How to check if an email is valid (5 methods without sending emails + Free tool)

If you want your cold emails to land in your prospects' inboxes, you should keep your bounce rate <5%. Bounce rate is the percentage of your emails that didn’t get delivered, also known as “bounced”.

A high bounce rate can harm your email deliverability which means your message won’t reach your target audience, and you won’t be able to get replies and open new business opportunities..

So how do you ensure your bounce rate is as low as possible?

By doing email verification of the address you're contacting without reaching out first (which can hurt your sender reputation).

In this article, you'll find 5 proven methods to validate email addresses without sending emails.

Free Tool to check if the email is valid

You can check up to 10 emails for free with our tool:

However, if you've got an email list with a large number of addresses to verify, you can do it in lemlist's Email Finder and Verifier.

5 other ways to check if an email is valid

1. Check the email address syntax

A valid email address should have the following format:
a username + "@" symbol + domain name

✅ peterk@johnconsulting.com
❌ peterk.johnconsulting.com

2. Hover over an email address

• In Gmail:
  
  Go to New message → Add the email address in the recipient area → Hover your mouse over the email address
  
  If the email address is valid, you should get the leads’ full name and image!

• In Google Sheets:
  
  Add the email address to the cell → Hover your mouse over the email address
  
  If the email address is valid, you should get the leads’ full name and image!

3. Search email address on Google

A quick search on Google or social media platforms will show you if the email address is used elsewhere and, therefore, legit ⬇️

4. Check email domain age

Your prospects are more likely to use long-standing domains for work purposes. Newly created email addresses can sometimes be used for spam or similar purposes.

You can check the age of a domain using a domain checker tool like Small SEO Tools!

5. Use email verifier tools

You can use email verification tools to automate syntax and domain checks and confirm whether the email exists on the server and is still active.

One of the easiest ways to find and verify leads' email addresses on the market is to use lemlist's Email Finder and Verifier.

Thanks to the waterfall enrichment method, Email Finder and Verifier combines the best third-party data sources to give you 40-55% more valid emails. This is the equivalent of asking 6 different providers for up-to-date leads’ information without navigating and subscribing to multiple apps.

Here's how to do it 👇

How to use lemlist's Email Finder and Verifier

For leads that already have an email address, you can verify their email address with one click.

In the second step of the campaign setup process for your "Lead list" after importing, you will come across the "Set up import settings" section.

Here, you will have the option to choose from various enrichments, including:

If your leads are already in your campaign - select your leads by bulk or one by one, and click on the three dots at the top right to choose "Verify email".

For each lead, lemlist will:

1. Clean lead's first and last name

2. Extract and save relevant information from their LinkedIn profiles (if available)

3. In case more emails are found, keep the best email found for the lead

4. Display the status of the email

• Deliverable: The recipient's email provider has confirmed that the email address exists and that it is safe to send messages to.
• Risky: The email address has the potential to result in a bounce or low engagement. Risky addresses include those classified as Accept All (accepts all incoming emails regardless of validity), Full Mailbox (mailbox is full and unable to receive new messages), or Disposable (temporary or throwaway email address).
• Undeliverable: The email address is either syntactically incorrect or does not exist.
• Unknown: We did not receive a response from the email provider, so the status remains uncertain.

5. If available, save additional information such as phone number, civility, job title, and other relevant details.

By executing these steps, you'll get the lead's comprehensive and accurate information, which will allow you to reach their inboxes and open new opportunities.

In the leads section of your campaign, by hovering above the enrich stats icon, you can see a portion of leads with different statuses in your campaign:

The cost of the following actions:

- Email Finder: 5 credits per lead
- Verify email: 1 credit per lead
- LinkedIn enrichment: 2 credits per lead

New lemlist users receive 100 Free Credits as part of their trial.

Free credits are also included in paying plans, reset monthly. The number of Free Credits varies based on the plan:

• Email Starter: 100 credits
• Email Pro: 250 credits
• Multichannel Expert: 500 credits
• Outreach Scale: 1,000 credits

Plus, users can purchase Additional Credits for $0.01 each. These credits will fully roll over to next month!

Here's the list of other reliable tools to perform a valid email check:

• Clearout: starts at $7 for 1000 credits
• Bouncer: starts at $0.006 for 1 credit
• NeverBounce: starts at $0.007 for 1 credit
• Emailable: starts at $0.0035 for 1 credit
• TrueMail: starts at $25 for 5000 credits
• ZeroBounce: starts at $0.002 for 1 credit
• DeBounce: starts at $0.007 for 1 credit

Simply upload your email list on their platform, and they will deliver you a CSV report that labels undeliverable and risky emails to avoid.

Key takeaways

You can spend hours writing perfect emails for the right audience, but if you send them to invalid email addresses, you can’t get replies and grow your business.

You will lose valuable resources and lower your email deliverability, risking your emails landing in the spam folder of even valid addresses.

However, to check whether an e-mail is valid, you first need to find your prospects' e-mails. To do this, you can use our free email finder.