Free tool · open-source lists
Disposable email checker
This disposable email checker tells you whether an address belongs to a temporary inbox service or a free webmail provider, and whether its domain can receive email at all. Enter an email address or just the domain.
Compared with 9,189 known disposable and 4,459 free email domains, plus a live MX lookup.
How this disposable email checker works
The checker looks at the domain only: everything after the @, or the domain you typed. Three things happen when you click Check:
- Disposable list. The domain is compared with our list of disposable email domains, imported from the open-source disposable-email-domains project. Parent domains count too:
test.mailinator.commatches becausemailinator.comis on the list. - Free provider list. The same comparison against a list of free webmail domains (Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo and thousands of smaller ones), from the open-source freemail project.
- MX lookup. A live DNS query for the domain’s MX records shows whether it can receive email at all.
What you type isn’t sent to our servers: both lists are downloaded to your browser and compared there, and the MX lookup goes from your browser to Cloudflare’s public DNS-over-HTTPS resolver, which sees only the domain. The part before the @ never leaves the page. The counts under the input field show how many domains each list holds right now.
What the result means
| Result | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Disposable: matched | The domain (or a parent domain) is a known temporary email service | Ask for a permanent address |
| Free email provider | A personal webmail address, not a company domain | Fine for consumers; for B2B forms you may ask for a work address |
| No MX records | The domain has no mail server, so no address there can receive email | Treat as undeliverable |
| Not on the list, MX found | Not a known throwaway service, and the domain can receive mail | Check the mailbox itself: is this a real email address? |
How to check if an email address is disposable
Without a tool, the steps are the same as above, just slower:
- Take the domain after the
@. Ignore the name before it: throwaway services accept any name. - Search for the domain in a disposable domain list. Our disposable email domains list can be searched by domain or address, and downloaded as TXT or JSON if you want to check a whole file yourself.
- Look up its MX records with the MX lookup. No mail server means no inbox at all.
- Open the domain in a browser. A temporary inbox service usually says what it is on its home page.
For a sign-up form or a CRM, do it in code: the API section below shows the one field you need.
Fake email checker: disposable is only one sign
A throwaway address works for a while; it just won’t last. A fake address is often worse: it doesn’t exist at all. A disposable check alone won’t find these, so a fake email address checker needs more than one test:
- Does the mailbox exist? The free check Is this a real email address? asks the recipient’s mail server without sending a message, and also flags role addresses and typo domains.
- Is it even an address? The email syntax checker finds malformed input.
- Is the email you received a scam? That’s a different question: a scammer can write from a real, working mailbox. The scam email checker looks at the sender’s domain and authentication instead.
Disposable email checker API
Checking by hand doesn’t scale to a sign-up form. The email validation API returns a disposable field for every address, together with format_valid, mx_found, smtp_check, role, free, a state and a quality score from 0 to 1:
curl "https://api.emailvalidation.io/v1/info?email=jane@example.com" \
-H "apikey: YOUR-API-KEY"
In your sign-up handler, reject the address when disposable is true, and ask the person for a permanent one. To check a whole list for throwaway addresses, the email list cleaning service flags them in every row of your file, and the free bulk email verifier checks up to 50 addresses per run (without an account, a few addresses an hour).
Why detect disposable addresses?
- Free-trial abuse: one person, many trials.
- Fake accounts: spam in communities and marketplaces.
- Wasted sends: the inbox expires, so your onboarding emails bounce or go unread, and bounces hurt your sender reputation.
- Polluted metrics: sign-ups that will never convert.
Disposable vs. free email
Free providers (Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo) give people permanent personal addresses: these are real customers. Disposable services give temporary ones. Block disposable addresses; for B2B forms you may additionally ask for a work address instead of a free one. Unsure whether an unusual free domain such as @ymail.com or @me.com is real? The valid email domains profiles show who runs each one and whether it still takes sign-ups.
Limits of any disposable domain list
- New services appear all the time. A domain that isn’t on the list yet passes the list check. The upstream project adds domains when contributors submit them with proof that the service hands out addresses there.
- Entries can age. The project’s own README says it “cannot guarantee all of these can still be considered disposable”. If a domain you trust is matched, check the project’s history for that entry before you block it.
- Short lifetimes. A temporary inbox is meant to expire, so an address that received your confirmation email at sign-up may bounce on the next one. That’s why the API reports
disposableseparately from whether the mailbox exists today.
Frequently asked questions
What is a disposable email address?
How do I check if an email address is disposable?
Is there a disposable email checker API?
disposable: true or false for every address, in the same response as the syntax, MX and mailbox checks. The free plan includes 100 validations a month.How do I block disposable emails in my sign-up form?
disposable is true, or compare the domain with the downloadable list. Show a short message asking for a permanent address.Where does the list come from?
Email validation API
Validate emails in your app
emailvalidation.io checks syntax, MX records and the mailbox over SMTP, flags disposable, role and free addresses and returns a quality score, in one request.
/v1/info Email validation API Read the documentation
100 free validations every month. No credit card required.
GET https://api.emailvalidation.io/v1/info?
{
"email": "support@emailvalidation.io",
"user": "support",
"tag": "",
"domain": "emailvalidation.io",
"format_valid": true,
"mx_found": true,
"smtp_check": true,
"catch_all": null,
"role": true,
"disposable": false,
"free": false,
"score": 0.64,
"state": "deliverable",
"reason": "low_quality",
"did_you_mean": "",
"catch_all_resolution": null,
"bounce_probability": null,
"status": "valid",
"sub_status": "role_based",
"explanation": "The mailbox exists, but it is a role address (such as info@ or support@), usually read by a team rather than one person.",
"recommended_action": "send_with_caution"
}