Free email checker and verifier that resolves catch-all addresses
Verify an email address in seconds: syntax, MX records and a live SMTP check on the mailbox itself. On catch-all domains, where most free checkers stop at a label, this one keeps going and returns valid or invalid.
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Enter a corporate or consumer address in the console input to run a live DNS + SMTP probe.
Free, no signup, no card. One address per check, full SMTP-level verification.
How to check if an email address is valid
A proper check has four stages, and the free tools that only do the first one are the reason so many "verified" lists still bounce.
- Syntax. Is the address well formed: one @, a valid local part, a domain with a TLD. This catches typos and nothing else.
- MX lookup. Does the domain publish mail exchanger records. No MX means no mailbox can exist there, so the address is dead before any message is sent.
- SMTP mailbox probe. Open a conversation with the receiving server, name the recipient, and read the reply. A 250 means the mailbox is accepted; a 550 means it is not there.
- Catch-all resolution. If the server said yes to a random address too, step three proved nothing. This is where most checkers print "catch-all" and stop. Giggal runs the extra signals that separate a real mailbox from an accept-all reply and returns valid or invalid.
The result panel above shows each stage as it completes, plus the mail provider, the MX host, and whether the address is disposable, role-based or on a free provider.
What this email checker tells you
Each check ends in one of three results. Valid means the mailbox accepted the recipient and passed the extra signals, so mail sent to it should land. Invalid means the address failed syntax, has no mail server, or the server rejected the mailbox outright, so it will hard bounce. Unknown is rare here and means the server did not answer in time or is greylisting new senders; retry later rather than treating it as dead.
Under the result, the panel lists the details a deliverability check depends on: the mail provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, a gateway such as Proofpoint), the MX host that answered, whether the address is disposable (a temporary inbox that will vanish), role-based (info@, sales@, support@, which are shared inboxes and poor outreach targets) and whether it sits on a free provider like Gmail or Yahoo, which matters when you are qualifying B2B leads.
When to use a single-email check
- Before replying to an inbound lead whose address looks typed by hand.
- When a form signup bounces and you want to know if the address ever existed.
- To test one address from a purchased list before paying to clean the whole file.
- To confirm a contact on a catch-all domain that another tool marked "risky".
For a whole list, the single checker is the wrong tool: sign up, upload the file, and clean your email list with the same checks run on every row, 1,000 credits free and no card.
What a catch-all domain does to an email check
A checker verifies a mailbox by opening an SMTP conversation with the receiving server and naming the recipient. On most domains the server answers honestly: it accepts addresses that exist and rejects the ones that do not. A catch-all domain is set up to accept every recipient it is offered. Ask it about a real employee and it says yes. Ask it about a name you invented on the spot and it says yes to that too. The reply is identical either way, so the yes carries no information about the person behind the address. Administrators configure domains this way on purpose, often to avoid losing mail sent to a mistyped address or to route everything through a single gateway. The side effect is that the usual mailbox test goes quiet, and a checker that leans on it alone has nothing left to report but the label.
Why most free email checkers stop at "catch-all"
Detecting a catch-all domain is cheap. A tool looks up the domain's mail servers, opens one connection, and offers a random address that almost certainly does not exist. If the server accepts it, the domain accepts everything, and the tool has its answer in a single round trip. That is why nearly every free checker will readily tell you a domain is catch-all. Working out which mailboxes are real behind that domain is a different job. It takes more probes, more signals, and infrastructure that holds a clean sending reputation while it works, so most free tools stop at the label and hand the rest back to you. This checker runs the full verification instead, which is why it is limited to a handful of checks per visitor.
What to do with catch-all addresses on a list
On a B2B list, catch-all addresses are rarely a rounding error. They often make up a large share of your contacts, because so many companies route mail through gateways that accept everything. They are not invalid. A good portion of them are real people you want to reach, which is why deleting the whole segment quietly throws away pipeline. The better move is to treat them as their own group. Pull the catch-all addresses out, verify them properly so each one gets a real result, and send only to the confirmed mailboxes. For a full list rather than one address at a time, you can verify catch-all & risky emails in the app and keep the real contacts hiding inside.
Frequently asked questions
No. A catch-all domain accepts mail for every address, real or not. The mailbox behind it might be perfectly active. Catch-all describes how the domain is configured, not whether a person is there.
A full verifier. Syntax is the first step, then the MX lookup, then an SMTP conversation with the mail server to confirm the mailbox. On catch-all domains it goes one step further and resolves the address to valid or invalid.
That the mailbox was confirmed, not just that the domain accepted the recipient. A plain catch-all label only tells you the server says yes to everything. Valid here means the address passed the extra checks that separate a real mailbox from one that will bounce or vanish.
A handful of free checks, with no signup and no card. Each check runs the full verification, which is why the number is small. For a whole list, sign up and use your 1,000 free credits.
Yes. Different tools use different words for the same setup. A domain configured to accept mail for any address is catch-all to some providers and accept-all to others.
Detecting that a domain is catch-all takes one lookup. Working out whether a specific mailbox exists behind it takes considerably more, so most free tools do the cheap part and leave the rest to you.
Not on this page. Sign up for 1,000 free credits, no card required, and upload the list.
Check your whole list
1,000 free credits, no card required.