# Email List Checker: Valid, Disposable & Dead Emails (`scrapemint/email-list-checker`) Actor

Clean your email list in bulk. For every address: is it written correctly, does the domain exist, can it receive mail, is it a throwaway address, a free inbox or a role inbox like info@, and is the sender setup (SPF, DMARC) in place. Typo fixes included. Paste thousands at once. No API key needed.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapemint/email-list-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Ken M](https://apify.com/scrapemint) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Marketing
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.00 / 1,000 email checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Email List Checker: Valid, Disposable & Dead Emails

Clean your email list in bulk before you send. Paste one email or thousands, and get one clear row per address: **good, risky or bad**, with the reasons spelled out.

Built for **sales teams, marketers, agencies and anyone with a lead list**. Dead and throwaway addresses hurt your sender reputation and waste your outreach. This actor removes them in minutes, with no signup at the big verification services and no API key.

### What you get for each email

- **Verdict**: good, risky or bad, plus plain word reasons.
- **Written correctly?** Catches malformed addresses.
- **Does the domain exist?** Dead domains mean dead emails.
- **Can it receive mail?** Checks the domain's mail servers (MX records).
- **Throwaway address?** Checked against a list of about 8,000 disposable email services (mailinator, 10minutemail and friends).
- **Free inbox?** gmail, yahoo, outlook and other personal providers, so you can split business from personal contacts.
- **Role inbox?** info@, support@, billing@ and similar shared inboxes.
- **Typo fix**: "jane@gmial.com" gets "did you mean gmail.com?".
- **Sender setup**: does the domain have SPF and DMARC records.

Bare domains work too: paste "shopify.com" and get the domain level report.

### Example output

```json
{
  "email": "jane@gmial.com",
  "domain": "gmial.com",
  "verdict": "risky",
  "reasons": ["possible typo, did you mean gmail.com?"],
  "validSyntax": true,
  "domainExists": true,
  "canReceiveMail": true,
  "mailServers": ["mail.h-email.net"],
  "disposable": false,
  "freeProvider": false,
  "roleInbox": false,
  "didYouMean": "gmail.com",
  "hasSpf": false,
  "hasDmarc": false
}
```

### Pricing

**$0.002 per email checked.** The **first 2 rows of every run are free** so you can test first.

| List size | Typical verification service | This actor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1,000 emails | $8 to $10, signup required | **$2, no signup** |
| 10,000 emails | $70 to $100 | **$20** |

Honest note on scope: these are DNS level checks. We never contact each inbox, so a "good" verdict means the address is well formed and its domain accepts mail, not that the exact inbox exists. It catches the dead, throwaway and mistyped addresses that make up most list rot, at a fraction of the usual price.

### How to run it via API

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/scrapemint~email-list-checker/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"emails": ["sarah@shopify.com", "test@mailinator.com", "jane@gmial.com"]}'
```

### How it works

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    A[Your email list] --> B[Syntax and typo checks]
    B --> C[DNS lookups: domain, mail servers, SPF, DMARC]
    C --> D[Throwaway, free and role inbox flags]
    D --> E[One row per email: good, risky or bad]
```

Lookups run through DNS over HTTPS and are cached per domain within the run, so 10,000 emails across 2,000 domains finish in a few minutes.

### Frequently asked questions

**Is this the same as full email verification?** Not quite. Services that "ping" each inbox talk SMTP to the mail server. We stop at the DNS level, which is why we can be this cheap and fast. For most list cleaning jobs (dead domains, throwaways, typos, role inboxes) that covers what matters.

**Where does the throwaway list come from?** A widely used open source blocklist of disposable email services, bundled into the actor.

**Can I check domains without emails?** Yes, paste bare domains and you get the same domain level report.

### More tools from Scrapemint

- [Website Contact Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapemint/website-contact-scraper): find emails, phones and social profiles on any website, then clean them here.
- [Domain WHOIS & Age Checker](https://apify.com/scrapemint/domain-whois-checker): age, registrar and owner info for any domain.
- [Website Tech Stack Detector](https://apify.com/scrapemint/website-tech-stack-detector): what a company's website is built with.

# Actor input Schema

## `emails` (type: `array`):

One email per line. You can paste thousands, they are checked in bulk. Bare domains (e.g. shopify.com) work too and get a domain level report.

## `checkSenderSetup` (type: `boolean`):

Also check whether each domain has SPF and DMARC records. Useful when you want to know if a domain takes email seriously.

## `maxRows` (type: `integer`):

Cap on emails checked. Controls total cost. First 2 rows per run are free.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "emails": [
    "sarah@shopify.com",
    "mike.jones@gmail.com",
    "test@mailinator.com",
    "jane@gmial.com",
    "bob@this-domain-does-not-exist-xk29.com",
    "not-an-email",
    "info@apify.com"
  ],
  "checkSenderSetup": true,
  "maxRows": 1000
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "emails": [
        "sarah@shopify.com",
        "mike.jones@gmail.com",
        "test@mailinator.com",
        "jane@gmial.com",
        "bob@this-domain-does-not-exist-xk29.com",
        "not-an-email",
        "info@apify.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapemint/email-list-checker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "emails": [
        "sarah@shopify.com",
        "mike.jones@gmail.com",
        "test@mailinator.com",
        "jane@gmial.com",
        "bob@this-domain-does-not-exist-xk29.com",
        "not-an-email",
        "info@apify.com",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapemint/email-list-checker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "emails": [
    "sarah@shopify.com",
    "mike.jones@gmail.com",
    "test@mailinator.com",
    "jane@gmial.com",
    "bob@this-domain-does-not-exist-xk29.com",
    "not-an-email",
    "info@apify.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call scrapemint/email-list-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=scrapemint/email-list-checker",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/peTFTYjemCWmIgDFF/builds/7Ui7TosxBYpwrsIY1/openapi.json