All Possible States & Reasons
Learn more about what results you can expect from Emailable.
When Emailable verifies an email address, it returns a result indicating whether that address is safe to send to, should be avoided, or requires caution.
Each verified email is assigned a state based on what our system can confirm about the mailbox, the domain, and the mail server response.
Understanding these states is important because they help you make better sending decisions, improve list quality, and reduce bounce or deliverability issues.
Verification States Overview
Emailable returns one of the following states for each email address:
- Deliverable
- Risky
- Undeliverable
- Unknown
- Duplicate
Each state reflects a different level of confidence about the email address and how it should be handled in your workflow.
Deliverable
A Deliverable email state means we can determine with high confidence that the email address exists and can receive mail.
These are the safest addresses on your list and are typically the ones you should keep for outreach, campaigns, or ongoing communication.
An accepted email means the email address exists, and the destination mail server indicates that it can receive email.
A Deliverable result generally means the mailbox is valid and active enough to accept incoming messages. This is the strongest positive result in verification.
Keep and use these email addresses in your list.
Risky
A Risky result means the email address may be valid, but there are quality or deliverability concerns that make it less reliable than a Deliverable result.
Risky emails are not automatically bad addresses, but they should be handled with caution.
Depending on your sending strategy, list source, and risk tolerance, you may decide to keep some risky addresses or remove them.
Possible reasons for Risky emails
| Risk type | Reason |
|---|---|
| Low Quality | The email address has characteristics that reduce its quality or make it less desirable to send to. |
| Low Deliverability | The email address may exist, but deliverability cannot be confirmed with the same confidence as a Deliverable result. |
Risky emails often include addresses that are more likely to create engagement issues, bounce uncertainty, or list hygiene concerns. In many cases, these addresses may still accept mail, but they are not as dependable as fully Deliverable addresses.
A Risky result may also be influenced by attributes such as role-based behavior, Accept-All behavior, disposable usage, or other quality signals, depending on the address and domain.
Use caution. Whether to keep or suppress Risky emails depends on your use case, your list quality standards, and how conservative you want to be with deliverability.
Undeliverable
An Undeliverable result means we can determine with high confidence that the email address is invalid or should not be mailed.
Possible reasons for Undeliverable emails
| Undeliverable Type | Reason |
|---|---|
| Invalid Email | The email address does not pass syntax checks. This usually means the format is incorrect. |
| Invalid Domain | The domain does not exist, is not valid, or should not be mailed to. |
| Rejected Email | The destination mail server rejected the email address because the mailbox does not exist. |
| Invalid SMTP | The mail server returned an unexpected or invalid response during verification. |
Undeliverable emails are the highest-risk addresses to send to because they are not considered valid targets for mail delivery.
Remove these addresses from your active sending list.
Unknown
An Unknown result means Emailable could not determine with confidence whether the email address is valid or invalid at the time of verification.
This does not automatically mean the address is bad. It means the mail server or domain did not provide enough information for a confident result.
Possible reasons for Unknown emails
| Unknown Error | Reason |
|---|---|
| No Connect | We could not connect to the destination mail server |
| Timeout | A DNS query or mail server session timed out before the verification could complete |
| Unavailable SMTP | The mail server was temporarily unavailable to process the request |
| Unexpected Error | An unexpected issue occurred during verification. |
Unknown results usually occur due to server-side limitations, temporary availability issues, greylisting, or other conditions that prevent a final answer.
Some Unknown emails are caused by temporary server behavior rather than permanent mailbox problems.
Duplicate
A Duplicate result means the same email address appears more than once in the same uploaded list.
This state is used to identify repeated addresses within a specific list, so you can avoid duplicate emails.
Duplicate detection is list-specific. If the same email appears multiple times in a single uploaded list, Emailable identifies the duplication and does not process it as a separate unique address.
If duplicate emails are found in separate lists, then they will be treated as separate email addresses.
Greylisting and temporary server behavior
Some Unknown emails are caused by greylisting or temporary response behavior from the receiving server.
When possible, these emails may be retried automatically, and the results may be updated later. As such, Unknown should be treated as a separate category rather than grouped with Undeliverable.
Depending on your workflow, you may choose to:
- Retry verification later
- Don’t include them in the immediate sending
- Keep them in a separate, unresolved segment
The main point is that unknown addresses should not automatically be assumed invalid.