Intro #
We have previously touched on the MailboxValidator result fields and what they mean.
In this article, we’ll explain in more details the meaning of the results fields and also how we determine if an email is valid or invalid. Let’s get started.
Let’s recap the fields inside the result #
status: Indicates whether our system considers the email address valid based on the combined results of all the preceding checks.
domain: The domain portion of the email address.
is_free: Indicates whether the email address is from a free email provider, such as Gmail or Hotmail.
is_syntax: Indicates whether the email address is syntactically valid.
is_domain: Indicates whether the email domain has valid MX records in its DNS.
is_smtp: Indicates whether the mail servers specified in the MX records are accepting SMTP connections.
is_verified: Indicates whether the mail server confirms that the email address exists.
is_server_down: Indicates whether the mail server is currently unavailable or unresponsive.
is_greylisted: Indicates whether the mail server uses greylisting, requiring a message to be resent after an initial temporary rejection.
is_disposable: Indicates whether the email address belongs to a disposable (temporary) email service.
is_suppressed: Indicates whether the email address appears on our suppression list.
is_role: Indicates whether the email address is a role-based address, such as admin@example.net, webmaster@example.net, or support@example.net.
is_high_risk: Indicates whether the email address contains high-risk keywords.
is_catchall: Indicates whether the domain is configured as a catch-all domain.
mailboxvalidator_score: The email address reputation score. A score greater than 0.70 is considered good, greater than 0.40 is fair, and 0.40 or below is poor.
time_taken: The time required to complete the verification, in seconds.
Informative fields #
Some fields are there to inform you but will not affect the final status result. It is up to the user if they wish to send emails to any email addresses that fit these criteria. As far as MailboxValidator is concerned, these are mostly valid emails. Below are the field names:
- is_free
- is_role
- is_catchall
Fields that affect the final result #
The more important fields to pay attention to are:
- is_syntax
- is_domain
- is_smtp
- is_verified
- is_server_down
- is_greylisted
- is_disposable
- is_suppressed
- is_high_risk
When you get ALL of the green-colored fields above as True, then that email address is considered to be valid. On the other hand, if you see ANY of the red-colored fields above as True, that email address is invalid.
Conclusion #
All of the above checks contribute to a simple True or False value in the status field. That’s all you need to determine whether an email address is considered valid or invalid. To minimize your bounce rate, send your email campaigns only to email addresses with a status value of True.
If you’re wondering about the mailboxvalidator_score field, it’s intended for advanced users who want more granular insight into the risk level of an email address. We won’t cover it in this tutorial. Feel free to learn more about how the mailboxvalidator_score is calculated and how to interpret it.
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Get started with MailboxValidator #
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