Email Attributes inside JSON

Last updated: October 11th, 2023.

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This document describes the Reacher's JSON API response, including the is_reachable field: - safe - invalid - risky - unknown

Here is an example JSON response for someone@gmail.com (note that this email is disabled by Gmail):

{
	"input": "someone@gmail.com",
	"is_reachable": "invalid",
	"misc": {
		"is_disposable": false,
		"is_role_account": false
	},
	"mx": {
		"accepts_mail": true,
		"records": [
			"alt3.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com.",
			"gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com.",
			"alt1.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com.",
			"alt4.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com.",
			"alt2.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com."
		]
	},
	"smtp": {
		"can_connect_smtp": true,
		"has_full_inbox": false,
		"is_catch_all": false,
		"is_deliverable": false,
		"is_disabled": true
	},
	"syntax": {
		"domain": "gmail.com",
		"is_valid_syntax": true,
		"username": "someone"
	}
}

The JSON fields can be categorized into 2 categories:

The is_reachable field is an overall deliverability score. Checking this field should be enough for most use cases.

All other fields give more details about the email address (Full inbox? Catch-all? DEA? etc.).

`is_reachable`?

For each email, Reacher gives a confidence score in terms of deliverability in the is_reachable field. This field can take 4 values:

safe: We guarantee a hard bounce rate lower than 2%. Bounce rates may still happen, because we connect to the email's SMTP server from a different IP address than you, and yours might be blacklisted.

invalid: We guarantee with a confidence of 99% that this email is not deliverable.

risky: The email address appears to exist, but has quality issues that may result in low engagement or a bounce. We don't recommend sending to these emails, and don't commit on an accuracy rate. An email is considered risky when at least one of the following is true:

is a disposable email address (DEA),
is a role account (e.g. support@ or admin@),
is a catch-all address,
has full inbox.

unknown: It might happen on rare occasions that the email provider doesn't allow real-time verification of emails. In this case, there's unfortunately nothing Reacher can do. Please let us know if this happens, we're working on finding ways to solve these issues, which in most occasions are solved on a case-by-case basis.

Detailed deliverability in other fields

If the 4 variants of the is_reachable field is not enough for your use case, then you can look into the other fields, which provide more details about the email address.

When you input an email address, Reacher starts analyzing the email in 4 areas.

✏️ Syntax Checks "syntax": Syntax checks ensure that the email meets certain basic criteria such as whether it contains the "@" symbol within the email address.

🌐 Domain Name Checks "domain": Domain checking ensures that the email address contains a valid internet domain name, and validates if the featured domain is configured to accept mail.

⚙️ SMTP Checks "smtp": This function checks that the address segment before the ‘@’ sign is a valid mailbox. This is the clever part, and what sets our service apart from many others.

💡 Misc Checks "misc": This function checks some miscelleanous information about the email address. As of today, it only checks if the email address is disposable (i.e. using a temporary/burner email provider) or if it is role-base (e.g. support@ or admin@), but we're looking to add checks around whether the email provider is free or not, e.g. if it has been compromised in data breaches.

1. Syntax Checks

Syntax checks ensure that the email meets certain basic criteria such as whether it contains the "@" symbol within the email address.

✏️Which syntax checks are performed?

✅Syntax Validation

.syntax.is_valid

◻️Provider-Specific Syntax Validation

coming-soon

2. Domain Name Checks

Domain checking ensures that the email address contains a valid internet domain name, and validates if the featured domain is configured to accept mail.

🌐Which domain checks are performed?

✅Domain MTA Validation

.mx.accepts_mail

✅MX Record Checker

.mx.records