Email Reputation API
Improve your delivery rates, clean your email lists, and block fraudulent users with Abstract’s industry-leading Email Reputation API.
Getting Started
Abstract’s Email Reputation API requires only your unique API key api_key
and a single email email
:
This was a successful request, and all available details about that email were returned:
Request parameters
Your unique API key. Note that each user has unique API keys for each of Abstract’s APIs, so your Email Validation API key will not work for your IP Geolocation API, for example.
The email address to validate.
Response parameters
The API response is returned in a universal and lightweight JSON format.
The email address you submitted for analysis.
Whether the email is considered deliverable
, undeliverable
, or unknown
.
Additional detail on deliverability (e.g., inbox_full
, full_mailbox
, invalid_format
).
Is true
if the email follows the correct format.
Is true
if the SMTP check was successful.
Is true
if the domain has valid MX records.
List of MX records associated with the domain.
Confidence score between 0.01 and 0.99 representing email quality.
Is true
if the email is from a known free provider like Gmail or Yahoo.
Is true
if the username appears auto-generated or suspicious.
Is true
if the email is from a disposable email provider.
Is true
if the domain is configured to accept all emails.
Is true
if the email uses subaddressing (e.g., user+label@domain.com
).
Is true
if the email is a role-based address (e.g., info@domain.com
, support@domain.com
).
Is true
if a strict DMARC policy is enforced on the domain.
Is true
if the domain enforces a strict SPF policy.
Is Estimated age of the email address in days, or null
if unknown.
First name associated with the email address, if available.
Last name associated with the email address, if available.
Name of the email provider (e.g., Google, Microsoft).
Organization linked to the email or domain, if available.
Type of organization (e.g., company
).
Domain part of the submitted email address.
Age of the domain in days.
Is true
if the domain has a live website.
Name of the domain registrar.
URL of the domain registrar.
Date when the domain was registered.
Last renewal date of the domain.
Expiration date of the domain registration.
Is true
if the domain uses a top-level domain associated with risk.
Risk status of the email address: low
, medium
, or high
.
Risk status of the domain: low
, medium
, or high
.
Total number of data breaches involving this email.
Date of the first known breach.
Date of the most recent breach.
List of breached domains including:
Domain affected by the breach.
Date when the breach occurred.
Request examples
Checking a malformed email
In the example below, we show the request and response for an email does not follow the proper format. If the email fails the is_format_valid
check, then the other checks will not be performed and will be returned as false
The request was valid and successful, and so it returns the following:
Possible values for status_detail
This field provides more information about the deliverability result.
When status
is deliverable
:
- valid_email: The email address exists, is valid, and can receive new emails.
- high_traffic_email: The email is valid and exists, but the server is receiving too many messages. Your email might bounce.
When status
is undeliverable
:
- invalid_mailbox: The email address doesn’t exist or is no longer active. It can’t receive new emails.
- full_mailbox: The email exists but its mailbox is full, so new emails will bounce.
- invalid_format: The email doesn’t follow the correct format (e.g., missing
@
or domain). - dns_record_not_found: We couldn’t find MX records for the domain, so we couldn’t complete the SMTP check.
- unavailable_server: The mail server for the domain is currently unreachable.
When status
is unknown
:
- null
Bulk upload (CSV)
Don’t know how to or don’t want to make API calls? Use the bulk CSV uploader to easily use the API. The results will be sent to your email when ready.
Here are some best practices when bulk uploading a CSV file:
- Ensure the selected column contains the email addresses to be analyzed.
- Remove any empty rows from the file.
- Include only one email address per row.
- The maximum file size permitted is 50,000 rows.
Response and error codes
Whenever you make a request that fails for some reason, an error is returned also in the JSON format. The errors include an error code and description, which you can find in detail below.
Code | Type | Details |
---|---|---|
200 | OK | Everything worked as expected. |
400 | Bad request | Bad request. |
401 | Unauthorized | The request was unacceptable. Typically due to the API key missing or incorrect. |
422 | Quota reached | The request was aborted due to insufficient API credits. (Free plans) |
429 | Too many requests | The request was aborted due to the number of allowed requests per second being reached. This happens on free plans as requests are limited to 1 per second. |
500 | Internal server error | The request could not be completed due to an error on the server side. |
503 | Service unavailable | The server was unavailable. |
Code samples and libraries
Please see the top of this page for code samples for these languages and more. If we’re missing a code sample, or if you’d like to contribute a code sample or library in exchange for free credits, email us at: team@abstractapi.com
Other notes
A note on metered billing: Each individual email you submit counts as a credit used. Credits are also counted per request, not per successful response. So if you submit a request for the (invalid) email address “kasj8929hs”, that still counts as 1 credit.