# Email Verifier & Deliverability Scorer (`swholmes/email-verifier`) Actor

Clean and score any email list. Checks syntax, domain MX records, disposable/free providers, and role addresses, with optional SMTP mailbox probing and catch-all detection. Feed it a list or another Actor's dataset.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/swholmes/email-verifier.md
- **Developed by:** [Scott Holmes](https://apify.com/swholmes) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Automation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 94.4% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.50 / 1,000 email verifieds

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 Verifier & Deliverability Scorer

Clean and score any email list. For each address it checks syntax, domain MX records, disposable/temporary domains, free-provider vs business, and role addresses (info@, sales@…), with an optional SMTP mailbox probe and catch-all detection. Returns a status (valid / risky / invalid) and a 0–100 deliverability score.

**This is a transformation Actor — it doesn't scrape.** It consumes an email list or another Actor's dataset. That means no anti-bot maintenance, no site breakage, near-zero run cost, and it plugs directly under every lead-gen and enrichment Actor on the platform.

### Input

| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `emails` | array | Email addresses to verify. |
| `inputDatasetId` | string | Instead of a list, pull emails from another Actor's dataset (e.g. a lead-gen run). |
| `emailField` | string | Field holding the email in that dataset (default `email`). |
| `checkSmtp` | boolean | Attempt an SMTP mailbox probe + catch-all detection. See note below. |
| `concurrency` | integer | Parallel checks. |

### Output

```json
{
  "email": "info@acme.com",
  "status": "risky",
  "score": 60,
  "domain": "acme.com",
  "hasMx": true,
  "mxHost": "aspmx.l.google.com",
  "isDisposable": false,
  "isRole": true,
  "isFreeProvider": false,
  "smtpChecked": false,
  "smtpDeliverable": null,
  "isCatchAll": null,
  "reason": "role-address"
}
```

### Scoring

Business domain with valid MX starts at 90. Free providers 75, role addresses 60 (risky), disposable 30 (risky), no MX 10 (invalid), bad syntax 0. With `checkSmtp` on: a confirmed mailbox adds +10 (→100), an SMTP rejection drops to invalid, and a catch-all domain caps at 55 (risky, because RCPT can't be trusted).

### Monetization (pay-per-event)

Charges one `email-verified` event per address. Verification credits are a well-understood purchase (Hunter, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce all price per-check) — set it competitively per 1,000 and it becomes the natural upsell beneath your own Lead Pack and Enrichment Actors.

### Important note on SMTP

Outbound port 25 is blocked on most cloud hosts, Apify included, so the live SMTP probe (`checkSmtp`) may return `null` (unknown) — in which case scoring falls back to MX + syntax + disposable + role + free-provider signals, which already catches the large majority of bad addresses. If you need guaranteed mailbox-level verification, route the SMTP step through an external verification API and merge the result; the code is structured so that's a drop-in in `verify()`.

# Actor input Schema

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

List of email addresses to verify. Ignored if inputDatasetId is set.

## `inputDatasetId` (type: `string`):

Pull emails from another Actor's dataset instead of the list above. Great for verifying a lead/enrichment run's output.

## `emailField` (type: `string`):

Which field in the input dataset holds the email address.

## `checkSmtp` (type: `boolean`):

Connect to the mail server to probe whether the mailbox exists and detect catch-all domains. NOTE: outbound port 25 is often blocked on cloud hosts; when unavailable, results fall back to MX-based scoring.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many emails to check in parallel.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "emails": [
    "info@apify.com",
    "not-an-email",
    "test@mailinator.com"
  ],
  "emailField": "email",
  "checkSmtp": false,
  "concurrency": 10
}
```

# 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": [
        "info@apify.com",
        "not-an-email",
        "test@mailinator.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("swholmes/email-verifier").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": [
        "info@apify.com",
        "not-an-email",
        "test@mailinator.com",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("swholmes/email-verifier").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": [
    "info@apify.com",
    "not-an-email",
    "test@mailinator.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call swholmes/email-verifier --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/J9UdFQSkMJTGCRj2f/builds/E4ftyvaHVgZme8U0I/openapi.json