# Email Address Validation with Bird Lookup Email Lookup Example results These are illustrative results, not live lookups. Validation does not establish consent or guarantee delivery. ## Validate your email list with confidence. Understand address quality before you choose to send. - **Smart validation process**: Use a single-address lookup to receive a verdict, a confidence score and any risk flags. Your application decides what to do with that evidence. - **Comprehensive checks**: Inspect syntax and domain problems, mailbox verdicts and typo suggestions. Distinguish an undeliverable address from one that could not be confirmed. - **Real-time protection**: Prevent invalid email submissions on forms. Get smart suggestions for common typos, helping users provide correct email addresses during signup. - **Apply your signup policy**: Use role and disposable-address flags in your signup policy. A free-provider flag identifies a consumer mailbox; it does not make that address invalid. - **Confidence with context**: Read delivery confidence alongside the result. The separate valid boolean checks format and domain setup, so it cannot establish that a mailbox exists. - **Scale your email validation**: Use the API, SDKs or CLI to check addresses in your workflow. Reuse an idempotency key when retrying a POST lookup so the answer is replayed. ## One lookup. A clearer sending decision. Connect the Email Lookup API to your form or import process. Check the submitted address, read its result and confidence, then decide whether to accept it, request a correction or investigate. Keep consent and suppression checks in the sending workflow as well. ## What your validation results tell you. Use the documented verdict with confidence and risk flags. Handle future result values without treating them as errors. - **01** Valid. The mailbox is reported as accepting mail. Continue to honor consent, preferences and suppression records. - **02** Undeliverable. The address does not accept mail. Inspect the reason for a syntax, domain or recipient problem before sending. - **03** Risky. The address may accept mail but carries risk signals, such as a role or disposable address. Review its flags against your sending policy. - **04** Typo. The address looks misspelled. Offer the suggested correction for the person to confirm; do not silently replace the address they submitted. - **05** Neutral. The mailbox could not be confirmed either way, often because the domain responds the same way for different recipients. Use confidence and your sending policy. ## Where validation fits in your workflow. Check addresses during signup or incorporate individual lookups into your list-import process. Let people confirm typo suggestions. Revisit address quality when an older audience returns, and keep your contact, suppression and preference records consistent. ## Questions about recipient validation ### How do I validate an email address with Bird? Use Email Lookup with an API key scoped for lookup. Submit one address and read its result, delivery confidence, risk flags and any typo suggestion. The dashboard, SDKs and CLI provide ways to try the same lookup. ### Which verdicts should my integration handle? The documented results are valid, neutral, risky, undeliverable and typo. Treat result as an open vocabulary and handle future values using delivery confidence. The separate valid boolean checks address form and domain setup, not whether the mailbox exists. ### What should I do with a typo or neutral result? Offer a typo suggestion for the person to confirm; never silently replace their address. Neutral means the mailbox could not be confirmed either way. Combine the result and confidence with your consent and sending policy. ### Does validation guarantee delivery or permission to email? No. A lookup helps assess address quality at that moment. It does not establish consent, remove opt-out preferences or guarantee inbox placement. Continue to honor suppression and preference records. ### Can I upload a list here? This page introduces the single-address Lookup workflow. For a larger list, integrate individual lookups into your import process and review the results. Contact sales to discuss volume; this page does not offer an unsupported bulk-upload product. ## Put address quality into practice Use validation alongside your contact data, sending preferences and delivery controls. - [Contacts and audiences](/email-api/features/audiences): Keep validated addresses with the profiles and segments you use for campaigns. - [Suppressions](/email-api/features/suppressions): Apply opt-outs and suppression rules as well as address checks. - [Deliverability](/email-api/features/deliverability): Review address quality as part of your wider sending setup. - [Inbox Insights](/email-api/features/inbox-insights): Investigate estimated inbox placement after checking recipient quality. - [Sending API](/email-api/features/sending): Connect validation results to your application’s sending workflow. - [Email overview](/email-api): Explore sending, campaigns and the rest of Bird Email. ## Scale without losing control. Organize teams in workspaces, control API access, and trace changes through audit logs. Harbor Organization Workspaces Production Sandbox ### Delivery agent API key · Customer operations team Active Permissions Access Email Read & write SMS Read & write WhatsApp Read Read & write AL Alex Lee Admin Permissions updated ### Audit log Production API key updated Alex Lee · 09:42:18 UTC Workspace Production Resource Delivery agent WhatsApp Read Read & write Succeeded [Workspaces](/docs/guides/workspaces)[Team roles](/docs/guides/users-teams-roles)[API authentication](/docs/guides/authentication) [Explore Enterprise](/enterprise) ## Start with Email. Build across channels with Bird. [Get started](/dashboard/signup?returnTo=%2Fdashboard%2Fw%2Femail) · [Contact Sales](/demo?product=email) [Email](/email-api) · [SMS](/sms-api) · [WhatsApp](/whatsapp-api) · [Apple Messages](/apple-messages-api) · [Voice](/voice-api) ## Related resources - [Email Lookup guide](/docs/guides/lookup/email-addresses) (docs) - [What are bounced emails?](/explained/deliverability/what-are-bounced-emails) (answer)