ordering

04

Provider routing

Select probe strategy per-provider

05

IP & domain warm-up

Token-bucket throttle before connection

06

SMTP EHLO

Capability negotiation, TLS detection

07

STARTTLS handshake

Certificate validation; downgrade handling

08

MAIL FROM probe

Envelope-from reputation check

09

RCPT TO probe

Accept/reject; tarpit + greylist handling

10

Catch-all detection

Canary address test to classify domain policy

11

Bounce DB lookup

Long-memory cache of historical results

12

Reputation scoring

Per-domain signal aggregation

13

Gravatar / social signal

Gmail + Outlook proxy verification

14

Verdict emission

Classify + confidence score + refund eligibility

5 verdict outcomes, not 2

Cheap email validators give you Valid or Invalid. MailChecked gives you the truth — Valid, Invalid, Catch-all, Risky, or Unknown — so you can decide what to send.

Valid SMTP confirmed deliverable. Safe to send. charged
Invalid Hard-fails RCPT, bad syntax, no MX, or known-dead. charged
Catch-all Domain accepts everything — you decide whether to send. charged
Risky Disposable, role accounts, or unstable providers. charged
Unknown Greylist or temporary block — inconclusive. not charged

If a Valid bounces hard within 14 days, the credit returns to your balance automatically. Provable, not promised.

Email verification API.
One endpoint, one response.

Add real-time email validation to any stack — Node.js, Python, PHP, Ruby, Go — in minutes. A single GET returns a structured verdict with confidence score and refund eligibility. SDKs, webhooks, and Zapier-friendly.

Read the API docs →
GET /v1/check
$ curl https://api.mailchecked.com/v1/check \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer mc_live_••••" \
    -d "email=user@example.com"

{
  "email": "user@example.com",
  "verdict": "valid",
  "confidence": 0.97,
  "deliverable": true,
  "disposable": false,
  "refund_eligible": true,
  "latency_ms": 312
}

Email validation pricing — pay as you go, no subscription

Start with 100 free email verification credits. Top up only when you need more. Credits never expire and there's no monthly minimum, no seat fee, no surprise renewal.

Starter
$0 forever
100 credits on signup
  • Single + bulk validation
  • Full dashboard access
  • API access
  • All 5 verdict types
Create free account
Scale
$500 one-time
1,000,000 credits · $0.0005 each
  • Highest concurrency
  • Dedicated outbound IPs
  • SLA-backed support
  • Custom integrations
See all tiers

All prices in USD. View the full pricing table →

Frequently asked

What is email validation, and how is it different from email verification?

The terms are used interchangeably in practice. "Email validation" usually emphasises syntax and format checks; "email verification" usually emphasises live SMTP probing to confirm the mailbox exists. MailChecked does both in a single check — syntax, MX, SMTP probe, catch-all detection, disposable/role classification, and historical bounce lookup — and returns one structured verdict.

How accurate is MailChecked's email validation?

Independently sampled at ≥97% accuracy against ground-truth bounce data. We measure accuracy publicly: every Valid that bounces within 14 days is auto-refunded, which puts our economic skin in the game. Most competitors quote accuracy figures they don't refund against.

How is MailChecked different from NeverBounce, ZeroBounce, or Hunter?

We're laser-focused on accuracy and price. Most competitors charge $7–$10 per 1,000 emails and lock features behind monthly subscriptions. MailChecked charges from $5 per 1,000, never expires credits, has no subscription, and backs results with automatic refunds when a Valid verdict bounces. Same SMTP-probing engine, more honest pricing.

Can I verify email addresses in bulk?

Yes. Upload a CSV of any size to the dashboard or POST to the bulk API and download the verified result file when it's done. Every row is processed through the same 14-stage pipeline — single-shot and bulk verification share one engine, one accuracy guarantee, and one price per email.

Do you have an email verification API for developers?

Yes. A single REST endpoint (GET /v1/check) returns JSON with verdict, confidence score, deliverability flag, and refund eligibility. Sub-second typical latency, generous rate limits, idempotent requests. Read the API documentation for SDK examples in Node.js, Python, PHP, Ruby, and Go.

Do you actually probe Gmail and Outlook?

No — and you should be skeptical of any email validator that claims they do. Gmail and Outlook don't return reliable RCPT signals, and aggressive probing tanks IP reputation for everyone. We use Gravatar lookups, MX patterns, provider heuristics, and our historical bounce database instead. Safer for your IP, more accurate in practice.

Does MailChecked detect catch-all domains?

Yes. Stage 10 of the pipeline is a canary-address probe that classifies whether the destination domain accepts mail for any local part. We surface "Catch-all" as its own verdict (not folded into Valid) so you can decide whether to send and at what risk.

Can I integrate MailChecked with HubSpot, Mailchimp, Salesforce, or Zapier?

Yes — through the REST API and webhooks. Most teams use Zapier or Make.com to wire validation into existing flows (verify-on-form-submit, verify-on-CRM-create), or call the API directly from a custom integration. Full documentation in the API docs.

Can I check if an email is valid for free?

Yes — every new account starts with 100 free email verification credits, no card required. Use them on the dashboard or via the API. Cached results from prior validations are also free, so common addresses across customers don't burn fresh credits.

What happens to credits if I don't use them?

Nothing. They sit in your account forever. No "use it or lose it", no expiry sweep, no monthly resets.

How does the false-positive refund guarantee work?

If an address MailChecked marked Valid hard-bounces within 14 days, the credit returns to your balance automatically — no support ticket, no proof-of-bounce upload. You can also manually flag false positives; we credit on receipt and audit weekly.

Do you store the email lists I upload?

Bulk uploads are retained for 30 days so you can re-download results, then permanently deleted. Per-email validation results are cached using hashed identifiers (so we don't store the plaintext address in the cross-user cache) — that's how repeat checks across customers stay free. Full details in the Privacy Policy.

Can I get a DPA or GDPR documentation?

Yes — our Data Processing Agreement is publicly published and pre-signed. Email hello@mailchecked.com if you need a counter-signed copy or a custom security questionnaire response.

Is there a free trial of the email verification service?

Better — every account gets 100 free credits permanently. No card, no trial timer, no auto-conversion to a paid plan. Try the full product, then top up only if you need more.

Stop guessing.
Start sending.

Validate your first 100 emails free — no card required.

Create your free account
No subscription Credits never expire False-positive refund GDPR-friendly