Every address you verify comes back with one status. You pay only for the two definite answers: deliverable and invalid.
The statuses
| Status | What it means | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Deliverable | The mailbox exists and accepts email. Safe to send. | 1 |
| Invalid | The mailbox doesn't exist. Sending to it will bounce. | 1 |
| Catch-all | The domain accepts mail for any address, real or not, so a normal check can't tell whether this mailbox exists. You can resolve it separately. | free |
| Risky | The mail server didn't give a clear answer, for example because it was greylisting or limiting checks. We flag it rather than guess. | free |
In a downloaded results file, risky addresses have the status Unknown. In a bulk job you may also see Skipped: those rows weren't checked because your credits ran out. Nothing was charged for them, and Resume checks them once you add credits.
What to do with each result
Deliverable
Send. If a deliverable address later bounces, see A verified email bounced.
Invalid
Remove it from your sequence. If you know the person's name, the email finder can look for the right address at the same company.
Catch-all
The domain accepts everything, so the address may or may not reach a person. Resolve it to get a definite answer: 5 when it comes back deliverable or invalid, free when it can't be resolved. See Resolve catch-all addresses.
After resolution the status reads Deliverable/Catch-All or Invalid/Catch-All, so you can still see the domain is catch-all.
Risky
Try again later. Risky results are free, so checking again costs nothing. If the same address stays risky, leave it out of high-volume sends. In bulk results, the reason column shows Greylisted — retry later when the server asked us to come back later.
Invalid addresses hurt your sender reputation. Remove them before you send, even when the rest of the list looks clean.
Checks shown with every result
A single check shows four checks under the status:
- Syntax valid: the address is well formed.
- Disposable domain: whether the domain belongs to a temporary email service (Blocklisted or Not on blocklist).
- Role-based address: a team inbox such as info@ or support@ rather than a person (Role address or Personal mailbox).
- SMTP mailbox: Mailbox exists, Mailbox not found, Catch-all server or Could not probe mailbox.
In bulk results the same flags appear in the Flags column as role and disposable. See Role and disposable addresses.
Deliverability index
Next to the result you'll see how strictly the receiving domain filters incoming mail:
| Rating | Read it as |
|---|---|
| High | Standard email setup. Your emails should land normally. |
| Moderate | Some filtering in place. Well-configured sending domains should deliver fine. |
| Low | Strict filtering. Make sure your sending domain has SPF, DKIM and warm-up in place. |
| Very Low | An enterprise security gateway sits in front of the mailboxes. Cold outreach will likely be blocked. |
The status tells you whether the mailbox exists; the index tells you how hard it is to land in it. See The deliverability index.
Re-checking an address
An address you verified in the last 180 days comes back from your history at no cost, marked Free, with the date it was last checked. To run a fresh test, press Re-check: that runs a new verification at the normal price. See Re-checks and the 180-day history.