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Email Verifier
Email Verifier and Confidence Score
Email Verifier and Confidence Score

Verify the deliverability of an email and ensure it won't bounce back

Updated over a week ago

We created the Email Verifier, which allows you to review the deliverability status of professional emails before sending an email.

Verifications are an essential step to filter email addresses that cause bounces and can hurt your delivery rate, so we always recommend using the Email Verifier or Bulk Email Verifier tool to have a full deliverability report on your emails.

In this help article, you will learn how to:


How to verify an email address

To verify an email address you have found in the Domain Search, click on the "Verify Email" button below the email:

A GIF of a small part of the Domain Search showing how to verify a contact by clicking on the "Verify email" button.

You can also verify any professional email address using the Email Verifier tool:

A screenshot of an email verification in the Email Verifier.

What checks are performed with the Email Verifier

Hunter runs several checks to make sure the best verification score is provided:

  • Format: we verify the format of the email address is correct and looks something like "email@provider.com". We also ensure the address doesn't look like a random email address. For example, 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 and see if it bounces or not and we check if the server has a catch-all policy that accepts all the email addresses. There are 4 possible statuses, which are detailed below.


How can I be sure an email is deliverable?

Running the emails that are gathered in Hunter or from other sources through the Email Verifier functionality will give you an accurate indication of the deliverability status of the email.

The Email Verifier can provide you with 4 different results:

Valid email: it means every information we got regarding the email was fine as it passed all our verification checks.

A deliverable email can also provide sources where it can be found on the web.

A GIF showing a live verification of an email address.

Accept all emails: Hunter can't be certain about the deliverability of the email as the domain associated with it won't allow us to perform a full verification due to its accept-all policy.

Accept all domains are set up to accept all emails, which prevents us from knowing if a mailbox has indeed been set up and if emails sent to this address will bounce or not.

For example, the domain “hubspot.com” is one of these domains. So, if we check anything@hubspot.com we will always receive an “OK” response for any mailbox. This is why we cannot be sure the emails associated with them are valid.

A screenshot of the Email Verifier showing an Accept-all email status result.

Invalid email: the email did not pass one or more checks in the email verifier and the email doesn’t exist.

In the example below, both the server and email status failed for the email, meaning the email will certainly bounce as it does not exist and should not be used.

A screenshot of the Email Verifier showing an Invalid result.

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 is blocked, it does not cost any verification credits.


What is the Confidence Score

All the emails found in Hunter have a confidence score assigned which will provide you with a first overview of the likelihood that the email is valid. You'll see the score right below the email address.

The image represents a Screenshot of part of the Domain Search, highlighting the confidence score associated with a 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 that are gathered through the Email Verifier tool. 


How to Save Leads

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.

A screenshot of the Email Verifier highlighting how to save a lead to an existing campaign.

The "Add to a campaign" option instead, provides you with the choice to add this lead to an existing campaign or to directly create a new campaign to add this lead to.

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