In Pabbly email verification results, you will have the option to download three list –

Safe to Send  – This list contains all the data which are valid and you can safely send emails to them.

Invalid – This list holds are the data that are invalid and you should not send emails to them.

All Results – This list shows the informs you about the results codes for each email address. Here’s is a brief description for results codes –

  • “ok” –  Server responding that it is ready to receive a letter to this address and no tricks detected.
  • “error” – Server responding that delivery fails, but no information about email existence.
  •  “smtp_error” – SMTP answer of the destination server is invalid and responding with some internal error.
  •  “smtp_protocol” – The destination server allows us to connect, but the SMTP session was closed before the email was verified.
  •  “unknown_email” – Server saying that delivery fails and email does not exist.
  •  “attempt_rejected” – Delivery failure and the reason are similar to “rejected”.
  •  “relay_error” – Delivery failure because of the relaying problem from the destination server end.
  •  “antispam_system” – Some antispam technology blocking the verification process.
  •  “email_disabled” – Email account is suspended/disabled/limited and cannot receive emails.
  •  “domain_error” – The email server for the whole domain is not installed or not configured properly to receive emails.
  •  “ok_for_all” – Email server responding that it is ready to accept a letter to any email.
  •  “dead_server” – Email server dead and no connection with the server can be initiated.
  •  “syntax_error” – Syntax error in the email address.
  •  “unknown” – Email delivery failure but no information about the possible reasons responded by the destination server.
  •  “email_exists” – Email exists but we have no deliverability information (disabled email)

Sub-statuses with prefixes are very powerful information for email results understanding and choosing the email list for mailing.

Prefix “t_” means “temporary” and “p_” means “permanent”. Prefix are very useful because they give additional information about the situation. A few examples are below –

  • “p_email_disabled” – It means that the server says that email is permanently disabled.
  • “t_attempt_rejected” – It can happen when the server was just overloaded, and temporarily rejecting verification.
  • “p_error” – It has no information about email existing, and there is no chance to deliver emails in the future too.
  • “t_error” – No information about email existence but there is some chance that email is alive.

What does “antispam_system” status describe?

Nowadays people are using antispam software and various filters on their mail exchange to avoid spam or unwanted emails. Only emails that are whitelisted in their list are able to be received, and the rest emails will get bounced or marked as spam.

At Pabbly Email Verification, we detect the antispam system on those particular domain mail exchanges, which blocked the email verification process. This means the particular email under the domain is not verified whether it exists or not. The only thing which is confirmed is that they have an Antispam system. Now, if your email address is not in whitelist then your email may get bounced or marked as spam. There is no particular way to check whether these sorts of emails really exist or not.

What does “Ok_for_all” status describe?

We will try to explain in an example.

You come to a shop and asked “Do you have Windows Vista?”. The shopkeeper answers you “Yes, sure”. You asked again “Do you have Windows 7?”. The shopkeeper answer you again “Yes, we have”. You asked for the third time “Do you have Windows FE 64 bit?”. The shopkeeper answered you again “Yes”.

But you know that Windows FE 64 bit is not created by Microsoft, so they deceive. Do you trust that they have Windows Vista and Windows 7?  Probably no! There are some SMTP services that receive emails to any address (even if that particular email address was never created).  Usually, it means that there are emails redirect to other SMTP or email comes to an internal queue where the recipient will be checked and you can get a bounce due to rejection. We mark email addresses from such servers as “ok_for_all”, because they are ready to receive emails to any address, but nobody knows that happens with such an email afterward.

What do Statuses like “dead_server”, “domain_error”, “smtp_protocol” describe?

There are approximately 340 million domains on the Internet and it happens a lot that some servers that are responsible for receiving emails works incorrectly or do not work at all.

But does this happens with “common” email providers like Gmail, OutLook? Definitely, yes! “Common” email providers use lots of hardware and software to receive emails, and it happens that some router/switch/ethernet card/software are overloaded or facing downtime issues.

We don’t know how long this downtime issue will be or is it a temporary issue or the server gets started within 2 minutes or it can be 6 hrs long or the issue is a permanent one. But we do waits for some time and re-verify all emails to avoid such situations, where the email seems to be valid but due to hardware/software not working correctly, we mark such email addresses with the status as “fail”.

Which email statuses should be used for sending emails?

  1.  Emails with stats as “ok” or the email addresses in the Safe to Send List  (we guarantee 98% email deliverability on ok emails only)
  2. You can use emails with status as “ok” and “ok_for_all” but must understand the risk of ok_for_all first.
  3. You can use emails with status as “ok” and the statuses with the prefix T.

Our service won’t be responsible in case you get a high number of bounces using tips 2 and 3. You have to plan accordingly depending upon the number of emails you get in such statuses.

For example – The ratio should be like 90% ok emails and 10% another status. And keep monitoring the bounce rate so that you decide whether to send emails who had another status other than “ok”.

Note:  All the data and reports from your account that are older than 15 days from the moment when the verification process is finished will be removed permanently due to security reasons.