This free email verifier checks any email address, or a whole pasted list, for syntax errors, a working mail server (MX), SPF and DMARC. It runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded. What it cannot do: confirm a mailbox exists. Only a server-side SMTP probe or a real send can do that.
One address per line. Pasted CSV rows work too: we pull the address out of each line.
Every row carries the reason for its verdict, the mail host we found and the domain's SPF and DMARC state.
One DNS lookup per unique domain, cached for the whole session. Five hundred addresses on one domain cost one lookup, not five hundred.
Syntax and DNS are the cheap half. The other half is sending from a domain that authenticates, at a volume that does not burn it.
Send with OverloopEvery email verification tool sits somewhere on this ladder. Tools sell the top rungs and quietly deliver the bottom ones, so here is the whole ladder with what each rung proves and what it costs.
| Method | What it proves | What it cannot prove | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syntax check this tool | The address is a well formed address under RFC 5321 and RFC 5322 length and character rules. | Anything at all about the domain or the mailbox. A perfectly formed address can point nowhere. | Free, instant, works offline |
| MX and DNS lookup this tool | The domain exists, runs a mail server, and which provider hosts it. SPF and DMARC presence at the domain. | Whether the specific mailbox behind that server exists, or whether it is still in use. | Free, instant, one lookup per domain |
| List hygiene flags this tool | Disposable domains, role accounts, free providers, and typos in common domains with the correction. | Whether a flagged address is genuinely worth removing. That is a judgement call about your offer. | Free, instant, no lookup needed |
| SMTP probe (RCPT TO) | The receiving server's own answer for that one mailbox, at that one moment, when it answers honestly. | Nothing on a catch-all domain, which accepts every address. Many providers also refuse to answer probes or answer 250 for addresses that do not exist. | Paid, priced per address. Needs a server, not a browser. |
| Catch-all detection | Whether the domain accepts mail for addresses that were never created, which tells you the SMTP probe is meaningless there. | Which mailboxes on that domain are real. On a catch-all domain, no verifier can tell you. | Paid, usually bundled with the SMTP probe |
| A real send | Everything. A hard bounce or a delivery is the only definitive answer that exists. | Nothing. This is the ceiling. It is also the one method that costs you something you cannot buy back. | Free to run, paid for in sender reputation |
Bounce rate targets to keep in mind: Google and Yahoo both publish sender guidance that treats a spam complaint rate at or above 0.3 percent as a problem, and mailbox providers weigh repeated hard bounces the same way. Cleaning syntax and DNS failures before you send removes the cheapest source of both.
Verifying that a mailbox exists means opening a TCP connection to the receiving mail server on port 25, saying HELO, then MAIL FROM, then RCPT TO, and reading the response code. JavaScript in a browser tab cannot open a raw TCP socket. There is no flag, no permission prompt and no clever workaround. Any tool whose verification happens entirely in your browser stops where this one stops.
So when a free web tool tells you an address is "valid" or shows you a green tick per address, one of three things is true. It runs the SMTP probe on its own server and is not free at scale. It checks syntax and DNS and calls that "valid", which is what this page refuses to do. Or it guesses.
The practical answer is a sequence, not a single tool. Strip syntax and DNS failures for free with this email checker. Pay for an SMTP probe only on what survives, and only when the list is large enough to matter. Then let real sends give you the last, definitive answer, on small batches first so a bad segment cannot take your domain down with it. If you would rather have the whole sequence run inside one workflow, that is what Overloop's email verification does before a campaign goes out.
One address, a column pasted out of a spreadsheet, or a few thousand rows of CSV. We pull the address out of each line.
Syntax per address, then one cached DNS lookup per unique domain for MX, SPF and DMARC. Progress is shown as it runs.
Read the annotated table, copy the addresses that passed, or export every row with its reason to CSV.
0 .), which is the domain owner explicitly saying it accepts no mail. Both bounce, every time.Already have the address and want to know who is behind it, or have the person and need the address? Use the reverse email lookup to go from an address to a person, and the email finder to go the other way. Verify whatever comes out of either one here before you send to it.
0 . It is defined in RFC 7505 and it means the domain owner has explicitly declared that this domain accepts no email. example.com publishes one. Anything you send to a null MX domain bounces immediately, so those rows are safe to delete without paying anyone to check them.Overloop verifies, sequences and sends, then tells you who replied. First campaign live in 15 minutes.
Try Overloop free