# Email Validator: Bulk List Verifier, Pay Per Email Checked (`mrlarryjohnson/email-validator-api`) Actor

Validate email lists without sending a thing: syntax, DNS/MX existence, disposable-domain detection, role-based and free-provider flags, 0-100 deliverability score. DNS failures are free, never faked.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/mrlarryjohnson/email-validator-api.md
- **Developed by:** [Larry Johnson](https://apify.com/mrlarryjohnson) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Lead generation, Marketing
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 email checkeds

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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#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 Validation API — clean your lists without sending a thing

Feed it a list, get back a verdict per address: **valid / risky / disposable /
invalid / unknown**, with a 0–100 deliverability score and the exact reasons.
No emails are ever sent. Pay per address checked; our own failures are free.

### What's checked

| Check | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `syntaxValid` | Structurally a real address |
| `domainExists` / `hasMx` | DNS says the domain exists and accepts mail (MX, with A fallback) |
| `disposable` | Throwaway domains incl. their subdomains (mailinator, 10minutemail, yopmail, ...) — covers common providers; obscure ones can slip through |
| `roleBased` | info@, sales@, admin@ — weak targets for outreach |
| `freeProvider` | gmail/yahoo/outlook etc. — fine for B2C, weak signal for B2B |
| `score` + `verdict` | 0–100 confidence and the bottom line |

### Honest by design

- **No SMTP-handshake theater.** From shared cloud IPs, SMTP probing is widely
  blocked and greylisted — services that claim it from a datacenter are selling
  you noise. We only run checks that are trustworthy from where this actually runs.
- **DNS failures are never faked.** If our resolver times out, you get
  `verdict: "unknown"` with `dnsError` set — and that row is **not billed**.
  A timeout is our problem, not proof your lead is bad.
- **Batched delivery:** results are pushed and billed every 250 rows, so even an
  interrupted run delivers what it completed — never all-or-nothing.
- **Dedup-friendly:** domain lookups are cached per run, so 5,000 @gmail.com
  rows cost one DNS query.

### Typical uses

Clean a lead list before a campaign (bounces kill sender reputation), validate
signups at the edge, or audit a purchased list before you pay for it twice.

### Output example

```json
{
  "email": "jane.doe@gmail.com",
  "verdict": "valid",
  "score": 100,
  "syntaxValid": true, "domainExists": true, "hasMx": true,
  "disposable": false, "roleBased": false, "freeProvider": true
}
```

Built by the maker of the [whale-tracking and MCP suite](https://apify.com/mrlarryjohnson)
— same rules everywhere: fail-loud integrity, errors never billed.

# Actor input Schema

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

The email addresses to validate. One per line in the editor (or pass an array / a comma- or newline-separated string via API).

## `maxEmails` (type: `integer`):

Safety cap on how many emails one run will process.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "emails": [
    "jane.doe@gmail.com",
    "info@apify.com",
    "x@mailinator.com"
  ],
  "maxEmails": 10000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

All records produced by this run as JSON items.

# 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": [
        "jane.doe@gmail.com",
        "info@apify.com",
        "x@mailinator.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("mrlarryjohnson/email-validator-api").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": [
        "jane.doe@gmail.com",
        "info@apify.com",
        "x@mailinator.com",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("mrlarryjohnson/email-validator-api").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).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": [
    "jane.doe@gmail.com",
    "info@apify.com",
    "x@mailinator.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call mrlarryjohnson/email-validator-api --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,mrlarryjohnson/email-validator-api"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/odTOEK3SJJ0e5Yuxc/builds/54u9GDc3cxwOSN2qs/openapi.json