The Email Verifier helps you confirm whether an email address is deliverable.
Verifying email addresses is crucial for avoiding bounces that can damage your delivery rate. We always recommend using the Email Verifier or Bulk Email Verifier tools to get a complete deliverability report on your emails.
In this help article, you will learn how to:
How to verify an email address
While many of the emails returned in the Domain Search tool are already verified, you can verify an email address you have found in the Domain Search, by clicking on the Verify email button below the email:
To verify an email you can use our verification tool. Enter an email address into the Email Verifier tool and click on Verify to start a verification. (You can verify professional email addresses and webmail addresses.) If you wish to verify a list of emails, you can start a bulk task in the Bulk Email Verifier tool.
💡Emails found using the Email Finder or Bulk Email Finder tools are already verified at no additional cost.
What checks are performed with the Email Verifier
Hunter runs several checks on an email to make sure it is valid and deliverable.
Format: We verify that an email address looks like "email@provider.com" and doesn't look random or gibberish. For example, an email format such as 1e49cs1pb6@company.com won't pass the test.
Type: We check if the email address has a domain name used for temporary email addresses and we also verify if the email address uses a webmail like Gmail or Yahoo.
Server Status: We check if there are MX records on the domain. If there aren't, the email address can't receive emails. We also perform an SMTP check to see if we are able to connect to the SMTP server (indicated in MX records).
Email Status: We test the email address to see if it bounces and check if the server has a catch-all policy that accepts all email addresses. There are four possible statuses, which are detailed below.
💡More about the checks that are performed on an email address during the verification process can be found here: What checks are performed on an email with the Email Verifier?
How can I be sure an email is deliverable?
Running the emails found in Hunter or from other sources through the Email Verifier functionality will provide an accurate indication of their deliverability status.
👉The Email Verifier can provide you with four different results:
Valid email: means that the email address passed all verification checks and is valid and deliverable.
Accept all emails: Hunter, like any other verifier, cannot fully guarantee deliverability if the domain uses an accept-all policy. This policy allows all emails to be accepted, preventing us from confirming whether a specific mailbox is set up or if emails will bounce. More on Accept all domains can be found here: What does an "Accept-all" email status mean?
Invalid email: means that the email did not pass one or more checks in the email verifier and doesn’t exist.
Blocked email: the email server has blocked our verification process, so we cannot be sure if the email is valid or not. When an email has a blocked status, we do not charge any verification credits.
💡 More on the possible verification statuses of an email address can be found here: What are the possible verification statuses for an email?
What is the Confidence Score
All the emails found in Hunter have a confidence score assigned, which provides a first overview of the likelihood that the email is valid. You'll see the score right below the email address.
Email addresses with a confidence score of 90-95% or higher have a high chance of being fully deliverable, although a high score does not guarantee deliverability.
Providing an accurate and updated confidence score is our first priority: confidence scores are constantly updated based on the quality and quantity of public data points associated with the email.
To have a complete deliverability report, we highly suggest running the emails found through the Email Verifier tool.
How to save leads in the Email Verifier
You can save an email as a lead directly from the Email Verifier. It works for Valid and Accept-all emails.
Simply click on the Save as lead button next to the contact. If you want to add the new lead to a specific Leads list, click the arrow next to the Save as lead button to open a drop-down menu. From there, you can choose an existing Leads list to save the lead or create a new one.
The Add to a Campaign option allows you to either add this lead to an existing campaign or set up a new campaign for it directly, by selecting the option Create a new campaign.
Track company news with Signals
You can track news from the company as a whole, including new funding rounds and job opportunities, and receive updates on when new email addresses become available, by clicking on Follow this company on the bottom left.
You can view and manage all of your Signals from the Signals section here. To learn more about Signals, also make sure to have a look at this help guide we have created here: Hunter Signals.
You can also start a Domain Search for the company domain, directly from the Email Verifier section. We'll let you know how many email addresses we have available, simply click on See all results on the bottom right.
