Understanding Verification Statuses

Every email Mailthentic verifies receives one of four top-level statuses. Here's what each one means and how you should act on it.

Deliverable

Safe to send.

The email address passed all checks. The domain has valid MX records, and the mail server confirmed the mailbox exists.

• deliverable_confirmed (97% confidence) — The SMTP server explicitly accepted the recipient. This is the strongest possible signal.
• deliverable_unconfirmed (78% confidence) — DNS and MX records are valid, the server is reachable, but the mailbox couldn't be explicitly confirmed (common with providers like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 that accept all RCPT TO commands).
• deliverable_unconfirmed_dns (65% confidence) — DNS-only mode was used. The domain and MX records are valid, but no SMTP check was performed.

Risky

Proceed with caution.

The email address has characteristics that increase the chance of a bounce or other delivery problem.

• risky_catch_all (58% confidence) — The domain accepts email for any address, so we can't confirm this specific mailbox exists.
• risky_missing_spf — The domain lacks an SPF record, suggesting weak email infrastructure.
• risky_missing_dmarc — The domain lacks a DMARC record.

Recommendation: Include risky addresses in your sends if you have good engagement data, but monitor bounce rates closely. Consider removing them from cold outreach.

Invalid

Do not send.

The email address is definitively bad and will bounce.

• invalid (6% confidence) — The mail server rejected the recipient (hard bounce).
• invalid_syntax — The email address is malformed.
• invalid_domain — The domain does not exist or has no DNS records.
• invalid_domain_no_mx — The domain exists but has no MX records, meaning it cannot receive email.

Recommendation: Remove these addresses immediately. Sending to invalid addresses damages your sender reputation.

Unknown

Inconclusive — try again later.

The verification could not be completed, typically due to a temporary server issue.

• unknown (40% confidence) — The mail server timed out, returned a temporary error, or was unreachable.

Recommendation: Re-verify these addresses after a few hours. If they remain unknown after multiple attempts, treat them as risky.