How to Check If an Email Address Is Valid Without Sending an Email

How to check an email address

Open the checker and choose Single check. Paste the address into the Email address field, then select Verify.

Copy only the address. If you copied a contact from an email app, remove the person’s name and any surrounding brackets or spaces. If the address has an obvious typo, ask the person to correct it; guessing a replacement could send your message to someone else.

The checker displays four labels below the field. You can open their explanations for more detail.

Check an email address for free →

What the results tell you

Sending recommendation

Start with Safe to send or Do not send. This is the checker’s overall recommendation for the address.

If a subscriber’s result is Safe to send, keep the address in your mailing list. If it is Do not send, exclude it from the campaign. For an important customer enquiry, ask for an updated address through their account or an existing support conversation.

Quality category

The category identifies the type of address. Corporate and Personal addresses also have prime and basic quality levels. Use the overall sending recommendation to decide whether to include the address; you do not need to choose a cutoff between those levels yourself.

Shared inbox

The shared-inbox result identifies addresses used by a team or department, such as sales@ or support@. It is separate from the quality rating. As the screenshot shows, an address can be both Corporate prime and Shared inbox.

Domain spam filters

The fourth label shows whether the domain uses strong spam filters. In the example, the result is No strong spam filters.

If filters are detected, keep that information with the contact’s other results. Across a mailing list, you can use it to compare how these contacts respond to your campaigns. It describes the domain’s filtering setup, not the delivery status of an email you have sent.

What to do after the check

A temporary address on a discount form

A visitor enters a disposable address to collect a code. The checker identifies the temporary inbox, so you can leave it out of the welcome series. If this keeps happening, turn on the signup form’s disposable-email filter. The disposable email guide shows how.

A shared address on a business enquiry

A retailer requests trade prices using a team address. If the sending recommendation is good, reply with the requested prices and ordering information. The Shared inbox label explains who may read the reply; it is not a reason to reject the enquiry.

An unfamiliar address from an existing customer

Some customers use long addresses or privacy aliases that forward to their regular inbox. Check the address before removing it. If the result is good, you can continue using the address the customer provided. If it is Broken, ask them to update their details.

Free email checks and paid verification

Getsitecontrol analyzes address and domain information to produce its recommendation and categories. It does this without sending a test message or running an SMTP conversation with the receiving server.

SMTP verification asks that server about a particular inbox. It is useful when you need the server’s response about accepting mail for that address. The SMTP specification describes how these verification requests work.

Paid verification services often bundle SMTP checks with classification and other tools. Getsitecontrol provides the quality results described above for free, without verification credits.

Confirming a new subscription

After checking a new signup, you can ask the subscriber to confirm by email. This is called double opt-in: they enter an address, receive your confirmation message, and click a link to join the list.

For example, someone signs up for your weekly newsletter. Your confirmation email can say “Confirm your subscription to our weekly gardening tips” and include one confirmation button. The subscriber knows who is writing and what will arrive next.

Getsitecontrol includes customizable double opt-in emails on Free. Use your name and branding so the message is easy to recognize.

Checking a whole list

For a file of addresses, choose Bulk check and upload a CSV with up to 50,000 unique emails. You get a chart and a downloadable result for each address. The email list cleaning guide shows how to use that report to update your mailing list.

Automatic quality checks in Getsitecontrol

Getsitecontrol Pro adds Quality labels to contacts automatically. Use them to choose recipients for broadcasts and automated emails. You can also block disposable and untrusted addresses before they enter your database; the signup filtering guide covers the setup.